This was taken during a stormy session on Swiftcurrent Lake this past October. This park is something else! Click the image to view the proper size.

This beautiful mountain river is capable of taking down entire trees during spring snow melt. Pictured here in the fall, it is relatively calm. Many people flock to the beautiful national forests of Montana to see scenes like this. Any of these national forests would be the most popular park in the country if they were east of the Mississippi.

Wildlife officials are absolutely confounded by this outbreak in various sheep herds around the northwest. As climate change gets worse, I feel we will see more disease cropping up, both for us and for wildlife. When you combine that with the pathogens introduced to native wildlife by cattle and domestic sheep, you have a stewing brew of just plain bad.

Did this one live? I came across him this fall at Rock Creek. I hope he’s still out there on those cliffs.

More discussion of this can be found over at Ralph Maughan’s Wildlife Blog.

This brute was out in the mountains north of Missoula in the Lolo National Forest area. This was either very late September or early October. The Mission Mountains are in the background(and more specifically, the Mission Mountains Tribal Wilderness). This is one of my favorite places in the world. The past few years I have started to spend more time in the Lolo and Bitterroot area rather than Yellowstone to get away from what has become a “rat race” there. Too many people chasing animals with huge SUV’s and radios.

The Missions are amazingly scenic, rising 7,000 feet over the valley floor with no foothills. It’s a good spot for viewing elk and other wildlife – especially bighorn rams. To be honest, I’ve been shocked at all the wildlife I see in the area. Getting a good photo of the creatures is different task altogether. It’s never easy. This big bull elk only made himself available right at sunrise. Any more light than that, and off he went into the bushes for the entire day. It took me two days to get this shot.

There is somethig about Glacier that just produces monster black bears.  I filmed the big bear as the winds hit 40 MPH plus and the temps were in the 30′s.  Winter was coming to the eastern side of the park.  This great bear would remain, sheltered in some den, and I would head home for the winter.  Please click the picture for the proper image size.

This image was taken in early October in Glacier National Park.  There were actually three cubs, but the last did not fit the frame. There are many more in this series.

I first spotted the grizzly family at sunrise. I was able to move in their direction but at about 200 yards away. Fortunately, there was a bluff along the lakeshore which gave me protection and the mother protection so I could film them as they got a bit closer. It was snowing very heavily during the whole time and I lost auto focus completely because of the giant snowflakes. I had to manually focus as the bears approached, using a high ISO. Not ideal conditions and not ideal light, but hey, it’s a grizz family on a lakeshore so you do what you can.

This was one of the most memorable moments I’ve ever  had in Glacier, to see this gigantic grizzly family walking through the snow along the lake. As they approached, an elk bugled from across the lake. Visibility was getting worse as winter moved in. What a spectacular place. Please click the image for the full, proper banner, and make sure your window is open full size. This is a wide pic.

This was taken in late September 2009 in the Gallatin National Forest.  It was close to a new moon, and the stars were spectacular. I had just arrived at the campground and had the place to myself. With my headlamp, I read on the campground sign, “warning, bear activity in and around this campground is high”. With that, I set up my tent and had a good nights sleep. There’s nothing like being back in the wilderness, looking up and seeing the actual night sky, hearing the river rush down from the mountains and the slight breeze of the wind in the pines. That is what it’s all about.

These elk were in western Montana along a crystal clear and cool stream pouring down from the Mission Mountains wilderness.  As the late afternoon progressed, more elk appeared out of the woodlands into the open areas in and along the stream. They were taken using a Canon 40D, Canon 300 F4 IS L with Canon 1.4x teleconverter and a monopod at ISO 800.