When we got to Estes Park, we wandered through Rocky Mountain National Park. We lucked out, because it was a “free entry” day, which saved us the $20 admission fee.
I’m ashamed to admit that it was the first time I’d seen elk in the wild. Didn’t hear much bugling, but we saw a lot of elk. This photo’s a bit fuzzy, but it’s the best one I got of the herd.
We saw several other herds, but they were all smaller (half-a-dozen or so to a couple of dozen). The closest we got was actually just outside the gates of the park – we saw these bad boys coming back from town: