We actually took this roadtrip Sunday morning,
but I haven’t been able to slow down long enough to get these pictures posted
until now. I have deliberately been keeping my pace quick and staying busy to
keep my mind from worrying about my daughter and my grandson. I know Elohim is more
capable of safe-guarding them and looking to their best interests in this whole
mess, but I also know that if my thoughts are given free rein I will drive
myself crazy with worry and concern. So I just don’t slow down long enough to ‘go
there’ …
Anyway, I had had enough of being cooped up with
the rainy weather, so as soon as I noticed the lull in the showers I said, “Let’s
go revisit that road in St. Helens!” Hubs asked me to be more specific, so I
described the area and road in mind, and he told me where we’d come out at the
drive’s end, and off we went ;-)
I packed a quick lunch, grabbed some bottles of
tea, and snagged the camera on the way out the door: we always go off track while
road-tripping and veer from our original plans and I wanted to be prepared to
capture unexpected photo opportunities.
Sure enough, when we reached St. Helens and
turned onto the road I wanted to revisit, we ended up taking the
loooooooooooooooong way home through Jewell and backtracking from Astoria. It
was a nice long drive that freed my spirit and cleared my thoughts, replacing them
with signs of evidence of approaching Spring along the roadway, and the sight
of the huge Elk herd in Jewell – with the albino elk cow in residence :-D
So we pulled over and I snapped a few pics. I hope
you enjoy them too:
The Elk are out today!
This is a fairly large herd ... and very docile. I counted 111.
The albino Elk. I believe it is a cow, I've never seen antlers on it. I don’t know if she has calved or not, there is no evidence of light colored calves in the herd.
A bull ...
A second bull.
A third bull.
A fourth bull.
A fifth bull. If there are more, we couldn't spot them.
The albino and regular Roosevelt colored Elk.
I'm glad the Elk put in a show toady. Even though I’m pretty used to seeing Elk now, they always excite me when I see ‘em again.
Down the road a heartbeat, we saw the rest of the herd!
Hubs counted 63 in this field – that makes a total of 174 Elk between the 2 fields which actually run together behind the Reserve Office.
This field must be the Bachelor pasture because ALL the bulls in this herd had large racks of horns where the other antlers in the previous field are much smaller … meaning they are just coming into their “teen years” and not fully mature yet, and probably why they are free to mingle with the cows.
These Elk are not afraid of humans at all. Of course there is no hunting allowed on the Reserve. They look scruffy because they are getting ready to shed their winter coat; when the heavy fur drops off, they are very sleek and look very majestic and baeutiful.
The bulls didn't even rise to the challenging bugling Hubs did to arouse their ire ...
... just looked up then and went right back to munching grass.
These bulls didn't even blink an eye or twitch a muscle.
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