It was a once-in-a-lifetime sight that local photographer Beth Moos knew she needed to capture.

On Sunday, in clear view of I-90 between Belgrade and Manhattan, stood four bull elk, submerged to their stomachs in icy pond water that showed no sign of melting as temperatures struggled to stay above single digits.

Although Moos hadn’t been near the highway when the elk first entered the freezing water, some friends who were passing by alerted her husband. He promptly contacted Moos, knowing this was a moment she wouldn’t want to miss.

Moos grabbed her 400 mm lens and booked it out the door, guided only by the pinned location her husband had texted her. Minutes later, at around 3 p.m., she knew she was at the right spot as flashing police lights, a Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks game warden and the four elk came into view.

“They weren’t in a panic mode or anything. One elk was resting his head on the back of another,” she said. “I’m sure they were getting exhausted and body temperature changing.”

The game warden told Moos the elk had been stuck in the ice since around 9 a.m., when FWP first received a tip about the incident.

Additionally, Moos said friends hunting in the area said they witnessed other hunters take down two bulls from the original herd, sending the remaining, and likely panicked, elk across the freeway, where they eventually became trapped in the pond.

“I have never heard of anyone talking about an elk frozen in a pond,” she said.

“I know it happens to bison a lot in the spring in Yellowstone, but I don’t know about elk.”

By the time Moos arrived, she said several attempts to free the elk had already failed, including efforts to break up the ice using chemicals. But the scene shifted quickly. Not long after she got there, a helicopter began circling overhead before slowly closing in on the elk, spooking them into trying to hoof their way back the direction they came.

“They didn’t really start trying to move until the helicopter started encroaching much closer upon them, and then they started trying to climb up on the ice, and having no success there, the helicopter just kept moving in on them,” she said.

Although Moos said her view of the elk was partially blocked, she estimated it took only about 10 minutes after the helicopter arrived for the elk to finally break through and return to land.

In addition to the photographs she captured at the event and those she shared with others who gathered beside her during the rescue, Moos said she hopes her images reach others, showcasing the wild, unpredictable beauty of the wildlife that make Montana so unique.

“I enjoy photography. I enjoy watching wildlife. Of course, I would never have known about it without a tip from some friends,” she said. “I thought, ‘Well, this small group of people thinks the photos are really cool. I’m gonna see if I can get them out to more people’.”