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The Canadian Rockies are large enough to make a bird list feel ridiculous. A mountain can hold forests, rivers, cliffs, and alpine slopes in one view, while the birds move through each place on their own schedule. This is a starting list for looking more closely, not a promise of ten sightings in one day.…
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The first number is 146: the cars ahead of us when we reach the entrance. The second is 12: minutes spent wondering whether there is another gate. The third is 0: spaces available at the viewpoint when we finally get there. These numbers do not measure the whole crowding problem. They do show what a…
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Rock Ptarmigan: Thank you for joining us. What species are you? Bird: That seems like your concern. The bird arrived in a hedge just as our interview began. It was small, brown in some light, less brown in other light, and unwilling to remain still while we checked the markings in a field guide. RP:…
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The truck has recovery boards, a roof tent, extra lights, and a shovel attached where everyone can see it. On Saturday morning it travels four blocks to buy oat milk. Its owner parks far from the entrance because the vehicle is tall enough to make the parking garage an unpleasant thought. A child asks whether…
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The hike begins at 8:15 a.m. with a map open on the kitchen table. By nine, the hiker has compared three trailheads. By ten, he has read a discussion about parking at each of them. At eleven, rain appears in one forecast but not another. He makes coffee and checks the weather again. A photograph…
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At a trail workday, the tallest volunteer is asked whether he can see a missing sign from where he stands. He cannot. Someone suggests climbing a nearby hill; someone else jokes that the park should simply build a lookout on his shoulders. The joke persists because everyone has a task they hope height might solve.…
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At the campground, four friends spend forty minutes selecting a site for one tent. One wants morning sun. Another wants shade. A third has read that the ground slopes toward the table. The fourth has already carried the stakes to three different places. When a cloud passes overhead, the shade argument must be reopened. Someone…
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Every hiking photograph seems to feature someone at the top of a ridge, legs positioned as though they were designed solely to carry a person across mountains. Down at the trailhead, actual legs belong to people of all ages and shapes. Many are already sore. A fictional hiking association briefly considers announcing that enormous calves…
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A rare bird appears near a pond. By lunch, the person who spotted it has seen seventeen photographs, six identification debates, and a map showing precisely where it stood. Their phone now suggests that the entire world is discussing the bird. At the grocery store, nobody is. The cashier has not heard of it. A…
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After reading that some trees live for thousands of years, a man becomes convinced he should have bought into forests at the beginning. He calculates the appreciation on a grove acquired seven millennia ago and briefly forgets that land ownership, money, and his own existence would have posed obstacles. He brings this theory to a…