Where The Wild Things Are

Having spent summers on my grandparents farm in Texas with a family that hunts, it has been most surprising this trip to find the deer so unafraid of people. It's obvious these deer have never been hunted.  Have never been chased or hurt by people.  It's so strange and yet it takes my breath away.  They're still skittish, still wild, don't get me wrong, but it's so completely different from the deer behavior that I'm used to.  So it still surprised me, when on the morning of our very last full day of camping, we were greeted with this lovely deer walking across the camp grounds.

Towards us.

Eating his breakfast about 10 feet away from us.

The Tweedles were so excited.  You should have heard how hard they tried to whisper their excitement instead of shout it.  They did such a good job at not scaring the deer.  I love that they get to experience this!  When the deer finally wandered off into the woods behind our tents, we pulled ourselves together and The Hubs, Tamlin, Joanne and The Tweedles started to see if we could find the trail to the Lost Grove.  LW and 1/2 Point had decided to stay in camp.. the loooooooosers.  Yeah, I said it!

We started out hiking along this ridge line.

Which overlooked Dorst Creek.

This was a bit more rocky than I was used to, and we weren't entirely sure of where we were going but we decided to follow the trail down towards the creek anyway.  It was our last day and I think we were all just really enjoying where we were.  It's all about the journey people!

The Hubs, Bunny and I had lagged behind the rest.  It might have been because I kept stopping to take photos, but probably the other two just walked slow and I was holding back so they didn't feel bad.  We were just starting to head down the trail when The Hubs whispered my name REALLY LOUD and pointed.

They're so camouflaged, I don't know how he sees them, but off to our right about 20 feet was this buck.  We tried to get the attention of the others, but they couldn't hear even our loudest whispers and they walked on.  And mostly I wasn't worried about them, since I was just trying to walk as close as I could get without startling him.

He didn't seem scared of me, but more annoyed that I was interrupting him.  He didn't let me get too close before he started to move.

I like to think that he knew this was our last day and was just making sure I got my monies worth.  While he kept his distance, he kept coming towards me giving me an even better view of him.  I think this counts as a 6 point buck.  Anyone? Anyone?

At this point The Hubs managed to signal the others and Joanne brought Bug back to see him.

I think having us on either side of him may have made him nervous because he began to move toward the trail in earnest.

At this point I'd say I was about 6-8 feet away from him.  And you can see how close Bug and Joanne were.  Bunny was a few feet back from me with The Hubs.  And this guy?  He didn't run.  He moseyed his way across the trail between us and off into the woods on the other side.   Wow.. how's that for a start to our last day?

Seriously.. Thoughts?