When JoAnna Dotson and her fiancé, Andy Murk, were driving earlier this month across the Youngs Bay Bridge in Astoria, Dotson, 22, noticed cars "dive-bombing" off to the side of the road. They figured it signaled an emergency up ahead, so they immediately began listening for sirens and looking for lights.

"That's when I noticed some mass in the water," Dotson remembers.

"I pointed it out to my fiancé, and he said, 'It's probably just a tree.'"

"'No way!'" Dotson remembers telling him. "'It almost looks like a large animal with spikes on its back,'" she said.

That's when Murk, who was doing the driving, blurted out, "It's Godzilla!"

They both laughed. And, as it turns out, they were both wrong.

What they were seeing was a herd of elk swimming in the Columbia River.

When they realized what it was, Murk was wishing they had the camera they just received as a gift from Dotson's parents for Christmas. Which is when Dotson, who began taking pictures at around age 10, remembered she put it in her purse.

"Just in case I caught something that just needed to have a picture taken."

The couple pulled up ahead of the other cars and found their way to a decent angle on the herd.

"We both had a huge rush of adrenaline," she said of the experience.

When Dotson later posted the photos on her Facebook page, she got a second rush of adrenaline in the form of hundreds of likes and shares of the photo.

"When I went to bed that Friday night I had to turn my phone on silent because I was getting so many Facebook notifications," she said.

"I remember one older man contacting me via Facebook," Dotson recalled. "He was probably in his 60s or so. He told me how he had lived here his whole life and had never seen something so magnificent."

But according to Rick Hargrave, a spokesman with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, "It's not unusual for elk or deer to swim in rivers."

"They're pretty darn good swimmers, actually," he said.

"It usually involves getting to another place where they're going to graze or feed," Hargrave said. They can also be motivated by the weather, getting away from humans or finding protection, particularly if there are young calves, according to Hargrave.

"Those particular herds up there are pretty adept at moving around," Hargrave said.

Elk are also prey for cougars, Hargrave notes. And while he's not sure how many cougars live in that part of the state, there are about 6,000 roaming around state-wide, he said.

"This time of year, a lot of things cause elk to move," Hargrave said. "Who knows why they were there. But it's not unusual."

For Dotson, who's been shooting pictures with her phone for the past several years, the experience brought her back to an early and powerful love: photography.

"I just love capturing moments," she said. "Memories stay with us but get warped over time as we age. But photos last forever."

"I love getting those moments on film," she said.

"Now that I have a camera again that takes nice photos, I might let it consume my life for awhile."

"I have especially enjoyed being able to share my photos of the elk with everyone. I think that not a lot of people get to see something so true to nature, let alone capture it on film for others to see."

-- bnakamura@oregonian.com 503-221-8218

@bethnakamura