Wildlife

Our trip to Wheeler Peak was awesome in many respects, including how much wildlife we saw.

On our way to Taos Ski Valley, we saw two elk crossing the road ahead of us.  Then we saw a deer on the side of the road.

As the shuttle took us up the hill, we saw this:

It is a big horn sheep sitting on the top of the hill.  Through my polarized sunglasses, he had a shiny aura around his body, but the camera didn't pick it up.  We knew we were in for a fun day, however, having seen three different species of large mammals within an hour.

After we left the shuttle, we saw three grouse, but Don only got a picture of the bush into which they escaped.

Not long after, we looked up the hill and saw this:

This sheep was not too scared of us . . . and waited for us to pay a toll before we could get through.

She came pretty close to us.  Although this picture was taken on telephoto, she was within 20 feet of Travis at one point.

We also saw a number of marmots . . . cute little guys that dig big holes, whistle to spread alarm, and look somewhat like a beaver without the flat tail.

I would say we had a banner day for finding wildlife.