I have to admit that I love living up in the mountains … I really
like the wildlife and the wilderness.  We’ve had all sorts of
animals in our back yard – deer, elk, fox, and even a bear! – and
hiking around the valley you get to see racoons, skunk, and even
moose.  And the moose are frequently seen all over the valley.

While driving though, I often worry at night about the number of deer
and elk around . .. since you can often see them lying dead on the side
of the road.  Day or night, you have to keep your eyes open and
your guard up.  The closest that I have ever come was one winter
evening when I was driving home from Park City,
Utah.  Cruising on highway US-40 from Park City to Heber City, Utah
it
was snowing pretty hard and I was in my truck going pretty fast …
it’s a 4WD truck and I grew up driving in snow …when I saw a large
elk walk out onto the highway in front of me.  I started to brake
and immediately began to slide, so I used some knowledge that I learned
from someone out here.  I continued to head towards the elk in the
direction that he was walking, and at the last second I swerved just
behind him.  It was wild to see him flash by my drivers window
just a foot or so away.  Of course then I had to manage the slide
that I had started … but I was able to recover and could only imagine
the damage that would have been caused by hitting him.  Being in a
truck is obviously much safer.

What made me post this is that on that same trip home last night, my
family and I were coming down the grade next to Jordanelle Reservoir
and we could see a LOT of police cars and flashing lights … obviously
a major accident.  When we came under the Mayflower exit we came across a pretty gruesome looking site … a small car that had hit a very large moose.

As we slowly went by in traffic, we could see police and paramedics
attending to the driver of the vehicle, still trapped in the car. 
The front bumper of the car did not appear damaged, however the top of
the hood was crushed, the windshield was gone, the roof completely
peeled back, and everything else flattened.  I can image that the
moose – with a full rack – had to be over 1500 pounds … it was
immense.  The driver of the car had little chance if they didn’t
notice the moose … I’m not sure that the car was as tall as the belly
of the massive animal.  When hit, the car probably cruised right
under the moose.  Ouch.

I’ll be watching the news, hoping that the passenger(s) of the car
survived the incident … the moose did not.  And seeing accident
last night is why I am always a little more cautious and attentive when
I drive around here.