The Great Moose Adventure of 2015

Family vacations are never perfect. Whether you're a kid being carted thousands of miles by your parents, or a parent trying to just have some fun with your family, you know what I'm talking about. But we got to experience something today that the everyone in our family will remember for the rest of our lives. 

We spent the night in Colter Bay, and woke up this morning to do some hiking in the Colter Bay area before proceeding to Jenny Lake, a popular hiking location between Colter Bay and Jackson, Wyoming. We started on our hike around Jenny Lake a bit after 1 p.m. The hike across to the West Boat entrance was 2.5 miles, and we expected to go from the West Boat entrance on some other hikes. About a mile into our hike, we met two people coming off the Moose Loop Trail spur, who said there was a moose and her calf a bit down that part of the trail. We went down to take a look. All proceeded well as we saw the calf grazing near the water and the mother moose down in the lake. The calf was maybe 20-25 yards off the trail and the mother another 25 yards 15-20 yards past the calf in the water. We took pictures, thought ourselves lucky and moved on the trail. Problem was with the rain and wet the last few weeks, the Moose Loop trail was overgrown and unpassable, so we had to turn back and walk back past the mother moose and calf. Only now the moose was just a few yards above the trail and the calf down in the water, separated by just 15-20 yards.

Being between a moose and her calf isn't an ideal place to be. The moose looked to be in no hurry to move on, just chewing on plants and taking her time. The calf also didn't seem to want to move, just moving around in the water. By this time, several hikers had gathered on the trail, no one being quite sure what to do. So, of course,  an 80-year old woman sauntered right between the moose and her calf on the trail, before telling us, "I have moose walk through my yard all the time. If they keep their ears pointing forward, you're fine. If they have them laid back, that's trouble."

Feeling emboldened by the old lady (or just hungry), we wandered past the moose and her calf. A lot went through my head with a moose just a few yards away. "What does a moose do when it attacks?" "Could I outrun it?" "Does my life insurance cover death by moose?" The trek past the moose turned out to be uneventful. The moose looked at us as we sauntered by, but seemed not too bothered as long as we moved slowly. 

Here the moose is above us on the trail. This doesn't look too imposing, but we have to walk up right past it. I didn't have my camera out as I walked just a few yards away from it on the trail.

The view along the hike at Colter Bay in the morning

Ellie and I happy to be past the moose.

The view at Hidden Falls. Well worth getting past the moose to see.