I was surprised on this unusually warm sunny November day in the high country that I had the entire mountain to myself. I was a bit late getting started and I expected a pretty good crowd at the trailhead, but was happy to see that I was the only one there. A short distance into my hike I detected movement out of the corner of my eye… a coyote hunting in the dry mountain grass! I quick grabbed a capture of him before he spotted me, knowing that the second he was aware of my presence he would be well on his way over the top of the ridge.
Sure enough, the instant I raised my camera the coyote knew I was there and began trotting off, wanting to get out of sight as quickly as possible. Fortunately for me the wily fellow took time out from his leisurely trot to stop and look back at me a couple of times before he vanished over the hill. I was especially lucky that he stopped right in front of this magnificent mountain vista to pose with the snow capped Sangre de Cristo in the background 🙂 Once over the hill I made no attempt to pursue him, I try to cause as little distress as possible to the critters I find along my way.
I did however have one more piece of good luck on the trail, a beautiful buck mule deer crossed paths with me and stopped to peer at me from behind a pine tree. He didn’t linger long, but I had enough time to fire off this shot of him (below) as he looked me in the eye. Eventually he wandered off into the dense forest and out of sight.
For a second as I cleared the summit I thought I was about to be eaten by a wolf… The wolfish looking beast was running up the trail right at me, there was nothing I could do but just wait to see what he was going to do. As he got closer I could see a collar and this was just one very happy and very large dog out for a glorious morning in the mountains. Soon he was trotting along beside me in the direction of his master who soon appeared before me 🙂
The rest of my hike was just a nice walk in the high country, satisfied that I had gotten to capture a couple of nice images to document the day.Stay tuned though, I’m hoping for a more extensive photo adventure in Eleven Mile Canyon tomorrow morning!
As always, the best of these images and hundreds more are available for purchase on my website as wall art on glossy metal or acrylic sheets, stretched canvas and traditional matting and framing. Tons of cool household and gift items are also available with any image you like including coffee mugs, t-shirts, blankets and pillows, battery chargers, phone cases, stationary and much much more! Just click on any image you like and all the choices, sizes and prices will appear! For my viewers interested in images for commercial use, please visit my image licensing portal! Also, if you would like to see a more complete record of today’s images please follow my Instagram account!
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This post is not sponsored and all equipment used in it’s creation was purchased by me on my own volition.
