Driving the back roads — and I mean seriously back roads — and hiking in the Gila National Forest last week.  The elk herds have moved down off the high mesas to raise their young near water and new grass.  What a treat to see 100 or more mommas and babies in 4 separate herds.

On the other side of the predator-prey scale, we found wolf tracks and old scat up on the mesas.  This is the area of the reintroduced Mexican Gray Wolf so we were tickled to see their presence.

I took the long way home with a good view of the Mogollons just as the afternoon cumulus began to build.  That’s Mogollon Baldy peaking up under the clouds; at 10,700 ft it’s one of the tallest mountains in the Mogollon range of the Gila Wilderness.