Jasper Park Elk & Wildlife Dumb dumbs

I have loved photography since the 80's and have accumulated tons of interesting images.

In 2011 my wife and I were up in Jasper National park in Alberta Canada. We live down in the flat lands of Alberta but try to get to either Jasper or Banff every fall if we can.

This time while up at Pyramid Lake, which is just north of the town of Jasper (see map at end of post).
Here is an image that will give you some context as to the environment.

We were on our way back and noticed a number of cars stopped so we stopped to see what was attracting all the tourists.
I pulled of the road and rolled down the window and I could hear an elk whistling. It's a unique sound. I could not see him at first but then he finally appeared.

He was on the south side of the road and wanted to get over to the lake for a drink but all the silly people who were out of their cars made it hard for him. Thankfully this 7 point guy, who had lost the velvet from rutting, was in a good mood.

He made his way to the road.



Then he crossed the road right behind our car so I took a picture of the outside mirror as he passed behind us.



He finally got to the lake and started his slurp.



But there were some fools that thought they should get closer. In the fall during rutting season elk can be vary dangerous. I would guess that they actually cause more human injuries than bears do as they are not as shy but don't dare piss them off. They have horns for a reason. As he was drinking and dumb dumbs got to close he made and aggressive snort and made a brief warning charge. You should have seen the people run.



The red dot on the map below shows the location of this adventure.



The only working camera I have now is an old Pentax Optio 3.2 megapixels that is water proof to 7 feet in depth or so.
I used to have an old Canon film SLR but is really useless now.
I guess I should splurge and get a new digital SLR with some lenses.

Hope you enjoy this adventure & images.

Cheers,
Gweedy