June 21, 2010
By: Bill Jackson of the Greeley Tribune.
Photo Courtesy Tyler Kennedy
Tyler Kennedy was on his way to work around mid-morning Monday, and got a surprise when he turned west off at the Johnstown exit of Interstate 25.
“It was the last thing I expected to see on I-25,” Kennedy said.
What he saw was a cow moose and her bull calf, running about 50 yards off the exit he took to go to work. He went on to work at Solstice Arts, where he is the marketing director, grabbed one of the cameras at the business, and went out to search for the pair. He found them in a small grove of trees not far from his company's corporate headquarters, and managed to get off a couple of shots.
“They were just relaxing and enjoying the grass,” he said.
He said the chance encounter was perhaps fortuitous, as Monday was the summer solstice and he had been preparing for a solstice party at Solstice Arts, an arts publishing company started by his father about 10 years ago. The encounter was also fortuitous, he said, as Solstice Arts recently introduced a painting called Moose Tracks by internationally collected Colorado artist Scott Kennedy.
Moose Tracks -Painting by Artist Scott Kennedy
Since moose are not commonly found at this low elevation, Kennedy said Johnstown police were on the scene shortly thereafter to make sure people did not disturb the pair.
During the summer months, moose occasionally venture away from their mountain homes and wander along river beds to find food at lower elevations. Both the Big and Little Thompson rivers are in the vicinity of where the two were seen.
The young bull's velvety antlers were just starting to take shape, Kennedy noted. |
