On the evening of our first night at Lodgepole Campground in Pike National Forest last week, we walked on the surrounding trails and drank in the natural beauty (while slapping at pesky insects). There are many beaver ponds in the area and we were happy to see a young moose in one.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have my long lens so the images are weak but am posting these because I love moose and was so excited to see one. I was spoiled by daily moose sightings when we lived in Alaska. (Sometimes they’d come in the yard to eat the raspberry canes and the crunching sound was loud enough to be heard through the walls.)

As we stood admiring this youngster, Zippy quietly said, “Um, where is the mom?” And with that, we quickly walked away. Because all those Alaska moose sightings had also taught us the danger of getting between a calf and cow moose. (In fact, one day when I was skate-skiing on the Coastal Trail, pulling Wildebeest in the pulk that was attached to my waist, I saw a calf on one side of the trail and a cow on the other. I stopped and while somewhat frantically attempting to turn us around, tipped the pulk on its side. Fortunately, the pulk had a six-point harness that prevented my son from falling out and I was able to get the sled upright again so that we could head away from the protective mother moose. Whew!)

Our second ungulate sighting of the trip was on the day we left as we drove back out to the  highway. These pronghorn were standing at the fence, staring as we went by. (Zippy calmly remarked, “Hello, fellas.”) I stopped and slowly reversed to get a photo but by the time I got my camera up, they were moving away to safety.

I regret not getting a photo of their inquisitive faces, but there’s still a lot of personality in the way pronghorn walk away. A combination of nonchalance and hypervigilance. Either way, it was a lovely final image.