We reluctantly packed up at the crack of dawn this morning and headed home, putting Colorado and the Rockies in our rear view mirrors.

But not before a fun send off from a few rather large visitors. One elk stood right outside our back door, while two others mulled around in the neighboring yard. They were so close that I could hear the grass tearing from the ground as they grazed — and even heard them blowing and snorting out their noses.

This was the first visitor that caught my eye out the kitchen window. Below is the one from our yard. A docile creature with horrible table manners. He had absolutely no qualms about chewing with his mouth open. ..or just letting excess clippings just fall right out.

And THIS was one of the big fellas in the neighbor’s yard. It cannot be overstated how massive this creature was. The rack this poor guy was supporting on his head was enormous.

Seriously. Look at this thing. As he scratched a hard to reach itch, it dawned on me that his antlers were practically the length of his entire body.

They were much more focused on filling their bellies than worrying about me, but they did keep tabs on me from time to time.

So I left them in peace and we were on our way.

Much of today’s drive was spent in Kansas. Tanner took the wheel for several hours, so I took the opportunity to challenge myself to find and photograph beauty in the mind-numbing monotony of the Kansas landscape.

As twisted as this sounds, I actually love these photos. I’m probably most proud of the fact that one might not realize that these were taken at 80 miles per hour on the interstate.

Eventually, we worked our way through Kansas and found ourselves back in familiar territory. Now we’re home, exhausted, happy and grateful for another adventure.