Footprints

2010 has definitely been my year of the black bear. Not only did I see that large, handsome bear in Rocky Mountain National Park in June and have a close encounter with Mama bear and three cubs in the Tetons in August, but on a recent hike in the northern part of RMNP, I saw further evidence of a furry beastie.

Three inches of snow had fallen a few days before my hike, which preserved lots of animal evidence that would usually go unrecorded.

As I hiked a trail on a mid-October morning, I encountered no other humans and few other creatures. I saw birds, squirrels and a long-tailed weasel, but most big animals must have been hiding from hunting season. "You can come out; we're in the national park," I tried to tell them, but they obviously thought it was a trick. I did see plenty of animal tracks, though, so they were definitely in the area.

These black bear tracks followed the trail for quite a ways. The bear even crossed the narrow log bridges that were meant for people. I'm not sure how old they were, since the snow was pretty frozen, but these were the clearest bear prints I've seen.

Also in abundance were moose tracks. I kept looking through the trees in the hopes of seeing one of these guys in person (in moose?), but no luck. I had to make do with just looking at their tracks and trying to guess how many were in the area and how big they were. Here is a close up of a big moose print.

In the spring, I took this photo of big cat tracks in the fresh snow on nearby Sheep Mountain. I think they were made by a mountain lion. I found the bloodied, severed leg of a deer farther down the trail that supported this hypothesis. No sign of the cougar, but he could have been watching.

I did not see any cougar prints on my recent hike, but I did see these and other similar fox prints. I have also seen more fox recently that I have before, and I'm not sure if that's because I'm more observant or if I'm just spending more time out in nature. In any case, I'm glad to see them.

The fox prints are smaller than coyote prints, and fox also tend to walk a little more daintily. Here is a photo of some coyote prints, also from Sheep Mountain in the spring. I guess spring and fall are the best time to find tracks in the snow, because in the middle of winter the snow is so deep it is often harder to tell the tracks apart.

One exception in winter are squirrels. They are light enough to sit on top of the snow and make their cute little prints. Often their prints will be around their nibbled pine cones, too, so that helps identify them. Then they will come out and chatter at me for disturbing their snack pile, so there is no doubt in the matter.

The snowshoe hare also makes recognizable tracks in deep snow, because their furry feet splay out and keep them from sinking in very deeply. Here are tracks of a hare on the move in northern Colorado. I didn't see the actual creature, but since they turn completely white in winter, this one might have been sitting right out in the open completely camouflaged to my weak, human eyes.

Every season I learn more about the animals and plants that inhabit the Rockies. It's fun to be able to look at tracks and know that a wild animal has passed that spot in the recent past. I try not to stamp out the prints, so that any other interested hiker might see them, too. It's nice to know that the woods are nowhere near as empty as they sometimes appear.