It began as a run-of-the-mill spring hike. Pete McCall of Riverton parked at a popular trailhead near Lander, shouldered his pack and crossed the pedestrian bridge that leads to the trail.
“I got across the bridge to the trailhead sign and happened to look up, and he was coming down the trail,” McCall said.
A moose calf ambled down the dirt path through the boulders and sagebrush.
McCall, not wanting to bother the animal, reversed back across the bridge to give the moose space. He figured it would head to the river below.
Instead, the calf “started coming up the bridge, so I kept backing up.”
As McCall backed away, he was able to capture a straight-on image of the moose sauntering across the pedestrian bridge.
At one point, McCall said, he thought he might have to back up all the way to his truck. But once the calf crossed the bridge, it veered away and disappeared up river.
When he encountered the moose, McCall already had his camera out to shoot photos of the river — a stroke of luck for a hobby photographer.
“It was super fortunate,” he said.
Another stroke of luck: The moose’s mother — a maternal creature notorious for fierce protection tactics — was nowhere to be seen.