Grand Canyon elk

Grand Canyon Elk

I have spent many hours of my life pursuing trophy cervides (deer family).  In 2010, I got to go out and kill  a very nice bull elk in New Mexico, an event etched in my memory.  Boy was that meat good!

Coming out of the Grand Canyon National park, we saw a group of people huddled roadside with cameras, which typically means there is something unusual to photograph.  Naturally we pulled over.

There, lying on the pine needles were two HUGE trophy elk.  They were close, probably on a little more than 50 yards from roadside.  I took more pictures of those elk than my youngest child, but they were truly impressive.  The spread on the biggest one was 50 inches or better. Because the antlers were still in velvet, they looked even larger than normal. Coming out of the park, we see one more, right at the edge of the road.

Having hiked many, many miles through the mountains looking for elk, I would like to think I had a bit more appreciation than many of the onlookers.

The Grand Canyon is grand indeed, but not nearly as impressive as those elk.  Thanks be to G^d for allowing us to see such wondrous creatures.

It was hard to get a clear picture of that elk in the top photo- the spread of his antlers was over 50”.  The elk in the middle photo was a good one, just not so huge. The last picture is of the one right by the road.  These elk are accustomed to humans, apparently.