Maine moose

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RVMommaTo6

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Rochester, NY
I'm going to be in a remote cabin in Maine September 8-16 near Moosehead Lake. I want to see a moose. Or meese. Lol anyway, if anyone is familiar with the area and has tips on where to see moose, I would love to hear them all. I've done a lot of online research, but figured I would check here for personal experiences. Thanks!
 
You will be in the middle of meese country.  I have snowmobiled all the major trails in Maine and have seen mooses most anywhere, but only a few per trip.  There is Northwoods Outfitters in Greenville that might be able to give you some current information.
 
There are actually a number of Guided Moose watching trips in that area, both on land and by canoe...that would be your best bet
 
I was going to try to see one on my own first and then if I don't see one I'll do a guided tour, but I was hoping not to spend that kind of money since there are 8 of us ?
 
You are going to one of the best parts of New England to potentially see Moose so you may get lucky.  Look for swamps and marsh areas.  Drive slow and look up side dirt roads because they may be hanging out.  Be careful after dark because that is when they are the most active and you are most likely to drive up on one.  I have not been to Moosehead yet but it is on my to do list.  I've heard it is great for Moose sitings.  We have looked all over Northern VT, NH and other parts of Maine only to see one 15 miles from home in MA.  They can be elusive but I enjoy the search.

Footnote: I've read a lot and watched videos about searching for Moose but as stated, have only definitively seen one so far in the Northeast.  I saw one in Rocky Mountain NP but they seem less elusive out West
 
I had the most incredible moose encounter imaginable. I was at Oxbow Bend in the Grand Tetons one night at about 10:30 and I was just about ready to head for the campground when a moose started crossing the Snake River. There was still a crowd of maybe 50 people there watching the moose as it crossed. It reached the shore we were all standing on and made a right hand turn and started walking casually down the beach. The road was about 25 feet from the river and the moose was walking right in front of us maybe 15 feet away. He proceeded to walk down the beach for the next half hour munching on vegetation as he went. Now 15 feet is way too close for anyone to be to a moose but this moose was completely ignoring the tourists and all the flashes going off. All he cared about was grazing. Grand Tetons is the best place I have found for seeing moose. I only saw one in Yellowstone and none in Maine.
 

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OBX gave the best advice in two words-"drive slow". DW and I went through Shenandoah NP more than once and we see bears almost every time we go. The speed limit is 40 mph, but we just mosey along slower than that. Some people drive it like it's a racetrack. Others that we talk to at different stops along the way never see a bear.
 
They will pop up when least expected, as my friend on his motorcycle found out one afternoon.
 
We were in the Tetons in 2011 and, appropriately, just coming out of Moose Village, there were a couple of moose under the bridge, just grazing away.
 

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I have been to Maine about 35 times and have never seen a moose. We did see one in Nova Scotia a cow
 
Cool shots Larry. I was at the Tetons in 2008 and I went on a walk with a ranger to Christian Pond with about a dozen people in the middle of the day. It was a short walk maybe a quarter of a mile and I was in front talking with the ranger (Karen Smart, I was in love but she was married). The trail was narrow due to willow bushes on both sides of the trail about eight feet high. We walked around a corner and there was a female moose crossing the trail at a 90 degree angle to us about ten feet away. Ranger Smart bravely pushed me out in front of her. I could not figure out why she did that. Was she sacrificing me in case the moose charged? Was she putting me in a better spot to take a photo? I don't know. I didn't have a wide enough lens since I had a 400mm lens so I didn't get a shot. The moose just completely ignored us and kept on trucking.

I had been out to Christian Pond many times and there was a lot of birds out there but they were all far away. On the opposite shore of the pond there were three Sandhill Cranes (mom, pop and baby) and I used to go out there and sit with my spotting scope trying to get a glimpse of the cranes. They were about a quarter a mile away and with my spotting scope I could barely discern that they were in fact Sandhill Cranes. I never did get a decent shot of a crane there. The ironic thing is now I have a handful of Sandhills that come to my yard every day. They walk right up to me since so many people here feed them. They expect a handout. But I don't feed them. The other day I got in my car to go somewhere and I had to wait for a crane parade that was passing my car in the front yard. ;D
 

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I love all these pictures! I'm getting all excited now, I always wanted to see a moose out hunting up north some day. My biggest reason for wanting to go to Maine is to see a moose lol

HappyWanderer said:
They will pop up when least expected, as my friend on his motorcycle found out one afternoon.
 
RVMommaTo6 said:
I love all these pictures! I'm getting all excited now, I always wanted to see a moose out hunting up north some day. My biggest reason for wanting to go to Maine is to see a moose lol
At the Jackson Lake Lodge at Grand Teton the back porch overlooks a large willow field that a moose would periodically show up wandering around in. I spent a lot of time on the porch waiting for a moose. Just about every person I talked to in the park said the same thing. They were dying to see a moose.
 
This is what you want to see:
 

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RVMommaTo6 said:
Absolutely!!!

Here my trail was blocked. it actually was three of them.  Even the locals rarely see these.


 

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I've seen moose in the Moosehead Lake area, mostly toward the upper end and also in Baxter State Park. 

Here's a cow moose that was often seen on the entrance road to Casey's Spencer Bay Camps.
 

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