Yellowstone

Yellowstone

The evening I arrived on the outskirts of Yellowstone I was tired from the drive and had my heart set on getting to camp, eating dinner and crawling into bed early. And the only thing that tempted me away from that plan was the large herd of elk I saw beside the road as I was pulling into town. Even though photographing a bull elk was high on my list, I simply couldn’t muster the energy to stop so, slightly unsure whether or not I was making a mistake, I decided to keep driving. Then I passed another herd. Then another. And each herd I passed, while still tempting, made me feel a little more comfortable with my decision, because they were clearly a dime a dozen—surely I’d get other opportunities. 

The next morning I woke up before the sunrise and drove into Yellowstone National Park with the goal of visiting some of the more popular sites before they got overrun with people. And sure enough, along the way I passed two beautiful bull elk right beside the road. Once again, I was really tempted to stop and take photos, but since my primary goal was to beat the crowds I kept driving, reminding myself that I’d have other opportunities. 

You may already sense where this is going, but for the next few days I didn’t see a single elk. I still had a great time in Yellowstone—I hiked some trails, checked out a bunch of the hydrothermal sites, watched the obligatory Old Faithful eruption, photographed waterfalls, bison, mountain goats, a speck of a moose way off in the distance… but still no elk. And I was seriously kicking myself for passing up multiple golden opportunities. 

One morning, as I was driving into the park before sunrise, I spotted a beautiful bull elk beside the road. But there was nowhere to pull over and it was still too dark for photography, so I took a mental note of the location and continued up the road. After poking around the park for a bit, I decided to circle back to where I saw him, but he wasn’t there. So I headed off to explore the park some more, but kept feeling this pull… so about an hour later I decided to drive through the area one last time. As I rounded a corner I started to see a bunch of cars pulled over on the side of the road—a clear indication that an exciting wildlife sighting was taking place. I pulled over as well, grabbed my camera and massive wildlife lens, and went to see what all the fuss was about. 

And there he was, in a large field just up the road from where I’d seen him previously, surrounded by his harem of female elk. This was my opportunity for redemption! To right all my previous wrongs! I had passed up opportunity after opportunity and was beginning to fear that I’d been so unappreciative and nonchalant with the early sightings that I’d have to pay the price—fortunately, I was given one more chance. The herd stuck around for a solid thirty minutes, giving me plenty of time to snap photos of the handsome bull as he chased females around the field.

Surprisingly, apart from the herds of elk and bison, I didn’t have any high-level wildlife encounters in Yellowstone. But that was all about to change as I made the short drive south to Grand Teton. 

“Maybe you weren’t born with a silver spoon in your mouth, but like every American, you carry a deed to 635 million acres of public lands. That’s right. Even if you don’t own a house or the latest computer on the market, you own Yosemite, Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and many other natural treasures.” –John Garamendi

P.S. Below are a few photos of the bull I was blessed enough to photograph.