Elk attacking people in Estes Park is rare, but the incidents often lead to serious injury.

On the morning of Sept. 26, Willie Reynolds, a tourist from Pelahatchie Mississippi, was attacked by a bull elk while taking pictures next to the Estes Park Visitor Center.

The 79-year-old Reynolds saw the elk charging towards him and grabbed its antlers at the last second. In just moments, Reynolds found himself face-to-face with the elk.

“He hit me in the chest with his head and brought his head up. His horns dug into my chest, and then he got me on the side of the jaw,” Reynolds recalled in an interview.

Reynolds was then thrown over a bench by the elk, knocking him unconscious.

“When I came back into consciousness, there were a lot of people around me. There was a man from Nebraska who had me in his arms, and someone had given me their scarf for my chin. It was shooting blood out. They were all hollering for the elk to go away,” Reynolds said.

Shortly after Reynolds was attacked, the same bull elk charged a woman. She was res- cued by Brian Berg, a city parks employee, who drove his pickup truck between her and the elk. The bull elk eventually backed off. The woman suffered only a scrape on her shoulder.

Reynolds was seriously hurt. His chest was bruised, and his chin was cut. He also suf- fered a concussion from his fall over the bench. Reynolds had to be transported to Estes Park Health for treatment of his concussion.

Elk attacks are rare in Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. Estes Park has about 6,400 year-round residents but draws 3 million tourists each year. In any given year there are four or fewer elk attacks that lead to serious injury.

“Last year, we didn’t have any significant incidents. This year, there was one incident, but two people were involved. Two or three summers ago, two people were gored and sent to the hospital,” said Chase Rylands, district wildlife manager for the state Department of Natural Re- sources.

People are most often attacked by elk in the spring and fall. In the spring, the attacks usu- ally involve cow elk protecting their calves.

In the fall, the attacks typically involve bull elk, which are more aggressive that time of year. “They’re chalk full of testosterone, so they’re more naturally aggressive,” Rylands said.

Elk attacks are usually preventable.

“Really, the root cause of most of this, if you could call it aggressive behavior, is because of people getting too close to the animal. This provokes a response from these bull elk,” Rylands said.

The Estes Park Police Department often intervenes, to prevent people from venturing too close to the elk

“If we can, we try to herd the elk to less-populated areas and onto more open fields,” said Mark Swallow, a sergeant at the Estes Park Police Department.

The police also put "Caution" tape around areas where there are large herds of elk. They post officers to keep people away from the animals.

In Estes Park, there is a city ordinance prohibiting people from agitating wild animals.

“If we can articulate that what you’re doing is harassing the wildlife, then we can write a ticket,” Swallow said.

However, the ordinance and police precautions don’t always prevent serious elk attacks.

In 2016, Dr. John Meyer, the emergency department director for Estes Park Health, saw two serious elk-inflicted injuries, both from the same bull elk. A third person was injured by the bull elk but didn’t go to the hospital.

“One person got gored on the side of her head. Thankfully, her skull stopped any further penetration. But she had a huge laceration across the top of her head. Kind of a mild scalping in- jury, if you will, Meyer said.

"Another person was jogging, and the elk decided to run up to her and speared her right in the back. It gored her through some of the back muscles. That same elk, about 20 minutes lat- er, tossed someone to the ground. The person who was tossed didn’t come in."

The three elk attacks all occurred in less than one hour. The bull elk, tagged for aggres- siveness from the previous year, had to be put down.

Meyer sees different elk-inflicted injuries in the spring than in the fall. In the spring, elk attacks more often lead to bruising and broken bones as cow elk protect their calves.

“You get what we call 'the stompings,'" Meyer said. "That’s where the mother elk just stomps the heck out of you. They don’t have antlers, so they don’t use their heads. Those attacks can be pretty brutal, and lots of blunt trauma is usually involved."

In the fall, injuries are caused by bull elk charging people with their antlers. “We call them gorings, where they use their antlers. The bull elk poke you and stab you with them,” Mey- er said.

Willie Reynolds, who was attacked by a bull elk in the fall, eventually returned home to Mississippi to recover from his injuries.

He learned an important lesson.

“Watch what you’re doing at all times, and be very careful. Try to keep something be- tween you and the elk,” Reynolds said.