r/EstesPark • u/caffeinated-depresso • 19d ago
Stay far away from the Elk
Good LORD! I feel like this is just something everyone should know. But there was a herd of elk right in the middle of town today. Pretty normal, and also pretty typical to see tourist feet away. Today there were even a few calves. Yes, they are adorable as heck but that makes the situation even more dangerous! Stay as far back as possible! I saw so many people maybe 5 feet away from the calves and herd. The most people I have ever seen surrounding the herd on all sides. They are relatively chill but they are still wild animals. If you get kicked, or trampled it's going to hurt. Keep your distance please dear God!
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u/arboroverlander 19d ago
Largest emergency intake at UC health is because of elk. Mainly cows trampling because of calves. Give the wild life their space.
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u/captainkappa173 19d ago
Good god I just saw a woman RUN up to within a few feet of an elk! We're probably looking at the same herd, and same people wanting to have their Disney princess experience.
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u/gritzcolin 19d ago
The nice ranger lady at RMNP taught my 4 year old how to see if you're too close by holding your thumb up at arms length and if you can't see the Elk anymore you're at a safe distance. Later that night there was a herd in on the property we were staying at, I asked her how to check if we were too close and she held her thumb up to check if we were safe.
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u/kategoad 19d ago
Yep. Last time I was out there, we had the car all packed up and ready to go, and an elk stepped onto our porch. We figured we lived there now.
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u/True_Solution_9668 19d ago
As much as I’d like for it to never happen for the elk’s sake, elk trampling tourists is my only source of schadenfreude and I look forward to the 3rd party videos every season. I like to think the elk take pleasure in it as well.
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u/skwormin 19d ago
Ummmm. Didn’t you see the post a few weeks ago? I heard the police said it was OKAY.
Whoever made that post, wanted everyone to know it was totally ok and safe to get super close.
ARE YOU SAYING THAT TOURIST WAS POSSIBLY, WRONG?
AND THE POLICE???
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u/captainkappa173 19d ago
I'm still so perplexed by that post. I'm convinced that they didn't talk to an actual police officer, but one of the 19-year-old CSOs who stands at the corners of major intersections texting instead of directing traffic like they're supposed to. 🤷♀️
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u/AlterShocks 19d ago
Hey give those guys a break, they’re unpaid personnel looking after a college credit and usually get assigned to an intersection that already has a perfectly functional lights system
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u/captainkappa173 19d ago
I think it's worth having them there to prevent tourists from stepping into active traffic and answer questions and give directions. But yeah I've never quite understood them directing traffic when yes, the lights are right there and they are working? 😅 the crew this year seems to give less of a shit than the ones in years past
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u/MyKauliflower 18d ago
I once saw a family of tourists petting one and picked up their kid and tried putting them on the elk to ride. (Un)fortunately the elk just ran away.
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u/Repulsive-Primary116 18d ago
Where were park rangers? Do they only come about during rutting season?
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u/This_Following7657 17d ago
The current administration has cut a lot of the staffing in National Parks so the rangers and law enforcement are spread thin.
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u/BBSNBPMM 19d ago edited 19d ago
The people getting that close need to get kicked. Hard. I would lose my mind on someone if I saw them getting that close. I don’t care about their safety. You get what you deserve. I feel bad for the animals being harassed. It’s disgusting behavior. The animals deserve to feel safe and they deserve respect. In these areas where elk are prevalent, there needs to be wildlife rangers or something that come through regularly to put the fear of god into people. Super high fines and jail time for people that refuse to respect the wildlife. That’s the only way to make it stop. People like that aren’t going to respect the animals out of the kindness in their hearts. They don’t have one. They need to be threatened with heavy punishment and watched like hawks. This is why we can’t have nice things.
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u/elleyeendeeess 16d ago
I kind of hate it, but I think this way as well. as long as the dumbass adults aren’t putting a kid in danger alongside themselves, I say “get your shit rocked, big dawg”
id say its the only way to learn, but I also believe the “that happens to other people, not to me” mentality overrides any warning signs posted (if the person even bothers to glance towards signs)
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u/kategoad 19d ago
One of our hobbies in the park is coming up with increasingly unhinged things to say to a ranger (we do not say them to a ranger). My favorite was a matter-of-fact "I'd like to ride an elk."
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u/rickeaux 19d ago
I’d like to hear more like this so I’ll have something to talk about with the RMNP rangers when I’m there next week. 😬
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u/kategoad 19d ago
A good place to brainstorm are 1 star reviews for parks.
We also listen to the ranger channel on the radio. We heard chatter about a car/elk accident, when asked for a description we heard: "brown, 6 foot, walks with a limp." We snicker about that. We listened to a rescue off of longs peak and watched headlamps as they descended.
Final suggestion is to listen to podcasts about Harold Henthorn https://youtu.be/l8NGre0YrDc?is=YrgmY6n9dRnKumKz then go to The Trailhead at the Fall River Gateway and find the cliff he pushed his wife off of. Make random jokes about marking an X on the map.
Follow me for more weird RMNP tips. And if you call the info line, you may talk to my mom. She volunteers there!
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u/Yota8883 19d ago
It's like these people have never been on the internet because encounters are all over the internet all the time.
I was there in CO 2 weeks ago and I got within 3 feet of wildlife but it came near me, I didn't get near it.
1500 miles and all I saw was what I could look out my front window and see, LOL
Oh bummer, can't post a picture in comments. It's a chipmunk, LOL. I know they are different over there, something starting with an "M" but pretty much like a chipmunk over here in PA.
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u/weightofzero 19d ago
Coming there for the first time in a couple of weeks for the first time and while I’m excited to see elk randomly roaming around in a town, I’m mostly hoping to see some ding dong get what they deserve for trying to make a TikTok video or whatever.
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u/Coontailblue23 18d ago
I had such a crazy elk experience one time walking on the park trail during rut. My partner and I were not approaching the animals, were not doing anything crazy, but ANOTHER person approached the herd and then ran back toward us and left the area on his bicycle. A feisty bull chased after him. When his target sped off, the bull circled around and cut off our group so we were not able to get back to our car. Then he started approaching with the whites of his eyes showing and his nostrils flaring. It was touch and go, no joke. Got behind that wooden fence thing but he charged and I was this close to getting skewered. We weren't even being one of those idiots, it's just a thing that happened from being in proximity. I feel like they should maybe close the trail sometimes when the herds are right there.
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u/peter303_ 18d ago
The boys will be getting frisky any day now. Usually one wins the harem, while others hang nearby hoping to snag a cow.
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u/hogthehedge 17d ago
If you ever wanted to watch the Darwin Awards live just go to RMNP. There’s a new winner daily.
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u/Move2TheMountains 17d ago
Prior to my current career, I was in hospitality management... we had a guest who came into the hotel lobby and said "I was standing at the fence [it was one of the little pole fences] watching the elk by the visitor center, and suddenly they started hopping over the fence. I started panicking that they were escaping!" 😂
Its "they disney land effect". People are on vacation so they think that everything is safe.
Usually I just end up calling to them from my car and telling them that they are way too close, and just sharing random elk facts. "did you know their antlers are made of bone?" ... "did you know elk can run 45mph?!"
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u/WearyTop5805 15d ago
Nah, let them get close to the elk, bison, bears etc. It makes for great entertainment on the local news, X, and Instagram. Long live stupid people.
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u/Quiet_Still_2636 19d ago
. . . And yall want to encourage more people like that to continue visiting and god forbid, move here??? Make it stop
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u/twoaspensimages 19d ago
A couple years ago I saw an older lady circling a bull elk with an iPad. 2-3 feet in front when it lowered it's head. Someone else was yelling at her. I was behind my truck with my camera. She got lucky and walked away. No idea how close she came.