First one I saw I was in 1972 in a VW bus with my buddies traveling through the Redwoods on Hwy 101 in NorCal. It loped across the road right in front of us… that long tail still fresh in my mind. At 17 and 18 years old we were in awe. We still talk about it in the rare times we get together, minus my best friend and fishing partner who has since passed on, way too soon.
I’ve seen two more on different occasions not more than an hours drive east of Seattle. Both of them on logging roads. One ran up the road about a hundred yards in front of my truck before vanishing into the brush. My wife was with me the second time which was the first time she’d seen one. We were slowly driving back down the road and came around a sharp curve and a cougar jumped down off an embankment next to a waterfall about fifty feet in front of us and stared at us for a few seconds, with that tail twitching before leaping off down the hill. I think the sound of the waterfall masked the sound of our approach, allowing us the close up view.
The last one was while hunting grouse with my son in the foothills SW of Ellensburg. We were sneaking along when we heard a commotion on the ridge just out of sight above us. We’d been seeing a lot of fresh elk sign and amongst the chaos of whatever was going on above us was the distinctive “mew” like call of a cow elk.
We slowly made our way up and peered over the top to see just the feet of a cougar padding its way through the trees above. It must have sensed we were there. We clearly had just partially witnessed the kill of an elk calf, still very warm and alive just minutes before, with the saliva of the cat on its neck… the cow elk mewing ever further away. Surprisingly there was no blood or any puncture wounds that I could see. We had shotguns so weren’t too concerned about the cat, we quietly left the area hoping it would return to feast. We are fortunate to have witnessed it.
I’ve seen two more on different occasions not more than an hours drive east of Seattle. Both of them on logging roads. One ran up the road about a hundred yards in front of my truck before vanishing into the brush. My wife was with me the second time which was the first time she’d seen one. We were slowly driving back down the road and came around a sharp curve and a cougar jumped down off an embankment next to a waterfall about fifty feet in front of us and stared at us for a few seconds, with that tail twitching before leaping off down the hill. I think the sound of the waterfall masked the sound of our approach, allowing us the close up view.
The last one was while hunting grouse with my son in the foothills SW of Ellensburg. We were sneaking along when we heard a commotion on the ridge just out of sight above us. We’d been seeing a lot of fresh elk sign and amongst the chaos of whatever was going on above us was the distinctive “mew” like call of a cow elk.
We slowly made our way up and peered over the top to see just the feet of a cougar padding its way through the trees above. It must have sensed we were there. We clearly had just partially witnessed the kill of an elk calf, still very warm and alive just minutes before, with the saliva of the cat on its neck… the cow elk mewing ever further away. Surprisingly there was no blood or any puncture wounds that I could see. We had shotguns so weren’t too concerned about the cat, we quietly left the area hoping it would return to feast. We are fortunate to have witnessed it.
