Elk in the Woods: Yellowstone National Park, September 2003 Throughout our visit to Yellowstone, Rachelle and I heard the evidence of elk in the rut. While we were hiking through the Upper Geyser Basin we repeatedly heard a male elk bugling from the woods nearby. We caught a few glimpses of him and the females with him in the woods. And as it sounded like they were getting closer, we decided to wait on the boardwalk to see if we could get a better view. Suddenly, this male came out of the woods and stood astride the boardwalk not twenty feet away, as if posing for a photograph. Unfortunately, I had my telephoto lens on my camera, and despite our frantic efforts to switch lenses to a shorter one, he stepped off the boardwalk before I could oblige him.