If you are hiking to the Enchanted Valley on the East Fork Quinault River in the Olympic National Park, O’Neil Creek Camp is a nice easy mid-way camp at 6.7 miles (10.8 km). The river has wandered back and forth across the valley and there are nice sandy spots and fewer mosquitoes on the river bed than you find under the trees where the campsites are located. You can play with the rocks (or enjoy the work of others who have) or, if you’re lucky, watch the elk.
This was taken after the first snowfall of the season (in September) near the visitor center on the east side of the summit of Logan Pass on the Going to the Sun Highway in Glacier National Park. It was digging for food … just a last snack before hibernation. Not sure if it was after roots or a marmot.
These elk were along the road going up the Hoh River towards the Hoh River Ranger Station in the Olympic National Park. They are pretty much used to people and don’t scare up easy. I was glad to have a fairly good stand of water between me and them, just for whatever deterrent it provided. (mostly keeping people away from the elk, not the other way around)
Well, I guess this isn’t such a young buck … maybe 4 years old … but it wasn’t very large. He was wandering around in Fort Worden State Park. Even the bucks are used to people and aren’t as skittish as they typically are in the National Forest (for example). And without any natural enemies (except auto traffic), they numbers are way too high … so they attack my hydrangeas and fuchsias for a snack.
So I was playing around with various image processing software to see what I could do to improve some of my older images… (this one is from 2017). I had just taken some photos of fall foliage and noticed some elk just down stream from my position, crossing the North Fork Skokomish (just a half mile or so up from Staircase Campground in the Olympic National Park.
I had looked at this image dozens of times over the years, but this was the first time I had ever noticed that there was someone on the other side of the river, watching the elk from behind a log. I can’t tell if they had a camera or not, but I image that there presence was why the elk were crossing. (see below)
