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.

My goal today was to photograph mountain goats. Last year, dozens of goats could be found at the top of the mountain, so I thought this would occur again. I was wrong. I only saw two; a female and her kid. I did manage to get a few shots of the pair, but I was bit disappointed in not finding any more on the mountain. I did see a lot of female big horn sheep which I photographed early in the morning. My favorite image from these is of a female sheep that is warning one of the younger sheep to get out of her way. She has her head cocked back and is jumping in the air. In the next image, she hits the other sheep on the head for not getting out of the way fast enough.

My main pursuit this year while on top of the mountain was a pika. It’s a small rodent that’s in the rabbit family. This pika was busy gathering food, so I parked myself near his den to get the shots you see of him below. My favorite images of wildlife are those that involve action. I really like the shots I got of him jumping from rocks with food in his mouth. These are my favorites from the day.  I stayed with the pika for about an hour before heading back down the mountain. On my way down, I spotted a yellow-bellied marmot on a rock near the road so I had to stop to take some photos. While shooting the marmot, several of her babies crawled out of their den. I was able to get a few shots of them before the mother hurried them back inside. After shooting this, I headed down the mountain and began my trek toward Yellowstone. I got about half way due to spending a couple hours in the Snowy Ridge mountain range in Wyoming. This is a beautiful place that I hope to get to explore more in the future.

Tomorrow I head to Yellowstone to begin a couple days of photography there before heading to my ultimate destination – Glacier National Park. Check back tomorrow for another update from the trip!

For more information about the Worldwide Photo Walk, visit http://worldwidephotowalk.com/

Sneak Peek at Lauren & Joe’s Wedding

Lauren’s Bridal Portraits

Megan + Jacob Engagement Session

Megan’s Bridal Session

Sneak Peek at Megan & Jacob’s Wedding