First Moose

So yesterday evening after a full day of unpacking we were out driving through Crawford Notch State Park and low and behold we came across our first Moose since moving to Coos County!

The most amazing thing about this unfortunately wasn't the animal - but the people. Cars began to slam on their brakes and tourists jumped out of their cars and began approaching the animal to photograph him. We were only there about 30 seconds when at least 10 cars had stopped as well as a "moose viewing bus". Once the bus unloaded it was way past my cue to leave - I can't stand that kind of stuff. To be honest with you it seemed kind of stupid to me to allow about 40 people to approach a large, wild animal like that. What if the moose got spooked (after all, I already was!) and began to panic. Isn't there a risk of somebody getting hurt? I mean this is a BIG animal.

I felt so bad for the animal in the long run that I didn't hang around - just grabbed a couple of quick shots from my car across the road and then, as I already mentioned, when the crowd began to gather I simply got out of there. Just not my style.

Anyway - enjoy a couple of the so-so shots I got. I didn't make an effort at this one - just stopped the car and snapped it for our own scrapbook purposes. I'll make an effort at getting some real photos of the wildlife up here when there aren't a ton of tourists around trying to do the same thing ... too weird.