Saved Photographs

Today I got rid of a lot of photographs.  Some were duplicates, some were blurry, and some did not interest me anymore.  The ones I saved, I returned to a box that maybe in another few years I will go through those saved photos and toss out some more! It's strange how each time I clear out pictures I find more to get rid of and as time goes by, some pictures that I could not live without, do not seem as important any more!

I did save photographs of wildlife taken in Rocky Mountain National Park near Estes and Grand Lake. I never tire of looking and remembering the wild life I have encountered. Usually, on trips to Estes, I do not get to see Bighorn Sheep or if I do see them, they are too far away to photograph.

Once, on a drive to Camp St. Malo along Highway 7, I saw some Bighorns on the side of the road.  Two would back up and then charge at each other. It was exciting to see two rams butting heads with such force that it sounded like loud thunder. By the time I got my camera, they had stopped fighting (or playing) though I did manage to get a close up of  the elusive mountain sheep.

Elk are all over the town of Estes and I have captured quite a few pictures of elk as they wander casually through the parks, roads, pastures, or motels. Many seem to have lost their fear of humans and photographers can be seen clicking away at herds of elk.

Chipmunks, scamper around on the rocks and roots, but sometimes they stop to watch the photographers while nibbling on a potato chip.

I remember driving over Trail Ridge Road the day after it opened. My jeep was dwarfed beside the gigantic snow drift. Even though I have lived in Colorado all my life, I had never seen so much snow.

The Lava Cliffs, should have been named the Snow Cliffs, at least while everything was covered with snow!

A highlight was seeing a moose in Grand Lake. My nick name when I played basketball and volleyball in high school was "Moose," so I have always wanted to see a real life moose. Even though I have traveled to Canada, various places in the Rocky Mountains, Yellowstone, the east coast and Alaska, I have never seen one.  Finally, in Grand Lake, right in the back yard of where I was staying, I saw a real live moose as he came down to the lake to get a drink of water.

"Every creature is better alive than dead,

men, moose, and pine trees, and he who

understands it aright will rather preserve

its life than destroy it."

Henry David Thoreau