{"id":157240,"date":"2025-09-15T00:06:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T00:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/157240\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T00:06:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T00:06:08","slug":"hikers-stunned-when-moose-trots-by-at-13000-feet-in-rare-high-altitude-encounter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/157240\/","title":{"rendered":"Hikers Stunned When Moose Trots By At 13,000 Feet In Rare High-Altitude Encounter"},"content":{"rendered":"

A steep, bare slope at 13,000 feet is about the last place somebody might expect to see a\u00a0moose, but one cruised right by some Colorado hikers there on Sept. 6.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wildlife biologists told Cowboy State Daily that such an encounter is a rarity. But, when\u00a0moose\u00a0put their minds to it, they can travel amazing distances and end up in weird places.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Avid hiker Hunter Michaud of Colorado Springs caught video of the cow\u00a0moose, trotting down a narrow hiking trail through scree (loose rock) above timberline, not far below the summit of Mount Sneffels.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 14,153-foot peak is in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado<\/p>\n

He told Cowboy State Daily that he and his hiking companions saw the moose coming from a long way off. <\/p>\n

She seemed determined to get to where she was going, so they wisely decided to step off the trail and give her the right of way.<\/p>\n

They guessed that the cow\u00a0moose\u00a0might have been headed from one marshy area on the Telluride, Colorado side of the mountain, to another marshy area far below on the other side.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"HikersHikers high above timber line on Mount Sneffels in southwest Colorado were stunned when a moose trotted right by them at 13,000 feet elevation. It\u2019s rare to see moose that high, wildlife biologists say. (Courtesy Hunter Michaud)\"HikersHikers high above timber line on Mount Sneffels in southwest Colorado were stunned when a moose trotted right by them at 13,000 feet elevation. It\u2019s rare to see moose that high, wildlife biologists say. (Courtesy Hunter Michaud)Arrow leftArrow rightMoose On The Move<\/p>\n

Moose, like other ungulates, will sometimes take treks that amount to mini migrations,\u00a0Nick DeCesare, a research biologist with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n

Moose\u00a0are usually associated with swamps, marshes, river bottoms or thick forests. But their treks can take them to some places outside of typical habitat, DeCesare said.<\/p>\n

That includes sometimes trekking into the high country, he said.<\/p>\n

Some might be tempted to go near, or even above timberline, seeking forbs and other plants that they might not find on their typical range, he said.<\/p>\n

A\u00a0moose\u00a0all the way up in the high alpine scree, like Michaud encountered, was probably moving through on her way to somewhere else, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeCesare was involved with research on the movements of\u00a0moose\u00a0wearing radio tracking collars in Montana.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There were instances of\u00a0moose\u00a0going up and over alpine passes to get to where they wanted to go, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the opposite end of the spectrum, \u201cwe\u2019ve seen them wander out through the prairie,\u00a0which\u00a0is almost as un-mooselike as it would seem to see them high in the mountains,\u201d DeCesare said<\/p>\n

Stan Harter,\u00a0Lander Region wildlife biologist for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, agreed that\u00a0moose\u00a0can end up in some surprising places in the low country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s seen\u00a0moose\u00a0way out in the so-called sagebrush sea in the Big Piney and Pinedale area.<\/p>\n

Moose\u00a0also sometimes traverse vast sagebrush country in the Oregon Buttes area, between Lander and Farson, he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Taking Off To Explore<\/p>\n

Michaud said other hikers have reported seeing\u00a0moose\u00a0where he had his encounter, including a cow with calves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He wondered if the\u00a0moose\u00a0he saw was either the same cow, or one of the now-grown calves \u2013 following the route that its mother showed it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeCesare said there\u2019s reason to think that knowledge of travel routes is passed down between generations of\u00a0moose, as it is in deer and other species.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As to why\u00a0moose\u00a0take epic hikes, including sometimes up and over mountains, that\u2019s not known for certain, he said.<\/p>\n

It might be because they\u2019re seeking new food sources, or because their home range has started to feel crowded, so they\u2019re looking for new territory. \u00a0<\/p>\n

A\u00a0moose\u00a0scaling mountains in search of less-crowded stomping grounds could make sense in Colorado, where the\u00a0moose\u00a0population is booming<\/a>. \u00a0<\/p>\n

While trekking is usually associated with young males, DeCesare said that some of the collared cow\u00a0moose\u00a0in Montana struck out on their own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll also go explore. We\u2019ll see certain individuals, for a summer, will just go take off,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A steep, bare slope at 13,000 feet is about the last place somebody might expect to see a\u00a0moose,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":157241,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-157240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/157241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}