God was smiling down upon me yesterday when an elk herd appeared out of nowhere to give me an opportunity to finish a Youtube video I’ve been working on! I’ve been collecting footage of amazing animals arriving for a Springtime in the Rockies post, but without a headliner I was left somewhat unmotivated.
I was tired yesterday and it was a struggle to hike up the hill to the trailhead. My thoughts were to just take a quick walk back into the trees to see if I could get a picture of a mountain bluebird, and then head for the coffee shop for a nice order of biscuits and gravy.
There were no birds at the time, butI was feeling a bit better, and decided to hike on over the next ridge to see if I might see a couple elk at the top of the bowl.
As I was nearing the end of my trek, I heard a noise from behind. A couple of elk came bounding out of the ravine below, so I quickly aimed my camera at the galloping ungulates. Then much to my surprise, they kept coming and coming and coming!
Much of the herd was already well on it’s way up the mountainside, in a line longer than my camera could capture at the 160mm focal length at the wide end of my 100-400mm lens with a 1.4x attached. However a few stragglers were still close enough for me to bag a relatively close capture.
Then it occurred to me that this extraordinary event could not be properly experienced with just a few still images, and I quickly switched my camera to video mode.
My heart was pounding, and my breathing heavy from the rigorous hike up the mountainside but I did my best to hold the camera still and capture some decent footage. There was no time to mount the camera on the monopod, which I had cast aside when the animals came galloping out of the gulch. Soon the majestic creatures all had their backsides facing me and I turned the video switch off. There was also no time to switch to optimal video settings before turning on the motion, so I could only hope the video was salvageable. I continued to snap still captures as the herd reached the top of the ridge
In less than two minutes, the herd disappeared over the top of the ridge, and the entire event was over with as quickly as it had begun. I would have to climb the rest of the way to the summit and crawl over the top to find out if the herd had decided to rest in the high meadow.
An astonished coyote watched in amazement before returning to his hunting for prairie dogs, which have recently ended their long winter of hibernation.
In the meantime, mountain bluebirds had come out to sing in the warm morning sunshine. This one stopped nearby to serenade me while I captured a few colorful images.
A Few More Springtime Images
Here are a few more springtime images that I’ve recently captured. Many of them are available on my website as prints and gifts, and stock images for commercial purposes. Also, please enjoy the video on my Youtube channel, @stevekrull!
If you would like to learn more about how to photograph wildlife in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, please consider a purchase of my book Wildlife Photography in the Colorado Rockies!
Steven W. Krull is a renowned photographer and author who has been photographing and writing of the beauty and wildlife of the Colorado Rocky Mountains for over two decades. Please visit his website at S.W. Krull Imaging to view his work, including thousands of prints for sale, stock images for commercial use, and his library of published books.
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Colorado Photographer / Author / Wildlife Advocate | Steven W. Krull 