Something different - Northwest Trek in photos

Today, Tom and I went on a special photo safari at Northwest Trek in Eatonville, WA.  What follows are some of the photos I took while we road in an open sided tram through the free-roaming area of the park.  The tour lasted nearly three hours.  It was chilly, misty, and even raining at times, but it was quite wonderful to be sharing this tram with 12 other serious photographers with giant lenses.  I developed lens envy for the monster in the seat in front of me.  Here is my meager offering.

Looking down at the first meadow from the ridge.

The current leader of the elk herd.  Several others had been vying for the title, but are now hanging out on the fringes.

Rutting is serious business.

Maybe next year, I will be king.

We also saw the bison herd.  The baby was born in September.  The nearest big boy is the proud papa and head of this herd.

Baby bison.

It is rutting time for the deer as well.  There are black tail, shown here, and white tail in the park.

This guy was begging for me to take his photo.

I guess the highlight for me was seeing two female moose.  I haven't seen one in person before, so this was very cool.  There is one male in the park, but he stays in hiding most of the time. 

We had a very wonderful time on the safari.  After the tram ride, we walked around to see the grizzlies and the gray wolves.  They are in natural habitats with very low electric fences, it seemed to me.  If you are ever up this way, Northwest trek is worth the visit.

Now, back to the studio.