Monday, September 22, 2008

The Mike Tyson of the Animal World


This past Saturday, we went for a quick trip to Castlewood Canyon again (hiked different trail than last time) and then couldn't resist heading up into the mountains, at least a little. So, we make the quick drive up to Evergreen to our favorite park. We normally stop at the first part of it where there are these great rock formations that are fun for climbing. There are difficult parts, which challenge Mary and Sam, as well as Clay even, although less and less, since he goes rock climbing almost every day at our rec center. There are easy enough parts though for Annie and Ellie, who love to go rock climbing, and fancy themselves as being quite adept!

This trip, we decided to head a little further back into the park, just to see if there were any other neat areas or rocks for climbing. We got just a little further in, and came upon a huge herd of elk. There were tons of female elk (cows) and one bull elk (the male.) He was HUGE!!! There were other bulls, but they couldn't get too near the harem. (Yes, that's really what it's called in the elk world.) They were in the woods right next to the road, as well as on the road, and the hill above us. We saw a biker, who wisely stayed tucked behind a bush till the big daddy bull went running after another bull who was trying to get next to one of his *ladies.* We kept hearing this high pitched yelling, and I thought a child had surely gotten away from her parents and was terrified by all the large elk she was surely surrounded by. I'm feverishly looking for this little girl, when Bo busts up laughing. It's the big guy himself...

That HUGE bull with his 7 point on each side antlers screaming like a little girl! The kids were dying laughing at the howling this guy was doing. Annie would imitate it, as well, and then just bust up laughing.

We sat and watched this herd for about 45 minutes. It was hilarious seeing the big guy go running after the other males who were skirting his harem, howling all the way. He'd then come back to the harem and squeal at them, and make them come in closer, I imagine so he could keep tabs on them. We later spoke with the wildlife rangers who came driving through, and they shared how the other males were trying to enter the herd, but the bull was not yet letting them. We took plenty of pictures, but I'll just share a few.





Bawling at the cows...gotta keep 'em in line (Big bully!)


Had to share this picture of my little ladies. (This was earlier at Castlewood Canyons.)




2 comments:

Bobby and Regina said...

The canyon trail is beautiful, and amazing to see those elk too!! I can't believe how the girls are growing! How are they doing together? They are just precious!
Love, Regina

Kristine said...

Dana, I scrolled through your posts to see if I could find where you are in Colorado. We lived in Littleton for 20 years, then Colorado Springs for 5, before moving to Virginia two years ago. Looks like you are in the Denver metro area--Castlewood Canyon and Evergreen gave it away!

Hope you are enjoying the gorgeous Colorado summer! I bet the small mosquitoes are a nice change, along with the dry heat. :)

Looks like you have had one amazing year, between the move and your new children.

God BLESS you!

(occasionally posting on WTM boards as Kristine out of lurking)