I traveled to Yellowstone National Park today with the intent of camping for a day before heading to Glacier National Park. This didn’t happen because all of the campsites were taken by 9:30AM this morning. Instead of reserving a space I just thought I’d travel up and find one of the first-come/first-serve sites but I didn’t arrive early enough. I did stay in the park most of the day before leaving in the afternoon to head toward Glacier.
I drove through most of Yellowstone today without seeing any wildlife. This is pretty unusual. Last year, I saw just about every big game animal in the Park, but not today. I was about seven miles away from the western exit when this all changed. A gray wolf was in a field near a head of elk. I pulled my truck over and hopped out to photograph the scene. It appeared at first that the wolf was preying on this elk herd but as I stayed with the group I noticed that he was in search of something. About a half mile from where I first spotted him, the wolf found a carcass about 200 yards away from me in the middle of the field. He stayed there for over an hour eating what remained. I wasn’t able to get a great shot of the wolf but I’m very proud of the shot below. Most people never get the opportunity to see a wild wolf and I was very fortunate to get to see one today. I’ve heard wolves before but this is the first wolf I’ve ever photographed in the wild. I thought my trip through Yellowstone was going to be a bust today, but it turned out to be awesome! Check back later in the week to see my journeys through Glacier National Park. I’ll be camping out there for several days, so my next post will probably occur this weekend.
2 comments