Saturday:
   After many delays we are back in the Park. First there was Tim's "lost" bag; then the vehicle we didn't ask for or want at Thrifty, then missing the Livingston exit - how many times have we been here?
   The Park is like coming home. More than a decade after I first entered through the arches, it is a familiar yet always changing place. The weather is not unlike my first trip with warm days turning cool as the sun goes down. Grass is yellowing and the trees are turning red and gold slowly, aspen and cottonwoods like flames in the forest.
   The elk are there to greet us at Mammoth. A huge bull elk, parades in front of his harem when he isn't weaving through the cows. I wonder how the cows feel about his antics - his chasing after visitors. They watch their calves and stay out of his way when they can. Visitors, cameras in hand, back away from parked cars and angle away from the bull elk. A ranger lectures and warns, attempting to frighten people away. The ranger is a bit overkill, but Tim and I have seen this bull before, or one who looked and acted exactly like him, crashing into car doors and ramming tourists with cameras in hand. He was like this a couple of years ago, and if he is the same elk whose antlers were sawed off, he is asking for it again this year.

Author - Christine Baleshta
Photography - Tim Springer