Hunting season has begun and the energy at Vermejo Park Ranch is quite different now. More serious. Of five hunters this first week, three of them killed elk with a bow and arrow. The elk are majestic creatures. A couple weeks ago when I was hiking in the high country I suddenly heard a thundering noise. Looking to my left a great bull elk came running out of the woods, through a small meadow, and across the trail in front of me. I was in awe. I couldn't react and get my camera out; I was just stunned. What a beautiful gift. Trying to take a picture would have ruined the moment anyway.
Two days ago I was hiking a trail close to the lodge, within the "no hunting" area. As I was descending Fossil Canyon Trail I heard two elk "bugling" back and forth. It's an amazing sound, more like a whistling. I hear it every night as I lay in bed, beautiful, haunting. As I hiked down this trail listening to the elk, a big bull walked onto the trail from my right and trotted up the hill on my left, bugling all the way. I saw him make his way up the hill, then saw a cow run up the same hill. I don't know if they ever got together, but the bugling stopped anyway, so I'm thinking that they did.
Yesterday I left the ranch again for another adventure. I drove to Capulin Volcano: http://www.nps.gov/cavo/index.htm. I hiked three miles of trail at the base of the volcano and saw a lot of mule deer. They are so funny when they run, it's more like a hopping, nothing like the white tail back home. After my three mile hike I fixed my dinner on the tailgate of my 4Runner thinking about what I wanted to do next. The park was closed and so the road up the volcano was gated off and locked. I couldn't camp there because there was no overnight parking allowed. I thought maybe I had just enough time to hike up to the top to see the sunset from there. I power walked up the mountain, but wasn't fast enough, I turned to see the amazing sunset behind me. Ten or fifteen minutes later I was at the crater rim. I hiked down into the extinct volcano (this trail was just .2 mile) and back to the rim. The rim trail is just a mile of paved trail, but it was getting dark, so I just went up a little ways and turned back. It was a lovely hike back down the mountain in the dark. And it was Dark! A new moon and therefore no moonlight to guide my way. I brought a headlamp, but my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I made it down without. There's something magical about hiking on a volcano in the dark.
That's all for now. I'm in Raton getting my oil changed and going to do a little shopping, then back to the ranch. I'm going to post some new pictures as well. Ciao~
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