Moose are one of my favorite animals to see in the wild. The one thing I always tell people about them - they are WAY bigger than you think they are.
A time their incredible size stands out to me is when I was camping along the river in Montana. If memory serves, I was heading to the Tendoy Lake Trail in the morning, so I couldn't have been far from there. It was late in the year so the leaves were all turned, there was snow falling in the high country, and the nights were brisk. In other words- my dog and I were the lone campers in this particular dispersed spot.
I had already had my dinner for the evening, and the sun had been down for hours. I was reading Thoreau by fire light enjoying some local whiskey- from Willie's Distillery. My dog was curled up at my feet in her dog bed, bundled in blankets. As a solo female hiker, I have a ritual of doing a scan with my headlamp every so often...just to be safe.
Well my heart about fell out of my body when on one of these scans, I was met with what looked like 4 dim lights. Lights that were getting closer. "What the H-E-double hockey sticks is that?" These couldn't be people, the small bulbs of luminescence coming towards me were simply TOO FAR off the ground. I honestly couldn't make sense of it for what felt like a long time. I'm sure it was only seconds, but it was long enough to be unnerving.
The moment I realized what it was, I slowly and quietly got to my feet, scooped up my dog, and put her in the bed of my 4-Runner. There weren't 4 bulbs, there were 6. And they weren't lights. They were eyes. It was a female cow and her two calves. They were coming right into my campsite, and they didn't care a lick that I was sitting there with a dog and campfire. I backed against my vehicle, so that I could hop in in a moment if mama got mad that I was so close to her little ones. I watched silently as the trio made their way into the river that my site butted up against. They took their time, near the water's edge, still in my very near vicinity, for quite awhile before crossing.
It was such an awesome moment, but at the same time, I was left with the same amount of utter astonishment that I felt every other time I've ever seen moose with my own eyes. Those things aren't mammals- they're dinosaurs! However big you think they are, they're bigger. Even knowing that, their height seemed extraordinary as they made their way into the ring of light my campfire threw off.
Has anyone else had similar experiences running into moose in the wild? I can't be the only one whose jaw drops every time I lay eyes on these giant forest dwellers!
The closest I've seen one was on the highway. You see moose crossing signs and think, "whatever, what are the odds I'll see one?" and then one day bam! It's like there is an elephant in the road and you can't believe what you're seeing!
Just as fast as it appeared it walked off into the darkness. If I didn't know it was a moose, I could have easily mistaken it for bigfoot!
I have never seen a moose and it's my biggest gripe!! When I was moving away from Vermont, I was constantly lamenting how I'd never seen one the whole time I lived there. I remember very early in living there, friends from Pennsylvania came to visit and saw a mother and calf on the side of the road. They played it off when they arrived saying something like, "Oh yeah we saw some moose, but I'm sure you see them all the time." NO! I didn't! We still laugh about that.
@sarahruth333 l**o I genuinely think that is such a common experience! People come to visit New England one time and see one right away...I hear this all the time! The amount I have seen over the years is SO considering the amount of time I spend in their habitat 🤣
@callmethebreeze Even this summer, we swore we had a mother and calves living in the woods behind the gorge in my state park. Campers kept coming up to us saying they heard mooing in the early morning and evening, but there was absolutely no farmland anywhere around. Another ranger and I finally heard it on a night hike and it was unmistakably a moose. We never actually got to see them though. Sneaky guys for how huge they are!!
@sarahruth333 So true haha but so cool to know they were there sharing the wilderness with you....even though they never did come out of hiding