Hiker finds Blue Mountains elk herded up with young in tow
WILDLIFE WATCHING -- The Blue Mountains delivered a Yellowstone-like wildlife watching experience for hiker Ken Vanden Heuvel of Newman Lake last weekend.
He was solo hiking one of the ridge trails that lead into the Wenaha-Tucannon Wilderness when he came across a herd of elk -- at least 46 cows, yearlings and calves.
I cropped in on the left portion of Ken's main photo for a blow-up shot of the left portion of the herd where at least 12 calves were concentrated for protection.
"When they came back up the ridge in front of me, the calves were whining," Ken said, noting that he held still to watch the spectacle. "As I waited for them to cross, a few of the calves were nursing."
A few weeks ago, the cows were all off on their own delivering their young of the year. As soon as the calves were strong enough, they joined up with other cows and yearlings for strength in numbers -- more eyes and ears to help detect danger from predators.
This looks like a good crop.
The bulls, by the way, are off on their own -- until September.