The Wild Life
I thought I'd seen something wild many times in my life but I really saw wild life in Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.
We got up earlyand ate breakfast at the aptly named Moose Junction.
It was an outfitter's type of place, where they cooked up sourdough pancakes in an outdoor kitchen and you ate breakfast at picnic tables in the pines.
We were layered up because even on a sunny morning in August, it's cold. Later in the day the sun feels like a burning beam lasering through the thin air straight onto your skin. But in the morning, you can fog your breath.
We took a trail reported to lead to a beautiful lake view and not be too crowded with other hikers. We set off, back packs, picnic lunch and we hoped, enough water.
It was a beautiful 1.7 mile hike up to the lake, the view was the usual Grand Teton Spectacular. We were still feeling pretty fresh, so we decided to press on. There were rumors of waterfalls up ahead.
So we took off ever upward, through pines and more pines. The night before I had been laying in bed in my little cabin, the window open to the night air and stars.
"Wow, someone around sure has on a lot of perfume", I thought. "Or maybe someone's been cleaning today." I lay there for a few minutes, overwhelmed with scent and trying to decide if I should close my window, or if the perfume person would go away. The breeze shifted and I laughed when I realized that what I was smelling was millions of pine trees.
Today the pines were as potent as ever, the air thin and clear, the sun getting hotter the higher we climbed. Off came the layers and our handy zip leg pants turned into shorts.
The sound of rushing water up ahead drew us on, and sure enough, there was a little waterfall. We took a break on the banks of the creek, splashing our faces and dipping our feet into the clear, icy water. Then back to the trail.
As we came around a bend, dozens of orange and white butterflies were startled up out of the low lying brush. They swooped and swirled in front of us, a tiny winged cloud.
Our photographer moved ahead on the trial to get pictures, and we saw her suddenly freeze.
"Shh", she whispered back to us, her eyes big. "Look!" she said as she pointed into the brush just off the trail.
There he was, his head popping up a little above the brush; a baby moose! He was a big ol' baby! His head was rather large, and he had a long pointed face, his jaw kind of moving side to side as he munched down on daisies. Looked a little like a camel.
We were savvy enough to realize that if there was a baby, mom had to somewhere close by. We were betting she was bigger and might not want us coming too close to her baby.
We stood transfixed in the middle of the trail, baby contentedly chewing away, but no sign of mama. Baby didn't seem the least bit worried about us, but you know how kids are.
After a few minutes, we decided to tip toe by, hoping we wouldn't encounter enraged maternity, and as we passed down the trail, someone spotted the back end of Mama Moose pulled in under a bunch of low hanging trees. She never even turned around!
Although we would have liked to see her, we felt it best to just walk away quietly, leaving her to knitting.
Now this was wildlife viewing! The day before, when we had taken the river tour, I had seen a bald eagle for the first time. No wonder these birds have such a myth around them. They are beautiful, big and majestic looking.
There's lots of wild life in Yellowstone and the Tetons, but most of the time people are seeing it at the side of the road from their cars. They get out, take pictures, and generally stare at an animal that is just trying to eat grass or walk around or do whatever living they're doing.
It all seems a little like an open air zoo, and sometimes I felt very bad mannered to be staring with the rest of the gaping humans. Except for the swimming buffalo. I had to stare then.
We saw him as we were driving back to Jackson Hole. The afternoon was cloudy with some mist. The sun was still shining hot behind the curtain of rain clouds, so the light seemed to be falling with the mist. We slowed down to see all the buffalo at the side of a river and watched while one walked down the bank.
To our surprise, he stepped into the river and started swimming with the current, his big, brown head bobbing as he held it above the water, the mist and the light surrounding his suddenly light, bobbing body as he swam and was carried by the current to the opposite shore.
But seeing the moose right in his home, passing by on the trail and tipping the proverbial hat as we passed, made us seem more like fellow Earthlings.
Onward and upward though, higher and higher up the mountain.
After about an hour, we came to a level plateau that had a view of the lake far below. It looked like an illustration from a fairy tale. The lake shimmered blue in the sun, reflecting back the even bluer sky. The pine trees at the shoreline, looked like perfectly placed triangles, broad at the base and narrowing to a point just ready to be crowned with the rays of the sun that danced off the water.
At this sublime moment, a cell phone rang.
Down below, service had been adequate, but unreliable. I guess up on the top of the mountain the signals came through. Our hiker realized it was the message notice beeping at her, so she checked voice mail.
"I can't tell if my message said 'Have you seen the news' or 'Have you seen the moose'?" she said.
At the same time, another of our hikers recieved a text message, and we realized, before we could laugh, that the messages were about the news and what was happening out in the rest of the world.
So now we knew about the terrorist plot to blow up planes, confiscate our shampoo and make our hair look bad if we could keep our scalps.
This was not happy news, especially in that beautifully sublime place. For the rest of our hike, when we would pass someone on the trail, we heard them talking about getting phone messages from concerned love ones about the news.
It's so easy to feel angry at these people who have given their lives to death and fear and terror. Do they ever see the magnificence of this world, the one full of love and beauty?
The Earth in her oblivious glory tolerates each sucessive generation walking on her back, doing whatever we will do, for good or for ill. Since the days of the caveman we have walked in danger. Then it was the tiger, today the terrorist.
People have the choice to live their lives as part of the beauty of the world, or to bring fear and suffering to it's face.
I choose Beauty, and anger isn't beautiful.
And I hope none of the phone companies get wind of how great the reception is up on that mountain. I'm sure that news would not be good for the moose.
We got up earlyand ate breakfast at the aptly named Moose Junction.
It was an outfitter's type of place, where they cooked up sourdough pancakes in an outdoor kitchen and you ate breakfast at picnic tables in the pines.
We were layered up because even on a sunny morning in August, it's cold. Later in the day the sun feels like a burning beam lasering through the thin air straight onto your skin. But in the morning, you can fog your breath.
We took a trail reported to lead to a beautiful lake view and not be too crowded with other hikers. We set off, back packs, picnic lunch and we hoped, enough water.
It was a beautiful 1.7 mile hike up to the lake, the view was the usual Grand Teton Spectacular. We were still feeling pretty fresh, so we decided to press on. There were rumors of waterfalls up ahead.
So we took off ever upward, through pines and more pines. The night before I had been laying in bed in my little cabin, the window open to the night air and stars.
"Wow, someone around sure has on a lot of perfume", I thought. "Or maybe someone's been cleaning today." I lay there for a few minutes, overwhelmed with scent and trying to decide if I should close my window, or if the perfume person would go away. The breeze shifted and I laughed when I realized that what I was smelling was millions of pine trees.
Today the pines were as potent as ever, the air thin and clear, the sun getting hotter the higher we climbed. Off came the layers and our handy zip leg pants turned into shorts.
The sound of rushing water up ahead drew us on, and sure enough, there was a little waterfall. We took a break on the banks of the creek, splashing our faces and dipping our feet into the clear, icy water. Then back to the trail.
As we came around a bend, dozens of orange and white butterflies were startled up out of the low lying brush. They swooped and swirled in front of us, a tiny winged cloud.
Our photographer moved ahead on the trial to get pictures, and we saw her suddenly freeze.
"Shh", she whispered back to us, her eyes big. "Look!" she said as she pointed into the brush just off the trail.
There he was, his head popping up a little above the brush; a baby moose! He was a big ol' baby! His head was rather large, and he had a long pointed face, his jaw kind of moving side to side as he munched down on daisies. Looked a little like a camel.
We were savvy enough to realize that if there was a baby, mom had to somewhere close by. We were betting she was bigger and might not want us coming too close to her baby.
We stood transfixed in the middle of the trail, baby contentedly chewing away, but no sign of mama. Baby didn't seem the least bit worried about us, but you know how kids are.
After a few minutes, we decided to tip toe by, hoping we wouldn't encounter enraged maternity, and as we passed down the trail, someone spotted the back end of Mama Moose pulled in under a bunch of low hanging trees. She never even turned around!
Although we would have liked to see her, we felt it best to just walk away quietly, leaving her to knitting.
Now this was wildlife viewing! The day before, when we had taken the river tour, I had seen a bald eagle for the first time. No wonder these birds have such a myth around them. They are beautiful, big and majestic looking.
There's lots of wild life in Yellowstone and the Tetons, but most of the time people are seeing it at the side of the road from their cars. They get out, take pictures, and generally stare at an animal that is just trying to eat grass or walk around or do whatever living they're doing.
It all seems a little like an open air zoo, and sometimes I felt very bad mannered to be staring with the rest of the gaping humans. Except for the swimming buffalo. I had to stare then.
We saw him as we were driving back to Jackson Hole. The afternoon was cloudy with some mist. The sun was still shining hot behind the curtain of rain clouds, so the light seemed to be falling with the mist. We slowed down to see all the buffalo at the side of a river and watched while one walked down the bank.
To our surprise, he stepped into the river and started swimming with the current, his big, brown head bobbing as he held it above the water, the mist and the light surrounding his suddenly light, bobbing body as he swam and was carried by the current to the opposite shore.
But seeing the moose right in his home, passing by on the trail and tipping the proverbial hat as we passed, made us seem more like fellow Earthlings.
Onward and upward though, higher and higher up the mountain.
After about an hour, we came to a level plateau that had a view of the lake far below. It looked like an illustration from a fairy tale. The lake shimmered blue in the sun, reflecting back the even bluer sky. The pine trees at the shoreline, looked like perfectly placed triangles, broad at the base and narrowing to a point just ready to be crowned with the rays of the sun that danced off the water.
At this sublime moment, a cell phone rang.
Down below, service had been adequate, but unreliable. I guess up on the top of the mountain the signals came through. Our hiker realized it was the message notice beeping at her, so she checked voice mail.
"I can't tell if my message said 'Have you seen the news' or 'Have you seen the moose'?" she said.
At the same time, another of our hikers recieved a text message, and we realized, before we could laugh, that the messages were about the news and what was happening out in the rest of the world.
So now we knew about the terrorist plot to blow up planes, confiscate our shampoo and make our hair look bad if we could keep our scalps.
This was not happy news, especially in that beautifully sublime place. For the rest of our hike, when we would pass someone on the trail, we heard them talking about getting phone messages from concerned love ones about the news.
It's so easy to feel angry at these people who have given their lives to death and fear and terror. Do they ever see the magnificence of this world, the one full of love and beauty?
The Earth in her oblivious glory tolerates each sucessive generation walking on her back, doing whatever we will do, for good or for ill. Since the days of the caveman we have walked in danger. Then it was the tiger, today the terrorist.
People have the choice to live their lives as part of the beauty of the world, or to bring fear and suffering to it's face.
I choose Beauty, and anger isn't beautiful.
And I hope none of the phone companies get wind of how great the reception is up on that mountain. I'm sure that news would not be good for the moose.
posted by Karen | 5:29 PM
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