Encounters with Moose

Something I learned this week: If a moose is chasing your children down a hiking trail, they will hike the entire seven miles of trail, quickly and without complaining. But let me back up a bit.

On Tuesday, the girls and I picked my mom up from the airport to take her to a cabin in Grand Lake, where she could acclimate to the altitude before biking over Hoosier pass and into Kansas with her best friend from elementary school. (Because they are awesome and also crazy.)  The cabin we rented was adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park, nestled in the trees with views of Columbine Lake, and full of moose paraphernalia: Moose paintings, moose photographs, moose books, a moose sculpture. When I flipped through the guest book, nearly every entry mentioned a moose sighting.

“We have to see a moose,” I announced. “Or I want a refund.”

“I don’t want to see a moose,” said Eevee.  “They’re scary.”

“How can you think they’re scary? They’re like giant deer.”

“Still,” she said.

“Well, I’m going to find a moose.”

We went for a walk around Columbine Lake that evening. No moose. We hiked past Adams Falls the next day (which, by the way, is a gorgeous) and I scanned the mountain meadows for wildlife. No moose. We paddle boated in Grand Lake, which is surrounded by mountain forestland. No moose.

Driving to dinner from our cabin that night, Lucy said, “You know, I’m going to start looking out for moose.”

I slammed on the brakes.

There, right in front of our car, was a female moose. She lumbered across the road and down into the woods. I pulled the car over and my mom and I jumped out to take pictures. We got a couple of blurry photos as she made her way into the woods. Then we spent the evening marveling that our first moose sighting had occurred a second after Lucy declared that she would look for moose.

That night, I read some fun moose facts to everyone.

“Moose are the only deer that can feed underwater. They have been known to dive underwater to reach plants on lake bottoms.”

We giggled, imagining a scuba diver’s reaction to a swimming moose.

“Moose can kick sideways.” 

We laughed, imagining a moose kicking his leg sideways to knock over a friend after he made a bad joke.

“Moose attack more people than bears and wolves combined. Worldwide, only hippopotamuses injure more people.”

Oh.

Okay, maybe Eevee had a point about them being a little scary.

The next day, slightly less enthusiastic about seeing moose, we headed into Rocky Mountain Park to hike the seven mile Green Mountain – Onahu Creek loop. I didn’t mention the distance to the girls. We would hike two miles to a mountain meadow and I figured if they were too tired, we’d just head back that way instead of doing the loop.

A mile into the heavily wooded trail, my mom stopped to pee. The girls and I walked about twenty feet ahead to wait. As we stood there, Eevee’s eyes widened.

“I see a moose,” she said, pointing.

I looked and saw nothing but trees.

“Yeah, right.”

“No, seriously, I see a moose.”

I looked again and still saw nothing. I rolled my eyes.

“MOM, I’m serious! There is a moose!”

Right then, my mom popped out of the woods and onto the trail again. Three feet behind her, a giant bull moose stepped onto the trail.

My poor mom. All she saw was the four of us, mouths open, fingers pointing, speechless. She too thought it was a joke. Until we turned and bolted up the trail.

She followed, asking, “What? What?” Then she turned around and saw him.

When we thought we’d gone a safe distance we stopped, gasping for breath. The moose was still heading toward us. All I could think was moose are as vicious as hippos, moose are as vicious as hippos… We kept running. The moose kept following. I’m not sure how long this went on, but finally we lost sight of him. We did not lose speed. We soon reached the meadow, but going back the same way was clearly not an option. The girls kept going and Noni did the longest hike of her life without so much as a squeak about slowing down.

Since we all made it home safe and sound, I’m grateful for the moose for encouraging us to hike the entire trail. And, having seen two moose, I enjoyed adding our entry into the guest book. I’m just hoping our next encounter with a moose isn’t 20 feet under water.