Waking up to alarm clocks can be a real bummer, but when the alarm comes from a bugling elk at 5:17 a.m. while staying in a cabin at Mammoth, in Yellowstone National Park, it can be quite exhilarating.

As I listened closely, I could hear three other bulls answering the wake-up call. I slipped out of bed, grabbed a jacket, sat on the porch and watched cow and calf elk as they stealthily worked around nearby cabins.

The evening before, a lone bull had entered Mammoth and tried bugling up some cows, but none of them showed up. Because of the hot dry temperatures, most of the elk stayed out in the forest around the town, only coming in during the night and leaving before daylight.

This was the beginning of our second day in Yellowstone on a two-day trip that had been planned for my wife and

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