{"id":71185,"date":"2020-06-25T06:08:36","date_gmt":"2020-06-25T12:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=71185"},"modified":"2025-05-17T09:20:07","modified_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:20:07","slug":"photographing-elk-in-the-wasatch-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/06\/25\/photographing-elk-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Photographing Elk In The Wasatch Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Four<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Elk<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Two<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Elk<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Three<\/a><\/div><\/div>
\"Running<\/a><\/div><\/div>
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\"Two<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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I had a spectacular morning yesterday high up in the Wasatch Mountains<\/span><\/a> and among the highlights of the day was a herd of cow Elk moving down a hillside just before 9 o’clock. I am thankful that I looked up towards the middle of the western slope of the canyon or I might have missed a wonderful opportunity. My companion would have too.<\/p>\n

Click on the first image to start a slide show or scroll through the photos one by one.<\/p>\n

I believe that the Elk were moving down the sagebrush dotted slope towards a creek to get a drink but they didn’t just draw the attention of this photographer they also stopped joggers dead in their tracks and I think that was just a few too many people on foot for them. I only saw one of the Elk take a drink before they all started acting nervous and moved back up the hillside and into the safety of some aspens higher up on the mountain than they were when I first spotted them.<\/p>\n

I believe there were eight to ten Elk in the small herd but I was so excited I never once stopped to count them, the most I had in one image was six and that was taken when they were moving quickly up the mountain. In total I had the elk in my view for a little less than seven minutes.<\/p>\n

The Elk all looked very healthy and their summer coats were sleek and shiny in the morning light.<\/p>\n

Last week I heard elk calling on two separate days in two different areas of the mountains and I had hoped to photograph them when I heard their calls but both times I couldn’t locate the elk and felt some disappointment but seeing and photographing the Elk yesterday more than made up for it. In fact, I felt like I had hit an Elk jackpot.<\/p>\n

I also had a great time photographing a gorgeous male Belted Kingfisher, Gray Catbirds, Yellow Warblers and one of their chicks, American Goldfinches, a long distance Yellow-breasted Chat, foraging Song Sparrows, a Muskrat or two, Cedar Waxwings, and a Least Chipmunk nibbling on yet to ripen serviceberries.<\/p>\n

It was a terrific morning in the high country.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good. Stay safe.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my Elk photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

These Elk photos were taken with my Nikon D500 with my Nikkor 500mm VR and 1.4x TC attached, apertures used were f7.1 and f8, shutter speeds ranged between 1\/1000 and 1\/2500, ISO was set at 500, exposure compensation was set at -0.3.<\/p>\n<\/div>

<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a spectacular morning yesterday high up in the Wasatch Mountains and among the highlights of the day was a herd of cow Elk moving down a hillside just before 9 o’clock.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":144412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,1731,26,773,99],"tags":[3940,6003,4442,889,3843,4028,4070,5918,887,751,4069,4148,2817,4057,6455,2315,4236],"class_list":["post-71185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elk","category-summit-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","category-wildlife","tag-canyon","tag-cervus-canadensis","tag-cow","tag-cows","tag-creek","tag-elk","tag-female","tag-females","tag-herd","tag-hillside","tag-mountains","tag-running","tag-sage","tag-sagebrush","tag-slope","tag-summer-3","tag-walking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/elk-in-wasatch-mountains-0398.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-iw9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":103661,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2022\/06\/27\/two-cow-elk-grazing-in-the-wasatch-mountains\/","url_meta":{"origin":71185,"position":0},"title":"Two 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McPherson","date":"May 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"The first time I raised my lens yesterday morning in the Wasatch Mountains it was for three Elk I spotted on a hillside.","rel":"","context":"In "Elk"","block_context":{"text":"Elk","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/wildlife\/elk\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Spring Elk bull in velvet, Wasatch Mountains, Summit County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/elk-bull-spring-velvet-mia-mcpherson-9517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/elk-bull-spring-velvet-mia-mcpherson-9517.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/elk-bull-spring-velvet-mia-mcpherson-9517.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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