Annual Attraction in Rock Mountain National Park
A morning with the elk!
Besides the spectacular mountains, Rocky Mountain National Park is famous for it’s elk population and annual rut. Toleant, and seemingly unphased by the presence of humans, the park’s elk continue with “business as usual” in September. Some suggest the 2022 event is late, while others suggest everything is right on schedule.
The largest of the bulls gather their harem of cows during the fall! Slightly smaller bulls hang around the edges looking for stray cows and a chance to mate.
The elk rut is essentially new to me! In Grand Teton National Park, and the surrounding areas, elk are hunted and are extremely leery of humans. Unlike GTNP, elk oin the Estes Park area roam golf courses, parks, streets and neighborhoods of the gateway town.
It’s roughly 30 miles from my home in Loveland to the park’s main entrance station. It’s close by all standards, but it takes a dark drive up the winding canyon road to be there for the morning action. It also takes some additional preparation to purchase a $2 pass to enter the Bear Lake and Morain Park areas. The limited supply of “timed entry” passes must be purchased online at 5:00 pm the day before, or on the 1st of the month on the month prior.
The photos on this page were all taken with a Sony A1 and a Sony 200-600 over a sturdy tripod.
This is one of the lesser sized bulls. He’s still plenty beautiful in the morning light.
Bulls bugle to attract females and announce their presence to nearby bulls.
I am sure locals have a name for this herd bull, but at this time I don’t know it. He was fending off smaller rivals to maintain 30 or so cows.
The morning light is visible in the meadow behind this stream. This bull, missing a chunk of his left ear, stopped for a quick drink.
The bulls were buggling regularly on this morning.
There were three or four bulls of this size keeping an eye out for the larger bull. Several times, I saw it leave his harem to chase off the smaller bulls.
The smaller bulls keep the herd bull busy and alert.
His day will come!
I was told the largest, famous old bull died last year, opening the door for a new set of “big boys”.
It was a fun and rewarding morning! I spoke with many of my “Best of the Tetons” readers and followers, along with numerous photographers I’ve met in Jackson Hole. I’m heading back to Jackson to go to a wedding, so I’ll get a chance to revisit some of the Gros Ventre moose, then zip back to Colorado for the fall season.