This weekend we went up to Estes Park for a small get-away! I love Estes Park because it's about an hour and a half away, and just the right amount of driving for the kids. As you come into Estes Park they have on the side of the road this scenic overlook. We were quite lucky since it was still early in the morning (Thanks to the Honey for pushing us out the door at the crack of dawn) that we had the overlook to ourselves, so the kids could do a little exploring and climbing around. Before heading on down the road, I made the kids do the "family pose". I wonder how many people have had their pictures taken in this exact spot?Thousands, maybe even Millions!
As we came cruising down the mountain into town, we came to a screeching halt! What is going on? The traffic is crawling along and I'm starting to get annoyed and the kids are getting fidgety until we see this Magnificent bull elk standing in the middle of the road!
He was calling his herd of females and calves across to the other side. He was very aggressive and vocal.
Why?
Because there were two other bulls scoping out the ladies! They were on the other side of the street, and were very persistent as well...Mating Season!
We pulled off on the side of the road with all the other tourist and watched the confrontation. They were not startled or scared by the people at all, and in fact would walk very close to us! These bulls were massive and very strong...I made the kids get way back, because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. They stood there for quite awhile, and the kids were getting antsy, so we left.
There was a wonderful Fine Arts and Crafts Fair going on in town, so we stopped and walked around for a bit. We did a little hiking on some trails, and then realized that we were starving and wanted to eat our picnic lunch. I thought it would be nice to eat our lunch at the lake that we stopped at to watch the elk and to sit and enjoy the water and light breeze. Boy were we surprised when we pulled back in that the traffic had piled up even more...this was about 2 hours later!
The herd had now moved from the other side of the road and waded across the lake to this little sandy island.
The bull was standing at the tip of the island pacing back and forth and bugling out across the water to...
The same two bulls from earlier! They were still trying to pursue the female herd. Both of them were in the water a distance off and just "hanging out"! We pulled alongside the shore and ate our lunch and watched. There must have been at least a hundred people gathered all around the lake snapping pictures and videos of this very cool mating ritual. We watched for over an hour, and laughed as one of the bulls swam closer to the island, and the bull of the herd charged out into the water after him. He continued to lazily swim to the other side of the shore and tried to reach the females from the other end. The bull ran to the front of the herd pushing all the females and calves back. The other bull wasn't as aggressive and was content just laying in the water.
We didn't get to finish watching, because it was getting late and I think this would have gone on for hours! It was pretty cool to see this so up close. How often do you get to see wildlife in the act of being wild?
On the way out of town the scenic overlook was packed with cars and tourist snapping "family" pictures!
