Denali - Moose

Sorry for the belated post. My last two weeks in Denali were especially busy. As promised, this post's theme will be fall Moose. I observed Moose behavior for my last few weeks concentrating in the traditional Moose rutting area, in Denali National Park, whenever I was not working.


Just prior to the bull Moose loosing their velvet, I was fortunate to find some accessible guys on some hikes. Both of these majestic animals were very close to loosing their velvet.


The Moose begin to loose the velvet around the last week of August. As you can see from the above images, when the velvet begins to fall off the antlers there is some visible blood remaining on them.

During this same time period, I also located this cow and calf during an intimate moment.


When the fall colors arrived in the tundra, during the first week of September, I went out every chance hoping to capture some Moose with colorful backgrounds like second image above.

After the colors were gone and the rut started, I was hoping to locate some battling bulls. I never did find some of the more dominant bulls, but did find these younger guys sparing.


I did find several bulls close to the park road on my photo trips.


During my last week of work, the snow arrived and I was able to photograph the above bull and calf with a snowy backgrounds.


Yep, sorry again for more Mt. McKinley photos. The above images were taken on my very last morning prior to leaving for the season. It was an emotional moment when I came around the park road bend and observed the mountain with it's isolated color. The alpenglow color was just on Denali due to it's height in comparison to the surrounding mountain range. I have never seen the mountain this magenta/pink hue. It was almost like it was saying goodbye.

After leaving the park for the season, I did a two day trip to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. My goal was to photograph Polar Bears in the wild. Things went incredibly well. So, my next post will be Polar Bears images. I am currently on the road with the Camera Gear Lackey who joined me for travels from Alaska to the Canadian Rockies. We are currently in Jasper/Banff National Park. It has been snowing for the last two days. Blue Skies.