There are moose in them thar hills

One of our favorite things to do when we don't have a lot of time but are still aching for an outdoor-fix is to take a drive in the mountains. Now, for us that inherently means going, at some point in the drive, past the pavement and into the dust. We had one such mini-adventure last night, as a Family Home Evening activity. Yes, during the Summer and Fall months we tend to have a lot of "The Natural World is a Beautiful Place Heavenly Father Created for Us"-FHE lessons, with the appropriate family drive as an activity. It may be repetitive, but at least we're doing it.

Last night we started out driving the Alpine Loop (paved, through the mountains between Sundance and American Fork Canyon). Our requisite dusty detour led us down an at times quite rough dirt road that winds around Timp, through aspen groves, pine forests, an old avalanche path now nothing more than a huge swath of crumbling rock (on either side of the still intact road--don't want to scare the grandparents) and flattened forest, and meadows.

This kind of trip you expect great scenery, but your wild life experience is generally rather limited (the sounds of birds being the most likely). But not last night. About halfway through our ramble we came around a bend and there were two enormous moose (plural is the same as the singular, there are no "meese" around here) about 15 feet ahead of us on the road. We waited as they stared at us a bit and walked out of the road and across a meadow to our right. Then we drove on, found a neat hill that overlooked this cascade of alpine meadow, and got out to take in the view. As we were looking around we saw the moose again, on the other side of the road, making their way down the hills below us. They kept stopping and looking at us, we kept quiet and respected their space, enjoying the opportunity to see such beautiful, enormous creatures. They can be dangerous if provoked, they are just so big and so fast--I think it was that grace of movement in such a large animal that is often portrayed as being so awkward, that is what captured me and why I so enjoyed just watching them move over the meadows for so long.

Last night we were reminded of not only a particular species which inhabits these mountains, but through that we were further reminded of the fact that the world is a huge place and even with a loud car bounding over ruts and shale we are a small thing in it, though one with a huge impact for good or ill--luckily that choice is up to us, whether it be environmentally or in our families or communities.