A pelvis and backbone of an elk lies buried in the new grass of spring, continuing the cycle of life and death in Yellowstone. Wolves kill many elk in Yellowstone, but the numbers of wolf kills pale in comparison to the numbers of elk that are killed by hunters just outside Yellowstone Park and from starvation during tough winters. The elk population is cyclical, rising and falling according to the abundance of rain and forage. The fires of 1988 opened up hundreds of thousands of acres of what was once dense lodgepole woodlands, and allowed rich grasslands to grow where tall pines once stood. The elk and bison populations exploded, but a really tough winter in the mid-90s cut the sizes of the herd significantly, and the Montana Department of Livestock slaughtered nearly 2,000 bison that year as well.

Below: One of the many steep avalanche chutes on Specimen Ridge.