A mama moose almost makes a bad decision!

As I was driving along the road that runs through Lamar Valley and on to Silver Gate I saw someone stopped alongside the road.  I jumped out to take a look (no cars were behind me) and asked them what they had seen. They said a moose across the river with calves.  I parked the car a bit further along the road and ran back.  Normally, at that point, there are a couple of bison in a very small meadow that dips to the the river below but thankfully they were not in the meadow at this point.  I made my way down the slope and sighted the mama moose with her two calves.  The calves were standing at the edge of the river watching mom.

The mama wanted to get across the river, which was running very fast, but the babies were standing on the edge and were not having any part of crossing that raging river.  The babies were smarter than the mom at this point.  The river would have certainly washed them away.  They were very young, probably just a few days old, and would not have had the strength to cross that river.  Mama tried four times to encourage them and they held their ground. Finally, she walked back to them and made her way back into the forest.  I was so glad I did not see the tragedy that might have happened.