I've been long wandering how I could put down the things I did and the places I visited in a better way, an interesting one, an easy-to-digest way. I was scanning the web doing some research and I came across one of the many "top 10" kind of articles. I told myself, "I might as well add my own!", and here I am in the mix.
I will try to post my own ranks, first of all of places throughout the U.S.A.
Even though I can't boast once-in-a-lifetime experiences when it comes to wildlife, I can say I had my share anyway. From roadside moose and wolves, to on-the-trail bears and darting eagles, my eyes have been lucky enough to spot a good variety of creatures while hiking, driving or simply chilling out. Here's a selection of my favourite 10 moments, not ordered by importance or rarity of the animal in itself, but more by the meaning, the feelings and emotions the moment left me with. I hope I'll be able to recreate that very instant with my words for you to enjoy!
Let's start!
10. Mountain goat on the trail, Glacier NP
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| Mountain goats are cool animals. I love the way they stare at you, kind of saying "Yo what's up?!" all the time. I love their color - usually it makes it easier to spot them, unless they're far high on the snowy slopes. I met with this guy on my way back from an off-trail hike in Glacier NP, and he peacefully led my way out of the forest and simply let me take over at a certain point. He just kept feeding on the grass. Made me almost wanted to pet it - if it wasn't a wild animal and wasn't that big too! (goats can be quite big!) |
9. Buffalo wading the river, Yellowstone NP
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| It was early in a foggy July morning, and I was driving hopelessly and aimlessly in the Lake district of the park til I decided to move towards Hayden valley. I woke up after a rainy night spent as usual sleeping in my truck, and I was eager for the weather to clear and start a nice day hiking. Hayden was placid and quiet when I got there. Unusually, there were just a couple cars waiting for wildlife for the daily show. I stopped 'cause something caught my eye: it was just a buffalo, but it was heading steady for the river. I stopped, got my telezoom lens out, and followed. The big fella plunged into the cold waters of the Yellowstone river and started to swim towards the other bank. I was fired up. That's the kind of stuff you see on tv documentaries usually, and there I was looking at 12-14 hundred pounds beast puffing and snorting his way across the river. The fog that was slowly lifting up from the ground made the scene tremendously cool for me! |
8. Lynx xing, Kluane NP (Canada)
Of this I have no picture unfortunately, the whole sight lasted for a few seconds only. I was driving south on the main road skirting Kluane National Park, a beautiful, remote area in south-western Yukon. It was a glorious day and I was soaking in the beauty of the jagged mountains and the taiga-like vegetation. At a certain point, I spot something crossing the road fast just after the turn, so I speed up the tiny bit that allows me to get in full-sight of the animal. It was a lynx. These elusive animals are very shy, and it's quite a lucky event whenever somebody has the chance to spot one of them. Knowing this all, I jump on the other side of the road with the car (traffic is not a word that applies to these places, so I did it in safety!) and try to spot the animal in the brush where it certainly dashed in. Impossible. I spent a minute or two trying to identify a possible way in and track the animal down but the intricacy of the brush had me waving white flag. It was short, photo-less, but pretty lucky as well!
7. Coyote's on the hunt, Yellowstone NP
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| I wasn't planning on anything more than to reach a place suitable to make dinner but I had to stop for this. You see coyotes fairly frequently, but not in too many occasions they're looking for food. At least, not as in this occasion. The coyote, even though evidently disturbed by the cars driving by (just a few, it was late in the day and our road wasn't the most beaten by the crowds) was using his ears to locate a mouse, maybe a ground squirrel. It was amazing to watch him concentrate on the sounds, tilting his head back and forth, to the left or to the right, appearently following the sounds of his prey. And then... a powerful leap, with a plunge straight onto his prey... that wasn't there anymore, unfortunately. You can't be successfull every time - actually, they're not successful most of the times. At least it gave us a great entertainment! |
6. Close-up with the black bear, Glacier NP
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| I have seen plenty of black bears. This one though scared the heck out of me. I bumped into it on the roadside, and as everyone else, parked my car in a safe spot and got a bit closer. Other people followed the bear into the bush, and soon a line of photographers formed. I was some 30 yards from it, but some Asian folks pushed it much closer, maybe 20. The bear was surely disturbed and agitated by the crowd, and he was snorting and sniffing the air around him as in the shot above. The only reason I stayed was the people before me. Then, some idiot starting to flash the bear. I thought "This guy thinks it's a teddy bear. What a lame person". Next thing you know is the bear hit the dead tree with both front paws, snorts loud, and runs. I personally remembered all the suggestions for these cases - like keep your cool, don't flee, stay your ground, especially with blacks - but of course I screwed them all and ran with the crowd for safer grounds. Luckily the bear fled alongside the tree and didn't go for some fancy sushi. |
5. A fawn makes me emotional, Eagle Creek trail in Oregon
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| Sometimes you'll bump onto something unexpected in the woods. That's what happened on that sunny day in May along the Eagle Creek trail. Walking back up from one of the many waterfalls to be found there, this fawn comes out of the brush and starts walking towards me, crying out loud like saying "Please help me!". Obviously he had lost mommy, and she was nowhere to be found. It was a heartbreaking moment: the fawn walked all the way to me and liked my leg. If there's one thing I know and try to apply is that wildlife is wild, and has to be kept that way, so I backed off. I almost had tears in my eyes, since the fawn looked at me with a "Why are you leaving me here?" stare. I thought about calling a ranger, but had no contact number. I resolved to look elsewhere and keep walking. On my way back I inspected the site again and found nothing. It was a sad moment. I just hoped he'd have been alright. |
4. An incredibly chilled moose surprises me, Bighorn National Forest
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| I saw this moose with the tail of my eye. It was an amazing feat in itself, since I was driving pretty fast on that winding road and had no particular attention for the roadside. The moose was some 20 meters away from the road, lying on the grass at the brink of the woods. I backed all the way down with my car and hopped off, confirming my able sight. There actually was a moose. I walked closer, keeping my cool, and reached to some 10 yards away from it. He didn't flinch. All he did was to follow my every move with tired-looking eyes. I know about moose, and usually keep safe distances between me and them. They look awkward but can bolt at you in seconds. With this one, I felt ok from the start, and I got this close for a very exciting encounter. |
3. Grizzly on the trail!, Banff NP (Canada)
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| Yes, it's just another grizzly bear. And yes, luckily nothing bad happened that day. But what an unplanned adrenaline boost I did get that day! Me and a buddy were hiking in the Moraine Lake area of Banff NP, Alberta, and we just entered a restricted area where just groups of 4 people were allowed to hike. Being short of time (I had to be back at work later) and seeing nobody coming up, we kept on going. Of course, just 4-500 yards past the sign, I'm on the lead and I spot something with my eye, to the left, grazing in the brush. Ain't no deer this time, and my heart starts beating like a drum. It's a grizzly bear, that appearently hasn't noticed us. I stop my bud - that didn't even see the bear til I pointed it out - reach for my bear spray, ask him if he has bear spray and hear that he forgot it at home. Sweet. We back up, slowly, quietly. The bear doesn't seem like noticing us and keeps foraging on grass. At a safer distance we start walking with our backs to the bear and with a quicker pace. We reach safety, some 300 yeards from it. We discuss what to do. I don't want to risk - a bear is no cow, and you can't just hope it won't maul you if you dare just walking on the trail a few feet from him! In the meantime, a group of 4 joins us, we have 2 more bear sprays and on we go. After 200 yards, there's the bear again. He moved slightly out of the woods, coming towards us. We're in 6 and we form a "line of fire", where us with the bear spray stay in front, ready to pull the trigger. We are at no more than 30 yards from him. Quite a bad choice, distant-wise huh? Well, the bear doesn't care/ He just grazes. I take a chance to shoot a picture and remember - of course, it always happen - that I left my telezoom lens at home. The day I have a bear this close. It's all cool until the bear turns towards us, gets on his hind legs for a few seconds, then resumes grazing. People are petrified. I decide that it's time for us to move, to take another trail, and leave the others with the decision on whether to continue or not. Before the end of the day, we'd see aother grizzly bear, still on the trail, the one we decided to continue on. It was definitely destiny, that day, that I'd see bears. |
2. Father osprey's back with food, Yellowstone NP
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| I know it's nothing extraordinary, and that people with more time (and money!!) than me have much better shots, but I'm particularly fnd of this one moment, and the picture that came with it. I was about to walk to the Lower Yellowstone falls (check out my "Top 10 Waterfalls in the U.S.A." on my previous post!) when I spotted this osprey nest. There was clearly one bird, so I got a bit closer. Almost nobody had spotted it before, and people were stopping and looking at what I was possibly shooting at. Then I moved, I was too far. I jumped over a fence - hey, there was no sign to not do it! - and strolled over a rocky cliff all the way to the end, where it dropped some hundreds of feet down towards the bottom of the canyon. I stopped, and started to get more details of the scene. Mother osprey was at the nest with 2 babies, and I reckoned father osprey wouldn't have been far. I started to scan the canyon. Far off the distance, towards the fall, a big bird soaring over the water catches my attention. I put it right into the center of my scope and follow it. At first, he came back with no food. So I wait. And I wait. I wait for 45 minutes, to the amusement of some people on the safe side of the trail (they were taking pictures of me standing there) to finally see him approaching the nest with a fish in his talons. It was great. Again, one of those things I used to see on tv documentaries, finally had been witnessed on live-action! It also taught me that those fellas have to be real patient - it ain't easy to provide for a growing family in osprey's world either! |
1. Eventually, I cross gazes with a wild wolf, Kananaskis Country (Canada)
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| I was driving out of Kananaskis country on a grey, late-summer day with my girlfriend. We hadn't seen more than 3 or 4 cars in 3 hours that day. Back on the main road, after a few miles, something dog-like walks on the road. I accelerate to go past the dip on the road and find myself at some 30-40 yards from a gray wolf. I start shaking. Wolves are among my favourite animals overall. As I know, they're usually shy and fearful of humans (and they have good reasons to be so, I guess), so they tend to stay away from anything human-related, roads included. It's more of a luxury when somebody has a chance to spot one, even for a few seconds. Well, armed of my camera, there I am. I roll down the window, let my car running and on park, and shoot. This big guy literally walks towards us on the other side of the street, a few feet from us. I feel it difficult to handle the camera without shaking because of how thrilled I am. Seeing the wolf wslowly walking away, I get out of the car and carefully follow him, at a distance. He doesn't mind me, until this very moment. He turns towards me, looks at me for 2 or 3 seconds, and resumes whatever he was doing - probably just chasing some food source around. That gaze froze me. I wasn't scared, I know that probably deep inside he'd have been more scared than me, but it was an epic moment for me. Being that close to a wild wolf, exchanging an almost human-like, feelings-filled look for a few seconds. I hope I'll have other better, safe encounters with wolves, but for now, this one will stay at number 1! |
Thanks for following, remember to share it with your adventure-eager friends!!
I'll do my best to keep the production up... and coming up next is, my very personal "Top 10 National Parks of the U.S.A."! Catch with y'all soon!
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