I’ve finally heard an elk bugle, and it’s an impressive sound. This fellow in the Beaver Meadows section of Rocky Mountain National Park had a harem of five females and a youngster. Just before I took this photo, he bugled out a couple of announcements to other males that might be in the vicinity: Here I am, and I’m better than you are. Herds of elk also could be seen above the treeline across a great valley from the Alpine Visitors Center; from that distance they looked like dozens of little brown rocks, just dots on the landscape. Before long they’ll be thronging the streets of Estes Park.