My dad and I made an overnight trip to Rocky Mountain National Park earlier this month to photograph the elk during the second or “false” rut. The park is wonderful in December. The crowds are gone, the snow is falling, and the bulls in the main bachelor herd spar almost constantly. In fact, we almost had too much snow — at times the morning snow was so heavy that it obscured the elk. (Click on the images for a larger view and a slideshow).
Though the snow made it a bit challenging to photograph the bulls fighting in Horseshoe Park, the snow made for some wonderful images of the cow and calf herd in Moraine park. There is something whimsical about a show-covered elk.
As an added bonus, we ran across this mulie. Unfortunately another rude photographer ran this guy off before I could get the perfect image, but I’m reasonably happy wit this one.
One last image of the elk fighting. Less of a sense of motion than the first image, but I like the eye contact.
