Love Seeing the Elk in Cherokee!

My first chemo maintenance treatment was last Friday and on Saturday, I was in Cherokee, NC, photographing the Elk. Thanks so much for your prayers! (Not a big deal this time.) There was no reason to hang out at the house when the mountains were waiting for us!

We didn’t have enough daylight to chase the Elk with our cameras from field to field; but fortunately, we found a small family in the grazing fields near the visitor’s center.

Fence posts became my tripod and also a hitching post for Wessy, who was not a bit happy that I discovered how that works! If you know Boykins, you know her look is one of displeasure!

Thanks to her being “locked down,” I were able to photograph two bulls that still had their antlers. At first, one was asleep! A ranger, who was passing by, assured me that “they do that!” Sleep with their heads almost upside down. Bull elk shed their antlers in the spring because hormone levels in their blood signal their bodies to do so.

Their testosterone level peaks during the fall breeding season. (This is why the park rangers yell at us to stay a good distance from the Elk. Elk will rush tourists and I don’t blame them!)

These Elk are truly are magnificent. Males stand over five feet tall and weight up to 700 pounds. They’re bigger and heavier than our black bears! Yikes! And they can run fast—up to 40 miles per hour—a terrifying sight if you’re the target!