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10-7-09 thru 10-12-09
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A magpie. I was just trying to get pictures of anything at this point. I didn't think my opportunities would be available due to the conditions. These things were just like any other wildlife, just plain unafraid of humans. They would hop down off the branches and come within feet of the car.
Another snow storm. These things were quite prevalent. Now I was just starting to get annoyed. It was cool at first, yeah, but now all I wanted were photo opportunites as our time dwindled.
Finally, some good wildlife! It would get better than this though. This bull elk would keep charging the others if they came anywhere close.
This was flat out awesome. After leaving the elk, we saw a bunch of other people pulled off the side of the road. As we neared, we saw why. This HUGE buck was literally a few feet off the road just grazing like he was by himself. Note the tagged ear too.
Shortly after another joined. I was in photographic heaven right about now.
Now three. The other is up on the hill still and the first one moved up a bit too.
The first one making his move. He was apparently done feeding on that side of the road, so....
....he casually made his way to the other side. You just don't see this in Illinois.
Just a crow. He was close, so why not?
On our way to Moraine Park, we saw a bunch of other cars pulled off. We hopped out, climbed a small hill and walked a couple hundred feet to see what everyone was looking at. After we walked past a clearing of trees, we saw a field FULL of elk. The females were running from the male again, but this time it was because he was, umm, in the mood. He would chase after one, it would run away, and he would just stand there, dejected. He would bugle really loud and go after the next closest one. Meghan got this on video too. Pretty cool!
Two females squaring up. I really wish that road and car wasn't there. The camera focused on the car instead of the animals. Oh well.
I put the 17mm on here. At 17mm, the image is much wider and objects are closer than they appear, sort of like a sideview mirror. You could get VERY close to these things, although not recommended. Some people didn't get this memo. We saw some walking all the way up to them and they would all of a sudden take off running. They are lucky they weren't too annoyed. The park ranger eventually had to come and tell everyone to back off.
Still have the 17mm on, but I think I zoomed in to about 35mm here. Still very close.
Another bull elk, but he was by himself. I just thought it was so cool that these things were 100% not bothered by humans. If I took anything home from this trip, it would be that. Unless we see all of this wildlife again on our next visit, this may have been the only time I ever could have seen this. The time of year we went, the elk were in rut and were coming down from the hills to mate. In the more suitable visiting seasons, I guess they are hard to find.
Making our way to Bear Lake, which ended up not being much of anything.
Back to the first place again, but with Bear Mountain in the background.
More snow! It would just start and stop like someone upstairs was flipping a switch.
It was still snowing very hard here which was pretty much putting a dagger in my photographic opportunities. I tried to set this one up really quick so I could avoid snow flakes on the lens, but no dice. They are very visible, right around the middle of the shot with one apparently melting and running all the way down to the bottom, in the middle. This was taken at f/22, ISO 100 @ 2 seconds with a circular polarizer. It was really my first attempt at this anyway, so I wasn't too disappointed. It worked....somewhat.
The next morning....the morning we LEAVE. Wouldn't you know it, clear, crisp blue skies!! Naturally. Oh well.
We stopped at a McDonalds for some coffee on our way out of Estes Park. We turned the corner and saw this. I got a good laugh at this. Only in Colorado! This was RIGHT next to the main highway running through town and eventually crossed traffic, making everyone stop. One of them crossed the street in front of us and was eating from a bush. Some guy pulled up in a truck and shooed him away. We are sitting here marveling at these animals while the natives treat them like raccoons. I just got a good kick out of that. I'm sure if I lived here they would eventually become a nuissance too if they continually made me late for work or something.
On our way down, out of Estes Park. We encountered more ice and was pretty much a white knuckled drive alllll the way out, especially over the bridges.
So, pretty fun trip! Next time, however, we are going to try to make it a month earlier to catch the fall colors and avoid the dreary weather.
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