Redtail, Elk --Back to the Cross for Elk (120915)

After the great evening with Tim, Zel was interested in seeing if we could repeat the opportunity. We got out earlier so we could head right into the "zone". It was a quiet evening with a lovely south wind which would play in our favour.   We headed to high ground to survey the situation, and luckily enough we wre able to spot a few animals in an accessible area.  We would "check in every now and then to see if we were still on track and making appropriate progress.  As we passed on of the other trails this fellow broke out into the air.

 While we continued to work into position, things were looking very positive as we spotted this lone bull headed off across an open field.

As we kept an eye on the growing group we noticed that something wasn't right, they were spooked by something hundress of yards from us.  We decided on a new plan and we waited for 20 minutes to see if they would settle down, but no luck. I noticed that overall the vocal activity was significantly less than Friday night.  My guess is that the rut is pretty much over. On our way back to the truck we almost immediately saw one cow at a distant fenceline, and by the time we climbed the hill there were about 40-50 Elk in the field. We spotted a coupel of Mule deer, but no evidence of Zel's black bear he saw the night before. It was a great sunset, and we made it back to the vehicles just at dark.
Turbo