Moose Hunt

After church yesterday, we decided to go for a Sunday drive/moose hunt. Someone had told Stephen that he always sees moose down on Knik Goose Bay Road on the other side of the Knik Arm. So that's where we headed.

The first moose we came upon was a completely irate mommy moose and her unruly child. The mom was jumping around with her ears back and her fur standing on end. It looked as if she was actively scolding her child for venturing too close to the road. The child on the other hand, was actively trying to stay out of reach of his (or her) mother. He or she must've known they were in for it... Due to an approaching vehicle behind me and no shoulder on which to pull off, I could only snap a quick photo as I whizzed by. You can just make out the hind legs of the mother behind the tree and the "baby" bolting for the woods, checking to make sure Mom is sufficiently outdistanced...

The next character we encountered was Enrique Suave of the moose world. We nicknamed him GQ for his posing finesse. He was standing near the roadside, munching away. I stopped, snapped this first photo, and Stephen hollers out the window, "Could we get a side shot, please?!" GQ turns his head to the side, I snap the next photo, holler "Thank you..." and off we go. GQ trotted off into the trees, another successful photo shoot under his belt.

We drove about a 100 miles in total. Some of that involved the Susitna Flats Wildlife Refuge. Apparently "wildlife" refers to crazy folks on snowmachines, because we saw no other signs of life in that area. However, the crazy snowmachiners were kind enough to shove the minivan out of the snowbank I'd wedged it in when trying to retreat out of the refuge.

Here is a view of the Knik Arm from the far side from where we reside in Peters Creek. This is close to the historic site of Knik (pronounced k-nik), which was an Alaska native village and settlement during the gold rush days.