Elk Bath

"Elk Bath" is the title of an award winning wildlife photograph by John McColgan, a fire behaviour expert of the Alaskan Type I Incident Management Team. It was taken on August 6, 2000 on the East Fork of the Bitterroot River on the Sula Complex, Bitterroot National Forest, Montana, and is also sometimes known by the title, "Bitterroot Forest Fire" or, more vaguely, "Montana Fire". When NASA featured it in its online Astronomy Picture of the Day series, it titled it, "Fire on Earth". [cite web|title=Astronomy picture of the day |url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001121.html |date=2000-11-21 |accessdate=2008-02-19 |last=Nemiroff |first=Robert |coauthors=Jerry Bonnell |work= NASA APOD]

It was one of the "Time Magazine" Photos of the Year 2000, and ran in its "The Year in Pictures" special edition in winter 2000/2001, and the web equivalent. [cite web|title=The year in pictures |url=http://www.time.com/time/photoessays/yip2000/yip_aug_5.html |date=2000 |work=Time.com |accessdate=2008-02-19]

McColgan took the picture with a Kodak DC280 digital camera [cite web |title=Most Famous Wildfire Photograph Ever Taken! |url=http://forestry.about.com/library/weekly/aa092400a.htm |work=About.com |accessdate=2008-02-19] while standing on a bridge crossing the Bitterroot Valley. Several other animals were present off frame, including a deer standing below McColgan as he took the picture. This may explain why the animals in the photograph are sometimes referred to as deer.

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