Best time? Any time! They seem to appear when and where you least expect it. One was in Rainbow Lake a few years ago, and if I am not mistaken, another one was in Tupper in the Cranberry Flow. I have yet to spot one either; I hope we both have a change of luck!
I've seen 4 in last 8 years. Saw a bull on my camp road 2 weeks ago. Plus I've had 2 other occasions that were obviously moose but I did not see them. They generally hang out near swamps in summer.
If I knew how to post photos I'd attach one where a moose has its nose pressed up against my screened porch. There is no privacy in the Adirondacks!
Now is the best time to see them. Mating season is Sept thru Oct. They should be moving now. I got 2 more trail-cam pictures of a large cow roaming our lease property. Tracks up and down our road.
Is that the Stewart Lake off the trailhead by Green Lake/Canada Lake? I spent a few weeks at a camp down the road every summer growing up and being a good Boy Scout and Ranger Rick devotee it was always fun to spend a couple hours trying to find as many different tracks as possible in the woods between the trail and the road around the back side of the lake where camp was. No digital camera back then and the folks would never give me the family polaroid so I'd take along my trusty notepad and sketch the tracks and make measurements. Several times I found what I was sure were moose prints, but they always laughed me off saying it was just a big deer or soft mud making a deer print look different. I am redeemed! Of course, I also tried for years to show them what I was absolutely certain were mountain lion and wolf tracks, so ...
Honestly, where and when you can spot a moose in the Adirondacks is anytime, and most anywhere...
..and by most anywhere, I mean anywhere people don't usually go.
A couple weeks ago, I went hiking along the West Branch of the Sacandaga near Arietta. I "sort of" followed what appeared to be an old unmarked trail.
I got about two miles in when I came to this nice, pleasant bend in the river (see attached image, I snapped it that day). It was a 90 degree day, humid, and I was wearing pants (I've caught ticks in this area before). So I decided to YOLO and go swimming in the river. There was no one around, and no nearby trails or anything where anyone would've seen me acting like a lunatic. So I went in.
I decided to see what was up around that corner in the river, so I waded through, chest deep, in the nice, peaceful, refreshing water. It was a very "one with nature" experience. Until I actually rounded the bend.
In the water with me was a HUGE bull moose, just around that corner. He was either drinking or eating algae or something, but my life kind of flashed before my eyes. I was alone, vulnerable, basically naked in the wild with something much larger than myself that could really hurt me with one kick maybe 20 feet away.
He didn't see me, and I didn't want him to for fear of startling him and having him attack, so I quickly and carefully turned around, silently waded to shore, grabbed my stuff, and ran.
Had I been hiking around that corner, he probably would've run off because of the noise I was making. But because I was wading through a gentle stream, I was very silent and came right up on him without him even knowing. I regret now that I didn't have my camera because I feel like no one believes me. But it happened!
So my advice? Go somewhere no one else usually goes, either a trail no one takes or make your own trail. Be vewwy vewwy quiet, too, when you hike! Also, this area was very marshy, and they tend to travel through marshes, so if you can find a place with lots of marshes, a trail no one takes, no busy roads nearby, and if you're sneaky enough, you can spot a moose!
EDIT: The photo didn't seem to want to attach, so I uploaded it to photobucket.
Great experience wxwing but I'd have to say in terms of reports I've personally heard, you're just as likely to see a moose crossing the highway as you are to see one in the remote areas where no one goes. I think you just got lucky. I personally know someone who saw one the first time they ever drove through the Adirondacks. They never even left the car, just passed through and one crossed RT30.
You see moose when you are not planning to see moose. Like in the car at dusk when they are hard to see going across the road. On a beach at midday. At our mailbox.
They like roadside ditches in the spring, in the mountains when new shoots come out on striped maple and in wetlands when there is aquatic vegetation.
Seen one once at Barnum Pond in the early AM.
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