Bullwinkle, Where are You?

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Today we went moose hunting, fully armed with cameras in hand. We were in search of a big bull moose, we named Bullwinkle. We searched for him last year during our visit but did not find him. So we thought we would try again today.


After breakfast at our cabin lodge, we headed in to the Grand Tetons National Park. It does not matter how many times you see those mountains, they are magnificent and cause you to stop and take in their glory each and every time. It wasn't long after entering the park that we stopped at a pullout in hopes of finding some wildlife. After we got out of the truck a lady told us there was a huge moose down there. A huge moose? Awesome! Just what we were looking for. So we went back to the truck, changed lenses on the camera and headed down the path to the lookout. We met another couple who also told us there was a huge moose down there. We thanked them for the information and went to see it for our selves. As we approached the view, we saw an animal moving out in the distance. I zoomed in with my camera for a shot only to see it was not a moose, but an elk. Seriously? Did those people really not know the difference in an elk and moose? They had left by the time we got back and avoided a lecture in identifying animals.

We continued on into the park keeping our eyes peeled for anything with 4 legs, but really like to see bear, moose, elk and a mountain lion. Mostly what we saw were pronghorn. We decided to move on to our planned hike for the day - Leigh Lake. We parked in the String Lake picnic area and made our way to the Leigh Lake trailhead. The hike was only 2 miles round trip and absolutely beautiful the entire hike. The trail followed the edge of String Lake giving awesome water views with the Tetons in the background. We met a few hikers along the way and reached the view of Leigh Lake. It was stunning. The water was very still reflecting the trees and mountains that stood behind it. It was a very large lake and the water was crystal clear. Several people were kayaking the lakes but had to portage their crafts from one lake to the other. That part looked hard, but kayaking around the lakes in the middle of the Tetons looked like fun and has to be another spectacular way to see the park.

After returning from our hike we headed toward the area called Moose. A road of the park in that area recently opened back up after being closed for a while due to bear activity. We were excited to get to go on it and hoped we would see a bear or two. Shortly after turning down that road we saw several cars parked and people up ahead with their cameras. Where there are cameras, there are animals - so we joined the camera party. After reaching the multitude of people we found that there was a mother and baby moose. It wasn't Bullwinkle, but great just the same. They were beautiful animals. We watched them for a while, took a few hundred pictures and headed back through the park. We had found moose in Moose.

We visited another area that is popular for moose, but did not find one. We then went into Jackson Hole for a while. We had a late lunch, got a few groceries and did a little shopping. After spending the afternoon and money on things that none of us needed, we went back to the popular moose area, searching again. There were quite a few people there, but there was no moose, no Bullwinkle. They were just hanging out waiting for one to show up. We looked a bit, talked to a few people and went back again. People were still waiting, some just hanging out in their camping chairs. Just waiting for something that may never happen - but we were not going to join the 'lets just wait and see party'.

After leaving that party, we headed back toward our cabin traveling the route on the farther side of the park. We again saw many pronghorn and then found some elk. We were able to see the sunset behind the Tetons casting shadows and colors across the land and sky. Beauty such as we have seen today could only be created by the ultimate creator himself. Just awesome. We were stopped by a herd of bison crossing the road and then found a huge heard in the plains just beyond. There had to have been hundreds out there. Seeing that much wildlife in one area was just magnificent. It was starting to get dark, so we headed on back, but were drawn in by another multitude of people and cameras. What we found was a herd of elk with a huge bull leading the pack. I think that was the biggest elk any of us had ever seen. We watched and listened to the elk bugle call a while, until it got too dark to continue to see anything. We were then forced to call it a day and went back to the cabin.

Though we did not find Bullwinkle again, we still had a great day. Got out on the trail, saw quite a bit of wildlife, enjoyed the always majestic mountains and spent the day in the very Grand Tetons. Tomorrow we head into the valley of the Grizzlies.

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