Wildlife in the Canadian Rockies II

I took this shot as Stephanie and I were driving down the Bow River Parkway on our way out of the Canadian Rockies. As you can see from the picture, the rack on this elk was incredible.

Ideally, I would've taken a shot in which the elk had it's head raised. However, in Banff and Jasper, park rangers are really trying to crack down on tourists stopping along the side of the road in order to photograph nearby wildlife. There are legitimate concerns about it being unsafe for the animal and the tourist alike.

Just prior to encountering this beautiful animal, Stephanie and I had stopped at a park office to get a reimbursement for an overcharge on our park entry. To get that reimbursement, we'd been required to turn in our pass, which meant that we could no longer drive on any park roads, meaning that we'd have to take the equivalent on the interstate highway immediately out of the park. Disregarding that regulation, we decided to take the Bow River Parkway (officially only open to pass-carrying tourists) out of the park. Midjourney, we encountered this elk, and I stopped to photograph it. Almost immediately, a park ranger arrived to encourage us to get along our way. Normally, I would've stayed long enough to get another shot or two, hopefully capturing an image with the elk's head raised. However, knowing that we weren't even supposed to be on that road any longer, I decided to get back into the car before she could realize I wasn't supposed to be there... and before I could get the shot that I really wanted.