Herd of elk

Yesterday, we took a drive up to a very small, mountain town. I love eating lunch at the restaurant there, it's a locals' type place and, as I listen to the old-timers sitting around the wood fire talking about the "wind last night" and the blown down trees, I am comfortingly reminded of times during childhood, listening to my Dad as he visited with the "old folks." The squeak of rocking chairs, long pauses between spoken thoughts, the ticking of the mantle clock, a deep-drawn sigh from an old hound dog lying on the twin bed that served as a couch, his head nestled on Uncle Amos' lap.

We'd had a light snow the night before. How exciting for me to notice a herd of cow elk grouped in a circle out in a white hay field. These are wild elk, not held in by fences. I snapped a few pictures, and later asked an old timer about the elk. He said that there are about 400 that winter in the valley.