A Few Elk

[Eric]

I was digging through some old pictures and came across the one below. It was taken at the (mostly) dry lakebed of Mormon Lake, a few miles south and east of Flagstaff, AZ. That is a herd of elk in the pic. It stretched on for over a mile. The deer in the Flagstaff area are scrawny, but the largest Elk taken on record was taken a few miles north of Flagstaff, in hunting area 6A. Those elk are huge and their herd is freaking enormous. I had several close calls with them on a motorcycle.

That area is also on the migration path for North American Bald Eagles and the vantage point from which I sho the pic below is an excellent place to spot Bald Eagles roosting.

[railfancwb]

Reckon that herd is part of the Yellowstone-Tetons group? Seems doubtful. 

[Walt Longmire]

Awesome. Used to see some pretty large herds around Mt St Helens. You want to see some REALLY big herds of critters, check out a caribou migration. Like an endless cattle drive.

[Eric]

5 minutes ago, railfancwb said:

Reckon that herd is part of the Yellowstone-Tetons group? Seems doubtful. 

I'm not sure what their range is. They spend a lot of time in that area though and down to the Arizona Mogollon Rim country. It is an enormous herd. They range down at least as far as the highlands around Globe/Miami, AZ, where I was born.

[Walt Longmire]

Rocky Mountain elk have the largest antlers. Roosevelt elk are larger bodied with smaller antlers, but the Olympic elk are even larger in the body. Their antlers are large at the base and long brow tines, but don't develop large up top like the Rocky Mountain fellows.