The Days Leading Up to Moose Day
If you would like to just read about the epic Moose Day, scroll down to Moose Day: A History :)
After a few solid weeks of soaking up mountains and lakes in Mt. Shasta, we set off on another summer adventure- to yet another part of the U.S. we had never been before- the famous Yellowstone National Park. The newly minted Mr. and Mrs. Rickert packed up their newly acquired stuff, and the four of us headed off on an old-fashioned road trip. We left Mt. Shasta at the break of dawn, and, since we were headed north, were soon in Oregon. None of us had ever gone that way before, so we were surprised when we discovered that Eastern Oregon doesn’t actually look like the evergreen mountains we had been expecting. Apparently it’s got a lot of flat farmland, just like Idaho does, which was also a new state for us. We did see a badger cross the road, which was pretty cool (and a good start to all of the fauna we would see later in the trip). I will say that the unexpectedly cool things about our drive through Idaho were 1, awesome canyons coming out of nowhere, and 2, some pretty fun sand dunes.
Day two of our road trip began after playing on the dunes of course. Steve, John and Lu had fun sprinting down the steep-i-ness, while I chose to roll down. A bit sandier, but way more fun!!!
Along the way we stopped to "ooh ahh" at every cool canyon we saw. We also stopped in Idaho Springs to hunt for ice cream. We ended up watching an osprey impressively circling the man-made falls before heading on to our first real destination: Yellowstone National Park!
Along the way we stopped to "ooh ahh" at every cool canyon we saw. We also stopped in Idaho Springs to hunt for ice cream. We ended up watching an osprey impressively circling the man-made falls before heading on to our first real destination: Yellowstone National Park!
We drove through the East entrance to the park and our hunting began! Not only were we trying to see as much wildlife as possible, but we were also hunting for as many license plates as possible! With as many cars in the park as animals (ok, maaaaybe a slight exaggeration), license plate hunting was nearly as fun (and just about as successful) as our animal spotting!
Our first stop in the park was in a meadow…not because of wildlife, but because of the WILD! It was just so beautiful we were happy to just be there!
Our first stop in the park was in a meadow…not because of wildlife, but because of the WILD! It was just so beautiful we were happy to just be there!
Soon after we saw our first animal- a female elk…not bad for being in the park for only 5 minutes! We stopped at the Grand Prismatic Spring, which still turned out to be amazing even when completely covered in fog. Fortunately, we were also able to return to the spring on our way out a few days later to see it in it’s full rainbow glory.
Our first full day in the park began at 5 am (thanks to Scott’s advice). Really, I’m not being sarcastic, it was awesome to be up so early in Yellowstone! As we drove up through the Hayden Valley, our early morning adventure really began as we saw some large, dark shapes slowly began to emerge from the mist...
Buffalo have now become a favorite animal of the Hugh-Ricker-Man clan. I especially love their ginormous heads and cute little eyes! And, they’re just so BIG. Buffalo aren’t quite THE favorite animals we saw on our trip though, as you may suspect from the title of this blog. We soon realized that buffalo are actually everywhere in the park, so we got to see them (and experience the traffic jams they cause) all the time!!
A few minutes after our first bison sighting, we stumbled across an elk, this time, with the horns!
A few minutes after our first bison sighting, we stumbled across an elk, this time, with the horns!
The rest of our first full day in the park was spent finding an amazing campsite, spotting antelope (we thought they were only in Africa but then remembered the lyrics “where the deer and the antelope play” and were satisfied that they were real!), watching a black bear lumbering up a hillside, looking (and failing) for big-horned sheep among some
Disney-esque hotsprings, and hiking around meadows (looking for moose) and up mountainsides (for, once again, big-horned sheep). Oh yeah, and keeping track of all the license plates along the way!
Disney-esque hotsprings, and hiking around meadows (looking for moose) and up mountainsides (for, once again, big-horned sheep). Oh yeah, and keeping track of all the license plates along the way!
The only true legal Hughes’ left in the immediate fam arrived that night, and while we had fun playing Dutch Blitz and eating snacks for dinner, the next day was Moose Day, so of course we must skip straight to that!
Moose Day- A History
On August 11, 1979, while driving in Yellowstone Park, a moose walked in front of my grandparents' car. From that day on, August 11th was officially declared Moose Day, and has been celebrated in my family ever since. See, the moose sighting was not just a cute coincidence, but rather a road trip victory. Mama and Papa, along with my mom and uncle, had been traveling all over the Pacific Northwest that summer, and had been looking for moose the entire time. They consciously put themselves in moose-like situations hoping to see one of the mysterious beasts, but time and time again, the moose slipped right through their fingers, antlers and all. Yellowstone was their last stop on the trip, which made it their final opportunity to spot a moose. So when a huge bull moose casually came right up to them, it was a worthy enough cause to claim an annual spot on the calendar.
Flash forward 34 years to Moose Day 2013. Apart from my mom, this was our first time in Yellowstone, which also meant it was our first opportunity to see a real live moose on Moose Day. No pressure right? Actually....there really wasn't that much pressure, especially since we were so focused on seeing WOLVES!
Our campground was in the Lamar Valley, which (thanks again to Scott) we knew was the main wolf-spotting valley in the park. The wolves are mostly active at dawn (like 90% of the animals in the world), so we got up early again and headed out to hunt for wild canines. We drove around, stopping at all the spotters’ spots (say that ten times fast) to see if they could see any wolf activity. So far, nothing. One of the spotters packed up his telescope and drove away, so we followed him of course. About a minute after turning around, one of us was literally in mid-sentence, saying something like, “I wonder how hard it is to see”- when my mom cried out that it was “Right THERE!” And it was! A lone, gray wolf, trotting in the valley not 50 feet from the truck. It was actually amazingly camouflaged, and it was wild and dog-like and awesome!
Flash forward 34 years to Moose Day 2013. Apart from my mom, this was our first time in Yellowstone, which also meant it was our first opportunity to see a real live moose on Moose Day. No pressure right? Actually....there really wasn't that much pressure, especially since we were so focused on seeing WOLVES!
Our campground was in the Lamar Valley, which (thanks again to Scott) we knew was the main wolf-spotting valley in the park. The wolves are mostly active at dawn (like 90% of the animals in the world), so we got up early again and headed out to hunt for wild canines. We drove around, stopping at all the spotters’ spots (say that ten times fast) to see if they could see any wolf activity. So far, nothing. One of the spotters packed up his telescope and drove away, so we followed him of course. About a minute after turning around, one of us was literally in mid-sentence, saying something like, “I wonder how hard it is to see”- when my mom cried out that it was “Right THERE!” And it was! A lone, gray wolf, trotting in the valley not 50 feet from the truck. It was actually amazingly camouflaged, and it was wild and dog-like and awesome!
After seeing the wolf, we were all jazzed up and ready to spot anything and everything. So at 7 am, we immediately set out to find a moose.
We headed to the old petrified tree, where we had heard a moose had been hanging around a few days earlier. In order to get to the meadow (that’s where moose like to hang out, especially if there’s a lake nearby) we had to walk a mile and a half in, and it was around a bend so we couldn’t see what was ahead. When we were almost to the small lake, my dad and Lyssa started pointing and getting really excited. I looked to where they were pointing and saw a horse and it’s owner standing next to it. As Lyssa’s excitement grew however, I realized that it was not a horse but a female moose, and not a man standing next to it, but a baby moose! We couldn’t believe it! We watched the baby moose frolic through the meadow as it followed it’s mother into the woods. It was really heart melting to watch as well, because every time the mother stopped to do something, the baby would follow and copy the motion. It was just too too good.
We headed to the old petrified tree, where we had heard a moose had been hanging around a few days earlier. In order to get to the meadow (that’s where moose like to hang out, especially if there’s a lake nearby) we had to walk a mile and a half in, and it was around a bend so we couldn’t see what was ahead. When we were almost to the small lake, my dad and Lyssa started pointing and getting really excited. I looked to where they were pointing and saw a horse and it’s owner standing next to it. As Lyssa’s excitement grew however, I realized that it was not a horse but a female moose, and not a man standing next to it, but a baby moose! We couldn’t believe it! We watched the baby moose frolic through the meadow as it followed it’s mother into the woods. It was really heart melting to watch as well, because every time the mother stopped to do something, the baby would follow and copy the motion. It was just too too good.
Madre called Mama and Papa from the middle of the meadow to tell them about our moose sighting on Moose Day. They were completely stoked of course, meanwhile the rest of us couldn’t even handle how awesome our morning had been. As we had been so blessed all before 9am in the morning, we decided it was time to bless our tummies as well, and enjoyed hot chocolate and hot breakfast at a nearby lodge.
Here’s one more pic to commemorate the amazingness of Moose Day (or rather, Moose Morning):
Here’s one more pic to commemorate the amazingness of Moose Day (or rather, Moose Morning):
The rest of the trip was pretty epic as well, and included Yellowstone Falls, seeing not just one, but a pack of wolves the next morning, Old Faithful of course, the Grand Prismatic Springs from a treetop’s view, lots more buffalo, and the Grand Tetons on our way out. Pretty epic indeed.
As you can see the trip was a blast. This summer has officially made me want to tour my own country for the first time ever. The last thing I need to note on here is that not only did we find a moose on Moose Day, but we found 49 out of 50 state license plates while in the park. The only plate we couldn't find was Delaware, which we discovered soon two days later, in nowhere else but the parking lot of Lyssa's new apartment complex! Mission accomplished. Now we just need to find some big-horned sheep...