I’ve been trying to spot a moose in the wild for three decades. Have you ever noticed that all the moose photos show them standing in a pond near the edge of a woods? That’s where I was always looking for them. But that’s not the only place they hang out.
Last month my husband and I visited Rocky Mountain National Park. On our second day exploring the park my lifetime moose tally jumped from zero to five in less than 6 hours. In the morning we were blessed to come upon a whole family of moose grazing together. A park ranger told us it was rare to see that many moose together that time of year and in that location. It was so exciting!
To see the afternoon moose we got an assist. We were traveling up Old Fall River Road which is a gravel, one-way road up a mountain with switchbacks and not a lot of places to pull over. We came to a clearing and noticed a small group of people standing at the edge of the road pointing and taking photos.
This is what we saw. Someone who has spotted moose before must’ve noticed this one because I would have never thought to look in the brush on the side of a mountain:
Thanks to the wonder of binoculars and zoom lenses , we get a close-up of what all the fuss was about. That little brown blob was actually a giant bull moose:
We watched him mow down the shrubbery for awhile, and then he disappeared into the taller brush until all we could see was his antlers bouncing back and forth.
Now that I have a better idea of where to look for moose in the wild, I’m hoping five is only the beginning of my lifetime tally!