It was about as perfect a flight as you could hope for. No wind at all. Not a ripple on the lakes below.

And no clouds. A little haze to the north as we came home, but nothing to impede our view, cast dark shadows, or raise bumpy air.

And then, of course, we again found all 10 out of 10 collared elk. Most right where they were two weeks ago. A few had shifted some, but there wasn't anybody we had to go looking for. Mark the location of one, then start tracking the beeps of the next.

Yes, the one in the "Greenie" state is still there. As were we.

Other beauty of the flight? I didn't throw up.

Always a good thing. Got close several times, always after I was foolish enough to try to look through the camera's viewfinder.

The air was calm enough we came home along the spine of the mountains, looking down both sides of the Continental Divide at the same time. With a brief circle to check out this band of elk, happily stuffing their faces on a lush meadow in the wilderness on top of the Divide.

And yeah, that's snow down there. Even bigger drifts still left on other parts of the Divide, some quite a bit lower. No wonder the reservoirs are filling up.

Good way to start the day.

A day that ended with me waiting in a parking lot for over an hour, a 49-inch fish sitting in the back of my truck.

Which is another story.