Right Place, Right Time, Camera in Hand

Yesterday afternoon, my sister and I decided to take a nice long walk...




...down the road (there's a gorgeous volcano there, I promise! You just can't see it for all the clouds)...



...and along a lovely wooded track along the river.

We walked along, chatting and fooling around, and suddenly saw something on the path ahead.

We knew right away what it was and we took off running.

No we weren't being chased by a bear or mountain lion.

But we ran.

I made sure my camera was switched on.

When we reached the clearing ahead, our mouths nearly fell to the ground.

I had been so afraid they'd be gone when we got there.

But they weren't, and I had no idea there would be so many.








Elk. A whole herd. Dozens of them!

My mom and my sister have seen their tracks there lots of times, but they've never actually seen them.





It was simply incredible! And they just stood there and looked at us. Heck, they even posed for pictures! They certainly weren't very afraid of us.





We have no idea how many there were, milling around there in the field, but the photos don't do justice to the sight and numbers of them. There were so many that I couldn't get them all in one photo.





After a few minutes we'd all gotten a good long look at each other (hey, maybe they were kicking themselves for not having a camera at the sight of these dwinky humans...), they started to head off into the trees...




...out of sight... And they quickly and silently disappeared.





Evidently they come this way every day. We could see the well-worn trail where they go down the steep bank to the river a few yards below us.

I have to say-- that was a pretty amazing walk in the woods.