fly fishing adventure in the Rockies
William M Porter
Registered Users Posts: 40 Big grins
Went to Colorado last week for a wonderful vacation. My wife and daughters have gotten interested in fly fishing, so we went into lovely Moraine Park, a part of Rocky Mountain National Park, and they set up casting in a stream that they had tried fishing last year. Here's daughter #2 casting. She doesn't actually want to CATCH a fish, so she casts without a hook on her fly.
Looks peaceful, doesn't it? Here are my wife and daughter #3 in the stream. If you look closely, just above my wife's head - well, actually, about 50 feet BEHIND my wife - there is a cow elk, looking on. There was another cow elk on my side of the stream who had been grazing and napping near us for a good while.
Not too long after that shot was taken, while I had stepped a bit away from them for some reason and thus couldn't easily hear what they were saying, they started yelling at me and pointing up the hill. Took me a few seconds to figure out what they were excited about. Two coyotes had come down the mountain and were quite close - especially close to me, but getting close to the stream. Here's one of the coyotes peeking around a tree.
Not ready for the cover of National Geographic, to be sure, but we're now into adventure territory, at least for a city boy like me. The coyote rather suddenly started running back up the mountain.
I wondered why the coyote was skedaddling. Then I saw why, through the viewfinder of my Pentax K10D: The nearer of the two cow elks had gotten up from her nap and was CHARGING the coyotes full speed. I could almost hear her yelling "Charge!" Here she is, in the upper right corner of the camera.
The elk was catching up with the coyotes, so one of the coyotes turned left - towards me - and ran by me up a hiking path not more than 25 ft from where I was standing. The elk was already above the path and pursued the coyote in the same direction, but 15 ft higher on the mountain, stepping nimbly through the woods. For some reason, without thinking - really, this was not terribly bright - I chased the coyote up the path. I guess I was fortunate to have the elk covering me from the high ground, but the coyote did turn and give me a look that seemed to say, "Who the heck do you think YOU are, chasing me?"
Then it ran a few feet over the rise that's not really visible in this shot and disappeared. The elk came down on the path, but turned around just about at this point, satisfied, I guess, that the threat had been repelled.
I still don't know what the cow elk was upset about. We never saw a calf elk in this vicinity, but there very well may have been one. We had seen a calf earlier in the day in a meadow outside the national park. So I assume that there was a calf near us while my wife and daughters were fishing and the mother elk was simply doing her job. I can tell you that, if she had charged me, I would have run away, too. But I would have tried to get at least one good shot off first.
Will
Looks peaceful, doesn't it? Here are my wife and daughter #3 in the stream. If you look closely, just above my wife's head - well, actually, about 50 feet BEHIND my wife - there is a cow elk, looking on. There was another cow elk on my side of the stream who had been grazing and napping near us for a good while.
Not too long after that shot was taken, while I had stepped a bit away from them for some reason and thus couldn't easily hear what they were saying, they started yelling at me and pointing up the hill. Took me a few seconds to figure out what they were excited about. Two coyotes had come down the mountain and were quite close - especially close to me, but getting close to the stream. Here's one of the coyotes peeking around a tree.
Not ready for the cover of National Geographic, to be sure, but we're now into adventure territory, at least for a city boy like me. The coyote rather suddenly started running back up the mountain.
I wondered why the coyote was skedaddling. Then I saw why, through the viewfinder of my Pentax K10D: The nearer of the two cow elks had gotten up from her nap and was CHARGING the coyotes full speed. I could almost hear her yelling "Charge!" Here she is, in the upper right corner of the camera.
The elk was catching up with the coyotes, so one of the coyotes turned left - towards me - and ran by me up a hiking path not more than 25 ft from where I was standing. The elk was already above the path and pursued the coyote in the same direction, but 15 ft higher on the mountain, stepping nimbly through the woods. For some reason, without thinking - really, this was not terribly bright - I chased the coyote up the path. I guess I was fortunate to have the elk covering me from the high ground, but the coyote did turn and give me a look that seemed to say, "Who the heck do you think YOU are, chasing me?"
Then it ran a few feet over the rise that's not really visible in this shot and disappeared. The elk came down on the path, but turned around just about at this point, satisfied, I guess, that the threat had been repelled.
I still don't know what the cow elk was upset about. We never saw a calf elk in this vicinity, but there very well may have been one. We had seen a calf earlier in the day in a meadow outside the national park. So I assume that there was a calf near us while my wife and daughters were fishing and the mother elk was simply doing her job. I can tell you that, if she had charged me, I would have run away, too. But I would have tried to get at least one good shot off first.
Will
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