Yellowstone National Park changed my life in 2016 after I saw my very first wolf. It was that trip when I finally figured out what my purpose in life was. Fast forward 4 years when I made another trip to the park in June 2020 during the pandemic. I was dead set on photographing a wolf this time around. I would hike alone a few miles through the valley every morning in the fog before sunrise, hoping I’d have an opportunity to see one in some really cool conditions at first light. No such luck for the first week. I struck out every morning. I started to get discouraged but then magic happened. Alone on the trail and nobody around to see or hear me, I spotted a pack of wolves about a quarter mile away from the trail. I was in an opening where I was extremely exposed with no cover so I tried back tracking a bit to get to some cover and observe. Little did I know they also saw me. While I was making my way to a tree line where I could observe and photograph with a little bit of safety, not 30 seconds later I turn around and there’s this gray wolf staring at me, not even 10 feet away from me. It could have killed me if it wanted to. My heart was pounding, the adrenaline flowing, what do I do!? I was in shock at this beautiful creature being so close. I look to my left and a black wolf, the alpha, is about 50 feet away up on the hill looking down. Now I’m really nervous. I knew there were 2 more but I couldn’t see them. I didn’t know if they trying to surround me or what. This was my first encounter with a wolf so all kinds of thoughts were going through my mind. Eventually I realized they were just sniffing me out and I had nothing to worry about. They probably thought I was an elk and came to investigate. I still had my camera and telephoto lens in hand and tried to snap a few pics while I could, while also not looking away for even a moment in case they were waiting for their moment to ambush me. My hands were shacking. I tried to take long breaths to calm myself and take a steady shot. Thankfully I managed one shot, the rest were a bit out of focus from my unsteady hand, but one was all I needed! All in all, the whole event lasted only about 2 minutes before they went on their way across the valley, but it felt like an eternity and was the best moment of my life photographing wildlife. My Spirit animal.