Elk And Deer, Not To Mention Mountain Lions, Are On The Move

This is the time of year when elk and deer, not to mention mountain lions in pursuit of them, head from the mountains down to lower elevations along Colorado's Front Range in search of more easily obtainable food and water. Just this past week, I saw a large herd of deer all huddled together on a hill in Golden, no doubt trying to figure out how to cross from the eastern side of a very busy US 6 to the open space across the road below Lookout Mountain. There was a Golden Police car parked on the side of the road that I suspect was waiting for reinforcements to help move those deer along. The very next day, I spotted a group of deer grazing just past the entrance to Roxborough Park, located to the southwest of Denver. And just an hour or so after that, I was exploring the town of Louviers, located not too far from Roxborough Village, where I took the photograph above of a herd of deer hanging out in the local park. Happily, these deer, unlike the others, were willing to look at the camera and pose for a portrait. Meanwhile, east of Estes Park near a town called Glen Haven, there have been a number of scary interactions with mountain lions. One woman's dog was grabbed by the neck and killed, a couple in the same area described an encounter with a hostile juvenile mountain lion, and an elderly woman was actually killed on a hiking trail by one of those cats. I myself intend to stick to photographing deer and elk and avoiding areas where those aggressive mountain lions have been spotted. Sometimes the cost of getting a good photo can be way too high.