It's All About Those Elk!

Shhh... they're sleeping!

We were so disappointed last weekend when our camping trip to Yellowstone National Park was spoiled by weather. (Not that we didn't find ourselves an adventure!) This Friday's weather wasn't great either, but we decided that Saturday, nothing short of a blizzard was going to stop us!

We got up early (for us, lol) and headed out. It was still pretty cloudy, but at least it wasn't pouring down rain. By 11:00, we were out of the car in Mammoth and on our way up to where we always see elk. By the time we forked off of the Beaver Pond Trail onto Sepulchre Mountain Trail, the sun was coming out. That got the birds going, and we hoped it would do the same for the elk. 

We followed the trail farther than we ever have, and found that it came much closer than we realized to the meadow where we wanted to be. Just before we left the trail, I looked down to see tracks in the snow. Not people tracks, either! I thought they were bear tracks, but Dan said they were wolf tracks. We let the wolf keep to the trail and we veered off in the direction we wanted anyway. 

"Our" meadow

We ate our lunch overlooking a beautiful, aspen-lined pond. That was when Dan heard the first bugle of the day. It was coming from the general direction that we wanted to go, so we were once again on the move. We came into our meadow and found lots of sign, but no elk. Not, that is, until I spotted a small herd of young bulls sleeping on the sunny hillside. As we moved in, they awoke and looked at each other as if to say, "Hey, who was supposed to be on guard duty?"  

Just then, we heard another bugle and we were again on the "hunt." We soon realized that we were hearing not one, but two bull elk bugling back and forth. Dan finally spotted one of them in a little meadow, and we were able to set up behind a fallen tree. We watched for quite a while, waiting for the other bull to put in an appearance, but he never did. Eventually, the first bull wandered off into the trees, so we also moved on. 

When we came back to the Beaver Ponds Trail, we turned back toward the car. We were still hearing a lot of elk-calling, but I really didn't want to hike out in the dark. But then we heard a bugle right beside us! Another nice bull was shrieking out his challenge in the meadow just off the trail. Without a thought, we turned our lenses in his direction. When this bull also turned off into the woods, we quickened our pace for the car. (We even passed up a bluebird photo shoot. There really wasn't enough light left anyway.) I was ready for that prime rib dinner waiting in Gardiner. After seven miles of hiking, I think I earned it!