A giant moose was captured on wild video wading into a Colorado lake and coming within feet of shocked swimmers.
Florida native Carleigh Smith was in Denver to attend a concert with friends last month when she decided to take her first-ever mountain hike to St. Mary’s Glacier near Idaho Springs, KDVR reported.
While on the scenic trek, a man unexpectedly ran up from behind her and her friends to warn them that a moose was nearby, the outlet reported.
“All of the sudden, a guy comes up behind us, and he’s very calmly, nonchalantly saying there’s a moose in front of you guys, you might want to move,” Smith told the outlet.
“My friend Grace was like, ‘if you hold your thumb up and the thumb covers the whole moose, you’re a good safe distance.’ When I held my thumb up, I was covering about its toe, so it was really close.”
As the tourist and her friends quickly moved away, they saw the antlered mammal strutting into a lake for a dip — mere feet away from a group of girls sitting on a rock.
Video taken by Smith captured the two girls slowly walking off the rock and into the water to avoid disturbing the enormous moose, which typically can tip the scales at over a whopping 1,000 pounds.
“So then the moose decides to, like, get in the water and take a dip. Which, we’re on its land so by all means,” Smith said, noting the girls were eventually able to safely move out of the way.
Smith, who is from St. Petersburg, described the shock moose sighting as akin to seeing a gator in the Sunshine State.
“It was just very nerve-wracking, very nail-biting,” she recalled.
But despite the scare, Smith said the unbelievable sighting made for a memorable hike.
“It was so majestic and very calm,” she said.
“Really take it in, however, remember that you are the visitor.”
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