RIO GRANDE COUNTY, Colo. — When Rick Dunnahoo set out Tuesday morning to capture photographs of sandhill cranes at the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge, he never would have guessed that he would come home that day with several photos of a wolf.
"I had no aspirations to photograph anything like that that day," he told Denver7 on Thursday. "I was just looking for the birds."
This came as Colorado Parks and Wildlife reported that wolves had moved through the San Luis Valley near the southern Front Range in the past month.
The wildlife refuge sees thousands of sandhills cranes during their biannual migration as they fly between their wintering grounds in New Mexico wintering grounds and their nesting sites farther north. It's a spectacle that brings in photographers from near and far, including Dunnahoo, and has even prompted an annual Monte Vista Crane Festival, which runs March 6-8 this year.
Dunnahoo lives about 20 miles from the refuge, so he headed out that way Tuesday to get some shots. He pulled up to the main parking lot off County Road 8 South, where a large barley field extends to the north.
"I pulled up there and started observing the cranes. They were a long ways off. They were at least 150-200 yards away. So I wasn't really getting any good photos of them, but just looking to see if any were going to be flying over me or toward my direction, where I could get some shots there," he described.
As the long-time Coloradan leaned against his pickup, something caught his eye.
He looked over.
"I see this wolf running," Dunnahoo said. "And it's running not towards me, but it's running about 30 feet away from me, and so it was kind of skirting the field of barley. Because I had my camera and the lens ready, I just pulled up and started shooting, and the whole encounter didn't take more than about three or four seconds."
"She covered that field in no time at all, and was gone," he added.
It was barely enough time to react beyond raising his lens, he said.
"I've got a nice camera, a nice lens, and had the settings right," he said. "I just pulled up the camera and... just held the shutter down, and clicked away."
Right afterward, Dunnahoo scanned the photos he had just taken to make sure it wasn't just a dog. But the size of the wolf's paws and her speed running across the field made him feel pretty confident.
He reached out to a wildlife manager for the area, who confirmed he was aware of this wolf. He also contacted his wife, whose ranching friends a few miles away have spotted a wolf hanging around their land. Dunnahoo said the predator makes them nervous, as their cows are giving birth now.
He said he feels like Colorado's wolf reintroduction program hasn't been overly fair to the wolves, noting that the one he saw was probably looking for others of its kind while trying to avoid people in a populated state.
"You know, in the Yellowstone ecosystem, they've got plenty of room there. They can extend, establish packs and live a normal life, but not in Colorado," he said.
Watch our interview with photographer Rick Dunnahoo in the video below.
This may have been a once-in-a-lifetime shot, but Dunnahoo is looking forward to retiring at the end of the year and enjoying more photography around Colorado and beyond.
"It's a great hobby," he said. "You meet great people. A lot of photographers are very nice. I really enjoy it. And it's great to be in a beautiful state like Colorado."
Denver7 learned about his wolf photos after he posted them in our Discover Colorado | Through Your Photos group on Facebook. Join here to explore and share more great Colorado photography.
Denver7 has been following Colorado's wolf reintroduction program since the very beginning, and you can explore all of that reporting in the timeline below, which starts with our most recent story.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) confirmed to Denver7 on Wednesday that this wolf was in the Monte Vista National Wildlife Refuge area.
The agency released a new wolf movement map on Wednesday, showing two individual wolves moving through several watersheds in the San Luis Valley near the southern Front Range. As of Wednesday, CPW said no wolves had crossed Interstate 25 or spent any time in urban centers.
Since the 2023 approval of the Colorado Wolf Restoration and Management Plan, CPW has said that wolves are expected to expand widely over the years, including to the Front Range.
CPW uses watersheds to illustrate wolf movements, and if a watershed is purple, it indicates that at least one wolf spent time within its boundaries. It does not mean they traveled the entire area or are still within the watershed.
Denver7 in-depth wolf coverage
The below list outlines an overview of the known wolf population in Colorado:
- Five wolves surviving from the original 10 that were released in December 2023 (one died of a likely mountain lion attack, a second died from injuries sustained prior to his capture as part of the Copper Creek Pack relocation effort, a third wolf became sickly and died, a fourth died in Wyoming, and a fifth died during a re-collaring operation in February 2026)
- Three wolves surviving of the five wolf pups born in the spring of 2024 (one male was killed by CPW after multiple depredations in Pitkin County and a second male was shot for the same reasons in September 2025)
- Eight wolves surviving from the 15 that were released in January 2025 (one was shot and killed by Wildlife Services in Wyoming, a second died of unknown causes in Wyoming, a third died in Rocky Mountain National Park, a fourth died in northwest Colorado and the fifth died in northwest Colorado after it was likely hit by a car, a sixth died in southwestern Colorado, and a seventh died in northwest Colorado)
- Unknown number of pups born in four packs in 2025
- Two uncollared wolves that moved south from Wyoming several years ago and have been in and out of the area. It is not clear if they are alive or still in the state.
- One uncollared wolf that was last known to be in northwest Moffat County in mid-February 2025. It is not clear if it is alive or still in the state.
- Possible, but unconfirmed, wolf in the Browns Park area as of February 2025. It is not clear if it is alive or still in the state.