Tracking in the Snow

We have found a really fun, family-friendly place near our home to snowshoe. It is below the mouth of Dry Canyon in the Wildlife Management Area. The terrain is rolling and not too steep, but there are fun slopes and gullies if you want a bit more adventure.


There is also a deer colony, complete with a deer highway in the snow. In the picture above you can see it looks like a place where deer have slept. The snow is packed down and icy as if it has been melted by body heat and the shapes are about deer-sized.

In this photo, you can see how deer have pawed the ground extensively looking for grasses.

Here is some deer scat and interesting tracks. You can see in the upper left marks that look like skis. Sometimes we saw tracks where these were very pronounced. It looked exactly like skis, except no pole marks off to the side and the ski marks were punctuated by holes in the middle of the "ski" tracks where a hoof or something had been planted. I suppose, after some thought, the sk marks are made by hoofs being dragged along the top of the snow? It's amazing how perfectly straight they are, however, for fairly long distances. Also, you can see deer skat. We saw, but did not photograph some larger scat. It was located in a place where the snow had been dug away much more to get down to the grass for a bed. We wondered if it were elk or moose that made the larger scat and deeper beds. I researched scat on the internet and discovered interesting things, such as replica moose scat available for purchase. I also discovered that it is difficult to tell the difference between elk and moose scat. They are about the same size and (there is some dispute about this) color, but one is more rounded on the end and the other more indented. We'll take a picture next time. Tracking is fun!