Walking in the wilderness, we come across tracks.
Wolves and large dog tracks can be difficult to tell apart. Dog tracks tend to have a little larger spacing between the toes and the central pad. I don’t think we have any Mexican Gray Wolves here though, so I would guess this to be a dog or coyote track. Surely canine because we wouldn’t see any claws on a feline.
For determining dog or coyote, dog tracks have an overall round shape. Coyote tracks have a more oblong shape.
This looks pretty round overall to me. And this has a large triangular central pad. Coyote central pads tend to be smaller and not so triangular. Dog tracks can often be a reckless mess as they run about sniffing and investigating everything. Wolves and coyotes tend to be more down to business and travel in a straighter line. Can’t tell that from just a couple tracks though.
I’m guessing that in this instance someone before me had a big dog along with them for a hike.