Moose walking

Sept. 27, 2009

On advice from work people, we decided to venture out to Powerline Pass. The trail runs underneath the powerlines that goes south from Anchorage to the small town of Indian along the Turnagain Arm, hence the name. We weren't going for hike this time, we were going to see moose.

As the snow comes down on the mountaintops at the end of September, the moose are forced down into the valleys for leaves to munch and... to rut. Powerline Pass is a gathering place for moose during the 'rut' or their mating season. We have seen a fair amount of moose so far but it was dwarfed by our moose exposure at Powerline.

On the way there, a couple flowers were still in bloom against the new snow.

Also came across some wind blown scrub pine.

After a short hike we came to the powerlines, the trail, and the valley. We weren't a big fan of the powerlines, so no pictures of those, but the valley itself was beautiful.

The moose were all on the left side of the valley, in the clearings between the alders. With the help of our binoculars, we were able to pick out about 8 bull moose on the hillside.

We headed down into the valley and picked a trail a bit uphill from the stream. After a bit of tromping, we came upon a bull moose and a sow.

The moose are in the center of the photo, at this point were about 50 yards from the moose. For a larger picture, click on the photo.

We clomped forward a few more yards and another bull moose came down from the hill and the first bull moved off. Moose may not look very graceful but they can cover ground alarmingly fast. When the first moose moved off he headed towards us, going out of sight in a hollow.

At some point during all this, Casey pipes up and says something to the effect of, 'we are in a den of moose!'

She was right, we looked around and saw about 6 moose all around us, bulls and sows. I wish I could say I got pictures of them but we became a bit concerned about getting out of the moose den.

We safely made it back to the established trail and stopped for a quick photo on the bridge. A short hike but very exciting.