Northwest Trek!

[aithne]

Concerned otter would like to hear about your mother.

I went to the Northwest Trek photo tour yesterday, and it was worth every single penny I paid for it. Seriously, it was amazing.

Some of the story and my favorite photos below the cut.

I woke up late and flew around getting ready to go, and managed to leave the house exactly on time. I got to Northwest trek in good time and met uop with folks from the Meetup group who happened to be going the same day I was--I hadn't realized the coincidence of the timing until the night before.

We met our guide (who was awesome) and loaded into the tram. We paused to take pictures of baby geese, and then in was on to the rest of the park. When we got to the first meadow, there was a rustling at the edge, and then this female moose bursts from the trees and comes trotting towards us. She got about a hundred feet away, slowed, posed for us for a little while, and then headed towards the back of the tram. The guide said, "She's real friendly..." just as I abruptly had a moose nose about six inches away from my face.

Snrf. Snrf.

Drool.

I was drooled on by a moose. Best. Morning. EVER. It was awesome. :)

Anyway, she was the only animal that was actually friendly. She checked out the person in the seat behind me and then wandered off. We went to see some sheep, and then some bison, and then it was on to the elk. The female elk were funny, they all had quite distinct personalities after watching them for only a little bit.

The one in front here is one of the lead females. She kept a very close eye on all of us. The one a little bit behind her is one that was generally near her, and showed signs of being timid.

Then we wandered on and encountered a few male elk, who are...impressive.

This guy was all, "Oh, yeah, I am HOT STUFF. See these antlers? Reproductive fitness, baby! I am all about it."

We saw another one on the way back around:

We got stuck in a bison traffic jam, saw sheep, a deep who liked to pose, and some more stuff. Then we had breakfast at the little former guest house on the lake, and then we were off back towards the walking-around part.

I took a bunch of pictures, including ones of a badger:



In short, I had a wonderful time. I've uploaded pictures to the Flickr set, and will upload the best of the best later today to my other Flickr account.

Comments

[3smallishmagi.livejournal.com]

Cool. Two people now have mentioned Northwest Trek. I may end up going too. Love the expressions on the female elk.

(btw. your photos recently all have high contrast and intense blacks. Is this intentional or a side effect of adjusting things on a too-bright monitor? I like the make elk photos like that for example)

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

It's completely intentional. I may back off of it eventually, but part of the reason I like photography is that I get to make pictures of things how I see them in my head. And then inside of my head has violent colors and very deep blacks.

[silenceleigh.livejournal.com]

Also, check out the photo tour. It's more expensive, and it's early in the morning, but you stop a lot and it's tailored to photographers.

[oktober-ghost.livejournal.com]

Wow. Great pics. Love the badger and the otter in particular.

[laffingkat.livejournal.com]

Neat! Never had a moose get up close and personal before, so that was fun to enjoy vicariously, and your pics are great! I love NW Trek, and I will definitely have to get 3smallishmagi down there sometime.