Posts Tagged ‘elk’

Yellowstone: Day 4

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011

Outside our hotel is a group of deer that seem to hang around at all times. This morning they were especially cute; they were all huddled up next to a house trying to stay warm. It is a nice thing to wake up and have wildlife basically sitting on your doorstep.

There was a lot less wind and bad weather today and even some really nice sun that greeted us frequently throughout the day. The remnants of yesterday still remained and the snow plows and blowers were out in full force trying to clear away all the snow off the roads.

It was really fun to watch the snow being jettisoned hundreds of feet into the air. After the roads were cleared we decided to take advantage of the sun and go snow shoeing. We went out to Lost Lake which included a hike through the Petrified Forest, and a beautiful walk through a snowy canyon way tat led to the lake. We also found a kill. it was an old dead buffalo that had been eaten from the inside. It was gruesome but interesting to see.

After our snowshoeing was over we drove around Lamar Valley looking for animals. Sadly still no wolf sightings and in fact there are very little animal sightings at all. It seems like our luck may be changing soon however. We found a beautiful bull elk that we were able to follow for a while. This means that the elk are moving into the valley which means that the wolves should soon follow.

And as our final good sign for our changing luck was a couple of coyotes running across the road right in front of us. They didn’t stay long but we got a couple of pictures.

Tomorrow is a new day and with that we hope, as always, to find and photograph wolves.

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Yellowstone: Day 2

Sunday, February 27th, 2011

Today was the first day of our real expedition. We headed out in sub-zero temperature in search of the wildlife and beauty that Yellowstone has to offer. We started out early and headed into the park. We got to see some more elk at Mammoth Hot Springs, one of which was nursing.

Then we started out on our long days journey to Lamar Valley. We saw all sorts of animals including coyotes, bison, elk, bald eagles, and big horns. However most of them were to far away to get actually decent photos of them. The big horns however decided to cooperate with us and get close enough to photo graph as they ate their lunch.

After that my dad and i went snowshoeing into a canyon at Pebble Creek. It was beautiful, with high stony walls, snow hatted rocks and a partially frozen river.

Due to fear that we may have been very close to encroaching upon a bear den we decided to take the safe route and return to our car for lunch. After that we headed out to see if the otters from last year were still in their same spot. Sadly we saw no otters today but hope to see them soon.

It was a beautiful day but the wildlife wasn’t super active. I am hoping for more activity tomorrow and hopefully some wolves. For now it was just another beautiful day in Yellowstone.

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Oregon Elk

Saturday, April 24th, 2010

While driving through Oregon my mom and I happened upon many signs claiming there were elk in the area. For three days we drove through Oregon and guess what we didn’t see? ELK. So we decided the people who made those signs were liars. LIARS! We didn’t believe there were elk in Oregon at all. And you know what? We didn’t see any elk in Oregon. But we did see elk as soon as we crossed over into California in the Redwood National Park. There was a pile of elk just sitting on the side of the road. We decided Oregon sign makers are liars and California ones are not. Yeah for California.

Surprisingly, elk are very different depending on were you see them. It makes sense but I never really thought about it before. I am an expert on elk though since going to Yellowstone. The elk in California were so much smaller and skinnier than the Yellowstone elk. It was kind of weird. Thats not the point, it was just plain weird seeing elk in California, especially so near the coast. It just doesn’t really make sense in my mind. Oh well, I enjoyed poking out of the sun roof to get these shots.

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Yellowstone: Elk

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

The first real wildlife we happened upon in Yellowstone was the majestic elk. We spotted a group of bucks off on the side of the road in a snowy valley and decided to follow them for a bit. They had huge antlers because they hadn’t dropped them yet. It was quite the sight to see.

They were just roaming around eating grass. The funny part about going on wildlife hunts is that at first every little thing you see is amazing and you stop for an hour to watch it, but as time goes on it becomes normal. At the beginning of the trip we stopped a good hour and a half to watch these elk go around a valley and across the road, which was amazing. But my point is that by the end of the week we would drive right past them without a thought.

You would just say, hey look elk… okay moving on. It become normal so easily. This beautiful animal that I don’t see often, in a weeks time became something entirely ordinary in my mind. There seems to be something twisted in this idea. Maybe just how easily things can be taken for granted in life. Learn what you want from it, but appreciate it now because nothing is ever as ordinary as it seems.

As usual we got to watch how an elk finds food in this snowy terrain. It is actually very interesting but not as amusing as watch a buffalo find food.

Buffalo’s strategy: If I roll around in the snow enough, or grind my face deep enough into the snow, eventually I will find some sort of tiny shrub to munch on until I move on to the next snow pile in which to shove my face.

The elk just paw at the snow and push it aside with their noses to try to find some brush to chew on for some time.

I actually really enjoy this shot with the tourists in the background and the elk on the road. It has a corky quality to it. It is like a creeper photo and wildlife shot combined. The elk one by one would cross over the road. It was cool to watch because they would come right up close to us as we stood there with out tripods and huge cameras. It really was an experience to be so close to these huge creatures, and I will never take for granted this experience ever again.


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