Neighborhood Guests
Our Neighborhood Guests Have Been Many
Guests. We all love to have them, but silently hope they don’t overstay their welcome. It’s been that way in our Estes Park neighborhood for the past couple of weeks.
It’s amazing to see a bear, but I hope he’s still not wandering the development at 5:00 am when I take the dogs out. The deer and her twin fawns are adorable, but mom can be a bit aggressive in protecting them. And the elk that come to visit. As if invited for dessert, just when my wife Carolyn’s petunias bloom, they eat all the beautiful purple, red, and yellow flowers.
The past couple of weeks, the guests have been many.
First, and maybe the most amazing, was the young bull moose that visited Coffee on the Rocks. While guests enjoyed a white mocha or cappuccino with avocado toast while sitting peacefully around the pond, ducks with ducklings were paddled around seeking bits of their own breakfast.
That’s when the young bull moose appeared, looking around as if trying to decide which seat to take. Then he wandered into the pond joining the geese, mallards, and their young. He strode chest deep, his head bobbing for the delicate aqua grass (Photo by Doug Rees-Evans). It was a “Northern Exposure” moment - you remember the opening TV credits when the moose strode down the main street of Cicely, Alaska.
It was a couple of days later as I stood on the deck of Coffee on the Rocks when a RMNPhotographer Tour guest pointed, “Do you see the bear?” A solid black bear traversed down the hill, crossing Moraine Avenue. I grabbed my camera, and moved along the walk toward Park River West.
He was in the front yard of my friend’s house sniffing the tree, looking up as if ready to climb. From Moraine Avenue, I lifted my camera, extended the lens to 600 mm, and pressed the shutter button. The black bear paused, glancing my way before strolling down the street.
A couple of days later, I stepped onto our deck as I will most mornings, the blue sky mountain air filling my lungs with optimism. A doe stood mostly hidden in the pine trees across the drive. Then another doe appeared. Finally, as if just awaking and full of energy, three spotted fawns came running playfully from the grove.
The mule deer does made their way toward me. One stopped just below my raised deck, and the twin fawns ran to greet her immediately nursing for comfort. As they did, the third single fawn stopped to sniff their mother before joining her own.
It Is Our Home and Their Home
The next evening, sitting in my living room watching reruns of “Blue Bloods,” Carolyn called from the deck, “Brad, get your camera.” Both the words and the tone of her voice caused me to jump into action.
As I stepped onto the raised deck, Carolyn pointed down. A group of elk, cows and calves, maybe fifteen of them were grazing just below us. I watched, snapping pictures and appreciating the playful nature of the calves.
Then they took the same path as the bear moving through the neighboring development toward Big Thompson River. I slipped on my flip-flops and took a different route to the river. There, the elks were on the edge nibbling sweet Aspen leaves. Standing away, I positioned myself down river, the sun at my back, and waited.
They began to cross, the mothers walking chest deep against the flowing current. The calves fought against the strength of the water to keep up with their mothers. In the mid-summer river depth, they all crossed safely gathering on the other bank to resume feeding, the babies close to their mother’s side.
A day later in the afternoon, as Carolyn and I were in the basement hanging pictures, we looked out the large window behind my writing table. There stood the mule deer doe and her twins looking in at us. As we looked back at them, it made me wonder which one of us were the guests.
It is the world we live in. It is Estes Park where we share our neighborhoods with the guests who have always lived here. It is where we watch swimming moose while sipping cappuccino, laugh at the playfulness of fawns, cheer for the elk calves who fight the river’s current and win, and are amazed as a bear strides by. In his comfort, he is returning to the wild to find a tree and sleep the day away.
It is our home and their home. It is Estes Park.
