Moose

Don and I had a fantastic day on Tuesday, January 16th.  We hadn't had any luck with Moose in our other trips to the Jackson area.  They were far away - just black dots in the sagebrush.  

On Tuesday - once again we could see black dots way out in the sagebrush as we drove east towards Kelly, Wyoming.  Now to see how close to the road they were when we turn north.  And they aren't all that close.  

But lucky for us they were just off a trail that headed off the main road.  And even luckier - we had the big 4-wheel drive truck!!  We turned off the main road and Wow!!  There were Moose Everywhere!!  TEN of them in that one little area!  
And just as we got there - - - they all laid down.  
As you can see - once a big Moose lays down he just about disappears.

 

And of course the nice big one lays down too.  Pretty disappointing to say the least!
 

   
No telling how long the nap will last so we decide to check out the other areas we always go to.  We did find a Moose just up the road but this one is laying down also.

There's a power line that runs north out of Kelly and we always stop if there's a Bald Eagle sitting close. 
 

We head over to Moose-Wilson Road to check that area for Moose and find one just off the road!  I get out for photos but the Moose isn't even interested in me - the car that's stopped from the other direction has a barking dog and that has her full attention.  She does stop for a bite to eat before disappearing away from us.

Just down the road we find a Moose cow and calf - they're resting and they are really JUST OFF THE ROAD!  Wish I could have gotten a shot of the two of them together but the trees and bushes were in the way.

Here she is 

And the calf 

 Since we aren't spending too much time in any one place we decide we have plenty of time to go back over and check on the Moose north of Kelly. 

Right Decision!!

We get there and can see that they're still laying down but we drive down the trail anyway to where we can turn around.  JUST as we get there the big Moose stands up!!

Don slams on the brakes and we're out of the truck!!  We spent an hour and 45 minutes - standing in the snow - watching them.  And getting the truck washed!!

I could only see one other Moose that still had his antlers - these 3 started to have a little dispute - notice the ears laid back - but nothing ever came of it and they went back to eating.

This Moose has lost his antlers already.

 

 

Don and I had no idea a Moose would lick the salt off a vehicle like the Big Horn Sheep do.  Learn something new everyday!!
 

What a great day we had!  We had a total of 23 Moose for the day.  These 10, we could see 4 in the distance behind them, the one up the road and then there was another on the other side of the road to the south of these.  The 3 on Moose-Wilson Road and there were 4 we could see from the highway.

Hope you enjoyed!!