A fall day in the Tetons featured 12 moose!

The forecast for the Tetons today was rain, but I had some hope after waking up to drying ground and relatively light skies. Boy, that didn't last long.

My morning goal was to get some Oxbow sunrise shots. I'd done the Mormon Row thing, and wanted to capture some of the fall color in the morning. On the way down, I spotted a bull moose just past the Jackson Lake Lodge. It was too dark to shoot, but I stood on the bridge and watched it for a bit. The ominous clouds overhead were telling me that there wouldn't be much in the way of a sunrise this morning, so I decided that I could take time out for wildlife watching.

Heading east for Oxbow, I stopped at the same clearing where I had spotted the cow and calf the evening before. This time, there was a huge bull in their place. It was still far too dark, but moose are somewhat cooperative subjects in that they stand still for long periods of time. Great when you need to make a longer exposure.

I arrived at Oxbow Bend soon after and was greeted by a horde of photographers. I picked out my place amidst the throng as the rain began to fall. Though Mount Moran was pushing through the cloud cover in the west, the eastern skies were obscured by a wall of grey. There would be no sunrise shots, but I had to capture some of the turning leaves as the rain began to fall.

After exploring the surrounding area for more wildlife and revisiting the large bull and the first bull at Jackson (which had been joined by a cow and calf), I went south. At Schwabacher's Landing, the sun actually broke through and Grand Teton itself made a very brief appearance as it sliced through the clouds. Moose-Wilson Road was my next stop, but at Moose Junction I hesitated, noticing a pileup of vehicles further down the road.

I made the right decision in investigating the traffic. Yet another moose cow and calf were in the flats not far from the road, and as I approached, I saw that there was another bull with them! Similar to the JLL threesome, the bull here seemed timid and refused to make eye contact with the female. Once the cow and the calf left, the bull finally got up and wandered a bit, before eventually settling down in the sage once more.

It was time to meet Rene and Helene, so I turned back north. We met up at Oxbow Bend, and promptly went on some fruitless wildlife searches all over the park. A nice lunch stop at Moose Junction allowed me to catch up on some football scores, relax and wash away the memory of a lousy dinner at the Chuckwagon the night before.

After that, a trip back up to Pacific Creek Road (also fruitless) before we made one last ditch sweep down near the dam, remembering the recent trip report about a large bull there. And hey, it paid off! No bull, but there was a cow with twin calves. The sun came out one last time and gave us some nice light as we snapped away on this moose family.

The leaves were already starting to turn

That gave me 12 moose for the day, or 3 times as many as all of my previous Teton trips combined! I'd say the jinx is broken. As we left the moose family, we spotted a black Subaru station wagon with a Y-Net logo in the window, but they drove off before we got to the lot, so the owner's identity shall remain a mystery for now.

Before I had a chance to say goodbye to Helene and Rene, we ran into Doug Dance at Colter Bay. Doug's got a new book coming out in the next couple months, which I'm sure will be great. And finally it was time to go. I entered mostly-rainy Yellowstone and headed up through Canyon, where I happened upon Laurie and Kevin one last time. They'd spotted a bull moose and a grizzly, but indicated that the park was fairly quiet otherwise. Like H & R, they've got almost another week to see more great stuff. Lucky dogs.

Thanks to Helene & Rene for allowing me to tag along again, and to Bart and Monique for being in on the fun as well. It was also great to meet so many folks from this forum. Nice to see that loud orange design works so well.

The End!