It has long been a desire of me to view a moose in the wild whenever Terri and I take trips up north, to other states or wherever. Many people have been fortunate enough to see one of these grandiose animals sauntering through the woods or through town — but I’ve never been accorded that opportunity.

 

Last week, Terri and I returned to our favorite state in the union, Colorado, with a few of her sisters and brother-in-laws to a town called Granby — a small town about 85 miles northwest of Denver. 

 

Granby is loaded with hills, mountains, lakes and streams — the perfect collection of wildlife territory I could imagine. We were very fortunate in the weather situation as we were enveloped in sunny, 70º weather all week.

 

One of Terri’s sisters and her husband had never been to Colorado, so they were teeming with excitement as we approached our “ranch” where we stayed. Everyone was on board with the goal of seeing a wild moose, so one of the first days there, we ventured to a walking trail that circled a lake and featured swamps, tall grasses and forested trees.

 

As we hiked the trail one way, many people approached us on the trail from the other side of the lake with tales of seeing moose — from bulls, to cows to calves. Unfortunately for us, we did not encounter any moose on this walk, though we heard lots of strange noises from the deep forests that we reckoned were moose calls.

 

No actual proof of this, but it mitigated our disappointment of no sightings.

 

Another day we traveled to Estes Park and with wide-eyed anticipation, we slowed, stopped and pointed fingers from the vehicle — only to fall into despair once again.

 

On our trip to Steamboat Springs, we lick our lips hoping to see one of the giant beasts, only to return to our townhouse moose-less.

 

By the fourth or fifth day, we surmised a plan. We decided we were going to head to the same park we visited early that week — only this time arriving at dusk to raise our chances of seeing a moose in the wild. I was super excited and confident our plan would succeed.

 

However, when we all found viewing spots along the lake near a swamp where others had seen moose, the night’s sky was quickly turning black and more frustration started settling in for me as I sat on a rock in silence.

 

Behind me, I heard Terri say, “Bill, come here!”

 

I turned and Terri was quietly signaling for me to climb the small hill and meet her and her sister and brother-in-law to the west. I quickly scaled the fallen log mound and reached the path and scurried towards Terri, Deb and Al. 

 

Al told me he had seen what he thought was a moose heading to our left out of the tall grass and swamp. He pointed in the direction and I immediately took off towards the shore in the direction he indicated.

 

As I neared the lake, we all heard a muffled grunt — kind of the sound I imagined a bear would make. We froze in our tracks and looked in the direction of the commotion. Suddenly, loud crashing and crumbling of small trees echoed through the forest and we glimpsed some movement just ahead of us.

 

I high-tailed it up to the path just as a giant bull moose emerged from the thicket. He walked literally right where I had been standing — all the while continuing to grunt as if he lost something. The enormous beast with his four-foot wide rack seemed to be on a quest as he breezed through the terrain I had just struggled to conquer on my way to the clear path just feet away.

 

Our moose knew of our presence — he had to have as he made his way towards the water. A couple times he’d stop and look back towards us, which made all of us terribly nervous. But, after a moment or two, he would swing his antlered head forward and continue on his journey.

 

At one point, he must have decided the terrain was treacherous too, as he climbed the slope and started walking away from us down the same path we had just used.

 

We followed our moosey moose down the path, keeping our distance, not sure what kind of temperament the colossal animal had. After he had gone ahead a ways and the light in the forest quickly diminishing, we all decided to march the path towards our vehicle to make a hasty departure from the park before any “other” creatures emerged (bears, cougars, etc.)

 

However, the moose experience didn’t end there. As we trekked in near full darkness, we caught a glimpse of a moose standing on the trail ahead of us — though we could still hear the bull down by the lake grunting. We quickly realized a cow had emerged from the shadows and looked upon us rather quizzically.

 

She probably stood there on the path for nearly five minutes as we tried to figure out how we were going to make it back to civilization with her blocking our escape. I eventually turned my flashlight feature on my phone on and lifted the light to the path, only to see the cow run off towards the bull seconds later. We carefully navigated the last couple hundred yards to the park entrance and to our van, before we all collapsed in our seats and sighed a big sigh of relief.

 

I had done it. I had encountered my first moose in the wild. I’ll have to say I didn’t really expect my first encounter to be that close, but it sure was thrilling. 

 

Now we knew what his grunting was all about. He was trying to reach (and signal) a partner. Very sweet.