East of Bellevue, Elk Creek drops down out of the foothills through sage and scattered aspen, one of several small drainages the Wood River Valley's own elk herd crosses on its way down to lower ground each winter. Elk Creek Services clears the ranch driveways and access lanes along that same stretch of foothill, often finding fresh elk tracks laid right across a lane the plow cleared only the evening before. The herd moves down into the valley bottom as the snow gets deep up in the canyons, and the crew's routes shift with them a little each season, working lower and closer to the river as the winter goes on. Snow collects differently in a canyon mouth than it does out on open ground, drifting deep against one bank and staying nearly bare on the other, and the crew reads each lane on its own rather than running a single pattern down the whole route. Dusk usually finds the herd still visible along the tree line above a freshly cleared driveway, and the crew closes out its day in the same foothill quiet it started in.