Winter is Coming

Decided to use the last of my vacation days hunting( shoot with my camera) some Elk in Banff National Park, but did this trip have some surprises in store for me. I decided not to leave too early as the sun comes out later and decided to go first to Bow Valley Parkway hoping to find some Elk and was hoping to find some big bulls being the Rut. To my disappointment didn't see a single soul all the way to the Junction of lake Louise and was contemplating heading back home but decided to take a chance on the Smith Dorian trail from Canmore to Kananaskis . Drove half way through and again there was no sign of anything just some fellow photographers just as eager to find some wildlife or any wildlife for that matter .

Now into my 5th hour of driving and having downed more then a gallon of coffee stopped at the Engadine lodge and decided to concede and just be happy with some landscape pictures, managed to get some decent shots of the fall colors.

Still hopeful started towards kananaskis and to my utter surprise there were 2 wolves standing by the road side some 200 meters from me but ran off as soon as I got closer. I decided to drive away and turned back after a mile just to check back and see if they would come back but they had disappeared into the forests. I was a little disheartened that I didn't get a picture of the first wolves I had ever seen in the wild but hey I saw wolves that was more then enough to lift my spirits.

Driving on and things were just getting better, saw a beautiful female grizzly foraging for roots on the side of the road , she didn't care as I drove as close as I could making sure she wouldn't run off and got some nice shots of this beauty.

Doesn't she look pretty in her pink bow tie.

After something like an hour I decided to leave her to forage in peace as more cars started stopping and idiots shouting to get her attention.

Got to kananakis after a some 7 hours of driving and got to photograph a lone mountain sheep on the side of the road. The fall colors really made him stand out .

Still not satisfied and still looking for the more wildlife to capture I drove around kananaskis for another 4 hours and didn't see much but got to meet some fellow photographers trying to kill time and wait for the evening hoping for some wildlife to show up.

At around 6:00 decided to head home after a grueling 12 hours on the road, but again decided to go through Sibald creek a back road to main highway to calgary. And guess who decided to show up , I have been looking to photograph a moose for the past 3 months and drove all the way to Alaska without any luck. She at least gave me a chance to take a few shots before she ran off

My favorite shot of the Trip

And I was finally ready to go home.