The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Music
A milestone in my life today as I heard an elk bugle. Granted I’ve heard it on TV before but to hear it in the wild for the first time was a great experience. My wife and I rode into the Cataloochee Valley and we were treated to a fantastic display of nature. The bulls are rutting and chasing the cows. We watched one bull with a harem of about 10 cows and 5 calves in a meadow for about an hour. He put on a wonderful show wallowing, chasing cows, bugling and running his harem away from other bulls in the area. My wife and I had a great day and I shot over 300 photographs. Here is a small sampling of the photos I took. 
If you get the opportunity you really should travel into the valley and check it out. Here is a link to an earlier post I did about the decline of the elk herd.
Super photos!
Comment by lisa — September 17, 2006 @ 8:29 am
[...] Moose captures the story in photos from his trip over the weekend to Cataloochee Valley to see the elk. [...]
Pingback by Black Bear Blog » Blog Archive » Bugling Elk in North Carolina — September 18, 2006 @ 3:05 pm
[...] One of my favorite places to visit in North Carolina is the Cataloochee Valley part of the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. I was up there in September and got to hear my first elk bugle. The Mountain Press has a story about the elk in the valley and the boom to the area they are. [...]
Pingback by Moose Droppings » Elk in Cataloochee Valley A Popular Draw — November 30, 2006 @ 1:27 pm
[...] now in the Cataloochee Valley of The Great Smokey National Park it is calving season for the experimental elk herd. I traveled into this remote valley this weekend to see this small herd and to experience a part of [...]
Pingback by Moose Droppings » Calving Season for the Elk of Cataloochee — July 6, 2008 @ 9:47 pm