Getting you started on outdoor adventures

Posts Tagged ‘wildlife’

Do you ever just have one of those days where you just HAVE to get away? Well, yesterday was one of those days for the entire EatStayPlay.com “Royal” Family. I had articles to catch up on, ESP Boss had taxes to do, and The Queen Mother is getting ready for fall, but we all decided to hop into the truck and head for Flagstaff.

(If I seem a bit crazy this week, it’s because I am! Corporate tax extensions are due on September 15 and ESP Boss and I are working like crazy to get them all done!)

We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch at the Flagstaff Brewing Company. This is a great little restaurant we discovered when we were camping in June. I had the French Onion Soup. Now, I’m not a huge fan of onions, but this soup is to die for. The waitress told us that on Saturday, she had a table full of Japanese tourists that had come in JUST for that soup. (I’m sure they were in Flagstaff to go to the Grand Canyon though!)

I'm going to have to learn how to make this!

Then, we headed out Lake Mary Road to go check on one of our geocaches that had turned up missing. Unlike The Quiet Zone which was stolen by a bear, the No Cows Here cache had clearly been muggled. I reset it, moving it a bit further away from the road.

Since it was getting on towards dusk, we headed to the Mormon Lake Lookout to see if there were any elk standing in the shallow waters of Mormon Lake. It’s a little early for the rut (elk mating season) but we were hoping to hear an elk bugle.

ESP Boss looking for elk.

The first lookout had a few nice elk to see. WAY out in the lake though. There was another family (I’m sure all those girls are future Outdoor Princesses) also scoping out the elk.

All those kids politely took turns with the spotting scope. Their parents should be proud!

I was more interested in the fantastic views. Look at that yellow field; all wildflowers. And yes, that really IS the color!

I'm sure I'm allergic to them, but they're so pretty to look at!

A new lookout had just been finished so we headed that way. To our surprise, we saw a doe and a fawn playing in the water. You can’t really tell, but that fawn still has spots!

Fawn and doe in the waters of Mormon Lake.

See the spots?! I took this photo THROUGH the spotting scope. It's not going to win any awards, but at least you can see the spots on the fawn.

And the pleasure of the evening was when we heard a bull elk bugle. If you’ve never heard it before, you’ve got to head to elk-country and check it out. The sound is fantastic!

Then it was back into Flagstaff for a quick ice cream cone and then home early.

So we could do more taxes. Yuck!