2022 baby elk…welcome to Pine!

We live in the middle of a wildlife refuge at our cabin….or so it seems.  Everywhere we look we see the beauty that nature, or perhaps God, has given to us.

A few weeks ago as we sat relaxing on our front deck, a young pregnant elk wandered up our driveway and onto our patio.

Later, I had a scare as I was working on lining our little stream bed with rocks.  I bent down to pick up a rock…and almost picked up a brightly colored snake!

The coloring was very similar to a deadly Coral snake, but I found out later that my snake was a nonvenomous King snake.  Here is a rhyme to help us remember how to tell the two snakes apart: 

“Red touching black, safe for Jack. Red touching yellow, kill a fellow.”

And of course, the spring flowers are glorious both surrounding Pine and on the Rim!

One of our local Coues deer wandered by our cabin. We see adult and baby Coues deer often in Pine and on our hikes. Although this looks like a miniature deer to us, it is an adult.

The Coues deer is a sub-species of the Whitetail deer.  It is much smaller version of the Whitetail deer, and appears sweet and dainty.  

We saw two more Coues deer in the Tonto National Forest on the Pine-Strawberry Trail.  This trail is our go-to trail, because it’s only 1/4 mile hike from our cabin and there is no trail more beautiful.

We spotted a yearling male Coues deer on one of our early morning walks in Pine.  He had just sprouted his first set of antlers.

He was quite curious about us….he walked straight toward Dan and me, and just stood still examining us strange creatures.  It was quite special to be so close to this beautiful, bold youngster.

A few weeks later, another (or maybe the same) pregnant elk casually grazed in our front yard.  She glanced at me totally without concern.  Maybe because she was three times larger than me, or maybe because we live in the middle the the elk’s forest.  

After all, the elk were here first and they tolerate us humans.  This is their land.  The small hamlet of Pine is a very small portion of the forests where the elk roam.  

We enjoy the prickly pear blossoms in our front yard….

A pregnant mama elk nibbled leaves under our front deck.

One of my very favorite wildflower, the lupine, is blossoming everywhere.

We were on a bike ride in Pine and had our very FIRST ever baby elk sighting…it still had the newborn camouflage spots on its' back!  The baby was surrounded and protected by its' mama and two aunts.  

Several bees were having a morning snack at our prickly pear blossom.

While cycling on Fossil Springs Road later that week, I saw a suspicious stick ahead of us in the middle to the road.

Luckily, we stopped….it was a very irritated Black rattlesnake, who just wanted to be left alone.  In grade school, Dan and I had been School Crossing Guards, so we knew to wait patiently for the snake to cross the road.

On the same bike ride we saw a mama elk and our SECOND baby elk.  They were happily running across the road in front of us.  It was another infant elk compete with its' blanket of spots!  

In the past week or so the baby elk started coming fast and furious.  On a walk in our neighborhood early in the morning, only two blocks from our cabin, we saw a herd of elk resting in the trees.  We counted FOUR babies, nestled in the center of the herd!

Look what we saw in the woods while we were cycling three miles down the road from Pine, in our small sister town of Strawberry.  A half hour later we saw two other adult javelina with their baby dashing through the woods. 

 

Why did the javelina cross the road?  Clearly, so Dan could wave to him and say “hello.”

The big daddy of our local elk herd ambles by our cabin every afternoon.  He rules all the mama elk, the yearlings, the calves, and people who live in Pine..  All the cars and people move aside when he walks down the road.  He is a magnificent animal.

Today our friendly mama elk came by our front yard to proudly show us her new baby….we have named her Eliza and her calf, Eli.  

Eli is the youngest elk calf we have seen.  It looked like she was just barely steady on her long, spindly baby legs.

We got to see a rare treat..safely hidden deep in the pine trees on our property Eli was contently nursing.  

Mama and our new baby elk know that no harm will come to them in Pine.  Here they are on their daily walk in front of our cabin.  How we love seeing this parade of wildlife go by our home!

But what about bears and mountain lions….will we ever get to see one?

Thaddeus, the man who refurbished the outside of our cabin, has spent all his life around and on the Mogollon Rim.  When we told him that two of our grandson’s were Scouts, he mentioned that he was an Eagle Scout.  Of course, we had to brag that our son-in-law is also an Eagle Scout.  

Thaddeus told us that he was going to go bow hunting for bear this weekend up on the Rim.  He showed us numerous videos and photos he had taken through his binoculars of bear roaming near the Rim.  He also has seen several mountain lions in the rocks on the Rim.  Thaddeus is the epitome of a true outdoors man and Eagle Scout, just like Sean.

“Lions, and tigers, and bears, oh my,” as Dorothy said in the Wizard of Oz.  Boy, are we stoked….we will be even more vigilant and very hopeful for a sighting of bear and mountain lion!  

We are surrounded by nature’s abundance and beauty.  We thrive on our daily dose of nature.  That, and spending every minute together, keeps us physically and mentally healthy and happy.