Maybe this post should be titled “Early Spring”. I drove through the Routt Forest on May 15th and saw these cow elk crossing the road. It is really early for elk to have migrated to their summer country in the Forest. But then, everything is really early (except the shearing!).
It’s a little hard to see, but just as I took this photo of the elk in the meadow, a hawk flew up between them. Notice that the pine trees in the background are dead from a pine beetle infestation.