This Blog Has Been Interrupted!!!!

All night long I heard the big bull elks bugling around the park.  It's rutting season here and all the big guys are trying to impress the girls!!  At 5:30 I was up with the dogs and discovered 6 big mule deer bucks in my driveway.  I grabbed the camera, but there's not much light at this time of the morning and they don't exactly stand still and pose for me!!!

Another beauty!!  Most of these guys haven't lost their velvet yet, which Dan tells me is why they are hanging out together.  A few more weeks and they will be chasing the girls too!!

This may not interest many people, but I just can't get enough of watching these guys!!  The one on the left here HAS lost his velvet.   If you look closely, you can still see some blood on his horns and velvet on the side of his face.

After 75 pictures (don't worry, I won't show all of them here), I went back in the RV, happy that I was probably the only person to see these guys.   Then a knock at the door.  Dan and his puppy Sami had come to make sure I was up to see the spectacle.  Out I went again!!!  When this big guy saw Sami, he was pretty interested and made a beeline for her.  She could have cared less!!!

About this time, a big bull elk came into view next to this RV.  They are just magnificent creatures!!

One thing that gets me into trouble is looking through the viewfinder and not seeing what's going on around me.  As soon as I lowered the camera, I found this young female heading right towards me.  I tried to focus, but she just kept coming, making for blurry images.  Here she is about 5 feet from me!!!

Thinking this was the biggest of the big, I snapped off one last picture!  Did I mention I LOVE this place??  I wake up to this almost every morning!!

Back at my RV again, I jump in the shower ... should have just waited!  I hear lots of bugling and noise outside my window .... right next to my car!!!!  Oh no!!!!  If it weren't for the neighbors, I would have run outside in a towel ... but instead throw on my clothes and run out in time to get one image of the biggest of the big!!!  He was 6 feet at the shoulder with a huge hump!!!  The racket was him convincing a sweet young thing that she should follow him!!  Just as I walked out, she took off at a run with him hot on her heels!!!

It's amazing that none of these creatures care much about the people, the cars or the RV's.  They will shy a little when dogs bark at them ... but mostly they just go on about their business.  I feel privileged that I got to witness these guys up close and in person!!!

Now, back to our regularly scheduled program ...............