One of the joys of a recent visit to Rocky Mountain National Park was watching a young elk buck splish-splash in one of the Sheep Lakes. Often, Bighorn Sheep visit the lakes for the salt deposits in the soil. There were no Bighorn Sheep this day, but there was a coyote that didn’t even stir the elk and plenty of Canada Geese. With snow still at elevation in May, the Rocky Mountain elk were out in force throughout the lower portions of the eastern part of the park.(NOTE: Clicking on an image will launch a full-size gallery).
Based in Seattle, Wash., Glenn Nelson is the founder of The Trail Posse, which regularly covers race, diversity and inclusion in the outdoors. He also is a founding member and on the steering committee of the Next 100 Coalition, a national alliance of civil rights, environmental and community groups advocating for more inclusive management of public lands. Nelson has won several national awards for his writing, photography and Web publishing, including three first-place honors from the Society of Professional Journalists in 2019 for his column on race for Crosscut and Outstanding Beat Reporting (Race, Inclusion and Environmental Justice) from the Society of Environmental Journalists. A graduate of Seattle University and Columbia University, he was born in Japan and started his career at The Seattle Times. He later founded HoopGurlz (now at ESPN), which covered girl’s basketball and college prospects nationally, and helped found Scout.com, a network of sports websites. Nelson is the primary author of a teen book about the NBA, has been published in numerous magazines and book collections, had his photographic work appear at the Smithsonian, and has been profiled by NPR. He also serves on the boards of Audubon Washington, Spectrum Dance Theater, as well as the Washington Governor's advisory committee on outdoor recreation, the advisory committee for the Japanese American Remembrance Trail, and the Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage task force.
