Captain Ahab gets his whale (I get my Moose photos)

For over four years I have been trying to get photos of Moose. I know people see moose all the time. I use to see Moose years ago and I never had a camera with me. Now that I don't go out of the city let alone on vacation without at least one camera (not counting my phones) with me, I just couldn't find a Moose to save my life. I went to Yellowstone and the Grand Titons four years in a row and spent at least one full day and most times several days looking for Moose. I would talk to people that had seen a Moose five minutes ago around the corner and I would rush to get that shot. Well that shot never happened. I went through at least 7 tanks of gass hunting this elusive critter. That is until today, today was my day! Not only did I see a Moose when I had a camera, but I saw THREE Moose and had TWO cameras with me. I went to a place called Turnbuul National Wildlife resurve. I googled "Wheres the best place to see Moose in Washington State" and this was one of the places that came up. I read about it and their mission to presurve the land there and desided that this was going to be my next stop on the great hunt for Moose. I arrived there around 5am and waited, the place didn't open until 6am but I wanted to get in there before anyone else had the chance to scare off any of the 20 Moose they say call this place home. I figured if there were that many Moose there I should at least be able to see one. Well it only took a few hundred yards before I spotted a Moose. It wasn't even light yet as the sun was just peaking up over the horizon. But I managed to get a few shots that were okay-ish here is one of those shots.

She was a long way off, but she was a Moose and I got some photos that I could be happy-ish with. She moved off into the brush and out of sight. I had already achived my goal for the day and the entery gate was still in sight. There is a lot of Wildlife in here so I was hot to see the next thing, I mean I saw a Moose already whats next? Well Elk is what was next. I spotted them just down the road from where my Moose was.

It still wasn't light out but at least the light was on the right side for me to get a fair shot. Like the Moose before it the Elk was a long way off. I didn't care I was still gitty over my Moose. Normally I would pass on such a long shot in low light but I got my Moose, today is a day to do things differently. As I started to head down the road again a Coyote crossed the road. I was able to get a couple shots of it as it climbed the hill on the other side of the road.

Now all of this has taken place in about a mile, I was thinking that I was going to have a really good day. I turned down the "Auto trail" in hopes of seeing more, and more is what I saw.

This again was a Cow Moose. She didn't care that I was there as long as I let her eat. She hardly even looked at me and when she did it was as I drove by and thanked her. She was busy eating and I kept my distance so not to scare her. I didn't see a calf with her but I wasn't about to take chances. So I had seen TWO Moose in one day! and the second one let me get some great shots and the sun had come up and I could lower my ISO down and up my shutter speed. Now I just need to find the big Bull Moose to top off this great day..... Well, He is a Bull Moose but big??? not so much. He was more than happy to pose for me and let me get some good shots of the massive rack he had. Hey I wasn't going to be the one to tell him he was lacking in the "Paddle" area. None the less here is my Bull Moose.

I got a lot of other photos of other critters that I will do another post on later. The Moose deserve a post all their own and this was a long post as it is. So be looking for my next post from this trip. I'll post it soon as I am going back here Sunday to see some other things a Ranger told me about. It had gotten so hot so fast that getting out of the heat was something that us humans and the critters all had in common. When I left there around noon it was 102 and thats just to hot to go wlking around in. So whats the next critter on my bucket list? Big Horn Sheep. I have a vacation coming up in October and the Sheep should be moving down from the hills by then.