Isle Royale Forums

We will be on IR the first week of August and my niece who is coming from TN really really wants to see a moose. Are there a couple of known good places to spot one? The last time I was there I was there for 7 days and never saw a moose until the very last night when a cow and her calf walked through camp at Daisy Farm.

Anywhere and everywhere! But, Washington Creek seems to be pretty consistent. Rock Harbor is also good -- I once saw a moose walking down the path in front of the restaurant. Moose do like to hang out close to human-populated areas, because wolves avoid those same places.

In general, get up early and check out swamps. On my first trip to the island, we were following pretty much the same itinerary as another couple. They were early risers, we were not. Each day when we reached the next campground, having seen no moose, they would show us pictures of all of the moose that were just hanging out a couple of hours earlier!

dcclark wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 10:51 am In general, get up early and check out swamps. On my first trip to the island, we were following pretty much the same itinerary as another couple. They were early risers, we were not. Each day when we reached the next campground, having seen no moose, they would show us pictures of all of the moose that were just hanging out a couple of hours earlier!

Yup, get up and out early, and also explore in the evenings. They're less active during the day, in general.

Rise and shine early and you can see them just about anywhere. Washington creek is also a pretty ***almost*** guaranteed spot.

Thanks everyone for all the information. I'm not sure yet of our itinerary other than at least one night at Moskey Basin (hoping for a nice sunrise). I will look on the map to find Washington Creek and see if we can plan around being near there some evening or morning.

Washington Creek is near Windigo. There's a campground there.

After Labor Day (back in 2016), in the middle of the night, a bull moose, 4 nights in a row, walked thru my shelter area and kept bothering a cow that was in the Washington Creek. She was not interested in him at all.

I was there at the end of June and saw 2 moose on the Lane Cove Trail. Very pretty trail and campground, even if you don't see a moose!

Edited to add a terrible photo of the bull moose we saw on the Lane Cove Trail hiking out early in the morning. If you look just to the left of the tree, above the ferns you can see some antlers and body. We had a better view of it until we hid behind a tree.

Coolkat wrote: ↑Sun Jul 18, 2021 1:44 pm Thanks everyone for all the information. I'm not sure yet of our itinerary other than at least one night at Moskey Basin (hoping for a nice sunrise). I will look on the map to find Washington Creek and see if we can plan around being near there some evening or morning.

Walk the trail towards Lake Ritchie in the evening at Moskey. There are wet areas along the trail that moose feed in.