Visiting Alaska was on my bucket list. My children gave me a trip in March of 2020 and my daughter accompanied me. We went on several snowshoe adventures together and were able to see the Alaskan Moose in the wild. Our last outing was especially memorable. We saw fresh moose droppings (they look like a pecan in a shell) just a few yards into the hike. We were eager to see the moose—from a safe distance.
We continued through the snow, which was chest and armpit
deep in many places, spotting long troughs going across the trail. These were
moose tracks! The moose that had made
them was SO tall that its belly had not disturbed the snow between the long
channels where its legs had plowed through. That meant that the moose’s belly
was over 4 ½ feet high! That is
huge! We were familiar with our moose in
Colorado, and knew the Alaskan Moose was known to be enormous.
Nearly a quarter of a mile later—there she was! A gorgeous female moose grazing on the trees. We stopped, stayed on the trail, spoke softly to her, and took some photos. Not wanting to disturb her, we went on our way and talked about how fabulous it was to meet her in the wild.
On our return hike back to the car we saw her tracks criss-crossing through the snowy forest. Just as we were talking about seeing her, we heard a noise—Mook! It was her. She was saying goodbye in moose language. What a gift! Now we know what a moose really says. Mooooooook!
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