Moose Paparazzi at Powerline Pass

When I posted July 11 about a short walk in Powerline Pass, I learned that wildlife photographers around the world, apparently, know that Powerline Pass is a great place to shoot moose pictures. It's easy to get to and the moose are right there. Especially in the fall rutting season.

Today is Monday. It's October 10 - long past tourist season. But the parking lot was 3/4 full. (It is also Columbus Day so a number of folks had the day off.) And it was a spectacular day.   Foraker (left) and Denali* dominated the northern horizon - 120 air miles away.

The Powerline Pass was dressed in its muted fall colors.

 Just at the point where the trail from the parking lot gets to the PP trail, there was still sun.  But soon we were in the nippy shade.  Fortunately there was not even a noticeable breeze.

 But there were broken panes of ice in the the puddles.  And there were moose.  Here and there, near and far, scattered around the pass.  Many near the trail.

 

And people packing big cameras were there too.

At this spot there were five moose that I saw enjoying the easy food supply before the snow makes everything much harder for them, though it does put the bears away. 


The sharp divide between sunny and shady landscape added a significant challenge (of course, opportunities too for those with a better eye than mine) to my much smaller pocket powershot. 

So, do camouflage pattern designers just fly over places like this and take pictures?  [Of course, when I ponder such questions I have to go look for the answer.   The answer seems to be no.  There's a lot out there about hunting camo and military camo.  Digital camo designs seem to be the way to go these days.  See this Atlantic Article for a brief history and look at camo today.]

Some things were a little easier to photograph.

This is one of the more remote bike racks I've ever seen.  We're probably about 2 miles from the parking lot.  But the brown sign in the bushes, to the left of the trail, says no bikes.  

 



Another iced over puddle.

On our way back we briefly talked to Lori and Richard who make great use of that huge lens.  They've got amazing pictures up at ImagingNature.







*I sometimes forget that some people only know the highest peak in North America as Mt. McKinley.  Alaskans tend to call it Denali, its original Native name.  (Or so we think.  Maybe we've been fooled too.)  It's 20,320 feet (6,193.5 meters).