Dear Sierra~

On By cindy knokeIn Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life


This dear came up so close that I temporarily lost focus!


Deer clearly have the right of way in the High Sierra. The doggie seemed too stunned to bark!


Kind people, and dogs, yield to them, and they seemed to expect this from us, smart dears.


We could have easily touched them, but didn’t.


They fawns even nursed in front of us, but I spared you the photo because it was mostly fawn tushy!


They have such a pretty home,


and it is quite an honor to share it with them.

The photo below is Devil’s Postpile which was created about 100,000 years ago from lava flow and is made of basalt. Glaciers later carved and polished the stone towers which are up to 600 feet tall. Devil’s Postpile is a 798 acre National Monument established in 1911 that hopefully will remain a monument and protected. It is transected by both the Pacific Coast Trail and the John Muir Trail.

Cheers to you from the dear-deer in the Eastern Sierra~

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227 thoughts on “Dear Sierra~”

          1. this is a honor to me, many thanks for this invitation, it will be real one day from diving from authors and photographers give the event with security in the coming summer when god wiel, until then !!!!!!! !!!! only patience!!!

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  7. What a lovely place they have to live in! We had a deer in my front yard one summer when Domer was little. I imagine it got separated from its kin. Several of us neighbors were outside looking at it up close, and it was a beautiful creature! Eventually, it ran off. Thanks for sparking that memory!

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  9. I remember on a visit to the Olympic Mtns. being astonished that the deer there were nearly tame, used to being safe around humans. These dear deer live in a beautiful, hunter-free paradise!

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    1. You can hunt deer close to where I saw these guys, so it is a bit of a mystery why they appeared so tame. They must have contact with people who love them. I hope they don’t get shot.

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  10. Beautiful creatures. I remember taking my Mum to Compton Acres in Poole where they had just opened their deer enclosure. Mum as entranced as Hubby stayed really still and curiosity was getting the better of one deer which was getting closer and closer to him. Mum held her breath, and then two ignorant women came chattering by slamming both gates shut totally oblivious of the moment and shattering the mood.

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    1. So awful! I know just how the three of you felt. So frustrating. Sometimes I wonder why people want to visit natural places if all they are going to do is talk and make noise. The first time we visited The Ancient Bristlecone Forest (the oldest living trees in the world), there were two women close to us on the 5 mile hike. They gossiped loudly the entire way. We couldn’t get far enough away from them to not hear them. They should have just gone to the mall.

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  12. In the Japanese city of Nara they got this park where ‘wild’ deer roam. The animals expect you to feed them (there are old ladies selling bags of fodder) and if you don’t hand them over the food fast enough they virtually rob you 🙂 Those stone pillars are amazing!

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  15. I opened your post to that deer close-up and burst out with a laugh. How wonderful. I sure do hope that our parks and natural monuments are preserved. They are the legacies that we leave to future generations, and once destroyed, they’re gone. Photos help raise awareness, Cindy. Thanks for sharing your art and love.

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  18. It seems like they are re-evaluating many of our national monuments these days. I think they should be maintained with the only possible option a promotion to national park status. Mule deer all over one of our city parks this morning.

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  19. Cindy your deer seem to be a bit smaller than ours, unless they are fawns. Our fawns have large spots on them which disappear when they mature. We used to run into deer, fairly regularly, while picking blueberries in the summer.
    Leslie

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    1. I’m stuck on the imagery of picking blueberries……I’ve never done that! It sounds idyllic. These are mule deer, two almost grown fawns and a mama. They should be about ready to go off on their own, although they are still nursing.

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      1. Cindy it was a real tradition in our family. Even when the children were in diapers, we would take them out with us to pick berries. They would sit there in the blueberry patch and stuff them into their mouth. I froze the berries and we had enough berries for pancakes and pies all winter. Yum – the wild berries are smaller than the cultivated ones and their flavour is more intense.
        Leslie

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    1. Not protected unfortunately which makes their trust harder to decipher. These photos were taken in the Eastern Sierra about two weeks ago, which about a 7 hour drive from The Holler~
      🦌

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  23. On Long Island, NY the deer population is so large (despite hunting) they are considered a pest. We use to have two families of over a dozen total that lived on the hill behind us. They could clear any fence, and devoured hostas, daisies, and sometimes roses! Nurseries and orchards go state funds a decade ago to build 10-12foot fences. Deer also are carriers for Lyme disease, which is now endemic in the northeast and causes some very bad problems. So I am glad to know there are still regions where deer are a pleasure to meet!

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  33. I run out of adjectives when it comes to your posts. I love this so much. The pictures are charming and beautiful. Innocence and trust all rolled into one. How truly incredible. Thank you so much Cindy, for this lovely gift.

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  34. Pingback: You are in for a treat when you see the photographs on this beautiful post by: Cindy Knoke | Rethinking Life

    1. Deer are wild. They can be dangerous, especially in rut, so your caution is very wise. But these deer clearly were not the least bit aggressive, nor the least bit afraid. It was amazing! 🦌

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  40. Timothy Price

    Oh deer! Beautiful area. Some years ago when I and woman who was a programmer working for me, we had to go to Virginia to train people on software we’d written. We saw lots and lots of deer along the side of the road as we drove in from the airport around sundown. Our programmer was from Bosnia and had never seen deer. She was smitten, and I had to take her out driving every night we were there to look at the deer.

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      1. Timothy Price

        Most of the residents hate them. I have a friend who recently moved back here after living in Virginia for 20 years. Deer ran into him on his bicycle and motorcycle many times of the years causing lots of damage and seriously injuring him in several of the encounters.

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  44. What an amazingly beautiful and serene part of the world and what a special moment to have those dear deers come so close. What a great photo op… thanks for sharing.

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  45. ♬° ✧❥✧¸.•*¨*.•*¨*✧♡✧*¨*•.❥Que Sierra Sierra, whatever will be will be, the photos are still awesome to see… ✧❥✧¸.•*¨*✧♡✧*¨*•.❥♬ And the deer came too close and said, “I’m really quite fawn of you, my deer! ( ื▿ ืʃƪ)

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    1. Don’t feel the least bit bad about not hearing about it. This is the first time I have visited it, and I have lived in California all my life. So I am the one who should feel bad!

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  48. What a beautiful experience with the deer so close. You must have felt really special that they trusted you all.
    The Devils Postpone looks amazing. Thanks for sharing, Cindy.

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