My friends and I were driving south down Rt 16 toward Jasper. I was sitting in the driver’s side backseat, peering into the distance toward the Athabasca River, looking for wildlife drinking by the riverside.
Nearer to the road, I glimpsed pale shapes moving. They were whitish, or perhaps tan or grey. My brain frantically tried to identify the shapes as we sped closer. Were they mountain goats or bighorn sheep? No. Dogs? No.
As our car drew almost even with them, I looked one directly in the eyes. It was a wolf.
They roamed in a pack of four, heading from the river back towards the mountains.
Our car sped past, and the moment was over. The whole encounter lasted perhaps a couple of seconds, but I will remember it for the rest of my life.
“Those were motherfucking wolves!” We were shouting in the car. “Holy shit!”
We were still moving quickly down a busy highway, and there was nowhere to pull off. But as soon as we could, the driver whipped the car around and returned the way we’d come, hoping to find the pack of wolves again.
It was a fruitless hunt. By the time we made it back, the wolves had already evaporated into their elusive mountain abodes.
Still, the fact that there was no question that we would turn the car around and try to find those wolves again was a friendship-affirming moment, a reminder that I had found my tribe in life.
I was in Canada for a friend’s 40th birthday. She had decided to spend the whole month of June hiking, camping, and photographing her way through the Canadian Rockies national parks of Banff, Jasper, Yoho, and Kootenay, which span Alberta and British Columbia. I flew from DC to Calgary with another friend to join her for a week toward the end of the month, when she already had a good sense of bearings.
In theory, we were there to hike and see all the sights—the mountains, the lakes, the rivers, the waterfalls. As the wolf story highlights, extraordinary as all of those things were, the wildlife really excited us the most.
On the first day, we went to Yoho National Park and, among other things, hiked around Emerald Lake, with its vibrant waters dotted with red canoes and rimmed by mountains that were still snow-covered in June.
By the end of the day, we were disappointed to have seen no wildlife, so the birthday girl (by this time attuned to the movements of the local creatures) drove out toward Lake Minnewanka, where got our first glimpse of elk, grazing in the middle of a field dotted with yellow flowers.
On day 2, we headed north to Jasper National Park. Less touristed than the more southern parks, Jasper was by far the most fruitful for wildlife viewing. As we drove out of the town of Jasper, we encountered mountain goats on the side of the road. At one point I sighted this guy on top of a rocky crag and cried, “Goat, goat, goat!” to get my friend to pull over for photos.
That night, when driving back to our campsite near Miette, we saw three black bears, including one tiny little baby foraging by the roadside. (Warning: Photos taken from the safety of a vehicle. Bears are dangerous, do not try to take photos like this if you are in the open.)
The next day, it was a small herd of bighorn sheep, wading through some tall grasses outside of Jasper and snacking.
Later some more goats, including this little baby, as we drove south down the Icefields Parkway back toward Banff.
The next two days were disappointing, wildlife-wise (and only wildlife-wise… an entire post on Lake Louise is coming.) So the last day of our trip, we drove out to Kootenay National Park, in hopes of catching some last glimpses of creatures… maybe a moose? Or a grizzly? Alas, we drove for hours and only managed to see a few more goats.
There were plenty of things we could have done with our last day. Surrounded by so many natural wonders, what was it that drew us to seek out the wildlife above all else? Why do animals so captivate us?
One could say it’s because we’re city gals, unaccustomed to seeing wildlife on the daily. Maybe people who live out in the wilderness no longer get excited when they see an elk or a bear.
I’m not sure about that explanation. My neighborhood is crawling with squirrels and chipmunks and I suppose they don’t excite me too much. But I also have a family of rabbits that lives in the vicinity of my building and I never fail to get excited when I see them.
Certainly rarity breeds fascination. No matter where you live, encounters with wolves are pretty fucking rare. And if you live in the suburbs of Washington DC, you’re very unlikely to encounter a mountain goat or a bighorn sheep. Still, I sometimes see deer when I’m hiking locally, or visiting friends who live in the country, and I still loved seeing these guys.
Does the fascination come from the danger? The wolves, bears, and even moose are dangerous and engender a healthy sense of fear, even when you’re safely in your vehicle as we were. Is seeking out wild creatures then a form of thrill-seeking, the same as riding a roller-coaster?
Perhaps all of these provide a partial explanation, and they certainly are not mutually exclusive.
I think it’s deeper than that though. I think we seek out our wild animal brethren not because they are exotic, but out of recognition of distant kinship. We dearly love and have even co-evolved with our domesticated pets.
But we are not so distant on the tree of life from our mammalian kin who still roam free in the world’s jungles, forests, plains, savannas, and deserts. It was not so long ago that our ancestors lived among them, hunting prey and avoiding predators as a matter of life and death.
I love photographing wild creatures with my 100-400mm telephoto lens because it lets me get shots like this one.
Look at this guy. He knows things. Maybe not the things that you and I know. Who knows what wisdom is of value to a sheep? But he is certainly not some dumb beast. He is alive and canny and as interested in me as I am in him.
When we see these guys across a field and they see us, we feel the excitement that we feel in spotting an old friend (or enemy) we haven’t seen in ages across a crowded room. “Oh hey there, fancy meeting you here. It’s been a while.”
Maybe for some of us, those of us who live most distant from the wild, it’s been longer than for those of you who live in cabins in the woods. But I still feel a thrill of kinship when I see my local bunnies.
That is why, as awe-inspiring as mountains and waterfalls are, there is some special excitement to seeking out wild creatures. At least for me. And for my well-chosen friends.