Moose

Alpine Lake Wildfire in distance

As we drove into Pinedale today we saw a strange cloud above the Wind River Range of the Rocky Mountains - wasn't there yesterday.  Realized it was a wildfire - the Alpine Lake Wildfire on the Wind River Indian Agency to the east.  Winds picked up and the fire took off today and is now at 21 thousand plus acres.  Lightning caused.  Terrible to see. And the fire near Jackson is still raging, moving eastward away from Jackson.

Another thing we learned - and saw - is that this area is a natural migration route for deer and pronghorn.  Warnings on the roadway state to beware of deer on roadway.  As a matter of fact - they have built overpasses to allow the herds to move across the highway and not get killed (as well as people getting hurt when they hit them.) We saw this in Montana also - natural bridges for the animals to cross. And do we see alot of pronghorn now along the road.  Glad we don't travel at night - an accident waiting to happen.

Bridges for animals to cross

We went to the CCC ponds in Pinedale today, this is an conservation area that the Civilian Conservation Corp developed back in 1933.  We came here because yesterday the professional photographer that we met and talked with said that he is working on a project, taking photos everyday of the year while at the CCC ponds.  He said it is a lovely place to go to and he was right.

Pretty CCC ponds

Fremont Lake in background

As we were driving to the ponds we were confronted with Fremont Lake - a glacier-formed lake that is 9 miles long, 1 mile wide and 600 feet deep right on the outskirts of Pinedale.  Very pretty.  Rounded the corner and got to the parking area of the ponds, reviewed the map trail and decided to go to walk the loop trail. Pretty ponds and streams.  Lots of bird life, cold see tracks and scat - since found out from our reference material in the RV that the scat was from moose, either coyote or wolf, and from mule deer.  Okay - so where is the moose?  The one pond is noted for seeing moose activity, another is for waterfowl, and a third for fishing while a forth for beaver dams.  The photographer said he took a pic of a mother and baby moose - looked like they were kissing while at the beaver pond.  What chance would it be that we got to see moose in Wyoming when we have not seen them in Maine or Canada or Montana?  It was still a lovely walk, amazing that something like the ponds exist so close to the town. Oh well.

Meese!

I am ecstatic!  We saw a mother (sow) and two babies (calves) - so does more than one moose make it meeses?   We passed a couple who were coming from the other direction and they warned us that the sow and calves were just ahead but to keep our distance - the sow could be very aggressive protecting her babies.  Well, we couldn't find where they said to look.  So, Dave went up on an outcropping that looked down over the pond and I went a little further up the trail - I could hear the breaking of twigs, snorting, splashing of water, so we waited until they came into the clearing. They definitely could see us, we stayed downwind of them regardless.  Talk about a great reward!  Wonder where the bull moose was?  Good day in Pinedale.  Tomorrow morning we pack up and leave and head to Vernal, Utah - about 250 miles south of here.  Will visit a couple of national monuments, staying for about a week before heading more south again.