At the Old Faithful Inn, we were scheduled two days off every week when we could travel around the park. On these 'weekends,' we tried to venture as far away from tourists as possible.
One particular journey took us to Bighorn Peak (about 10,000 feet): eleven miles to the summit and nine miles down the other side. When covering that much distance, you sometmes fall into 'hike mode.' This happened to us on the way down from the peak. We had thoroughly enjoyed the sights and sounds of the mountain wilderness, but our thoughts had turned to questions of whether we would make it to work on time.
There we were, all seven of us: single file, race pace, heads down, watching our footing. After over an hour of hike mode, John from Georgia suddenly stopped. We almost ran right into him. He pointed and as we all looked up, I saw one of the most beautiful sights I've ever seen. Less than thirty feet from us stood a moose and her calf. The pair were grazing at the edge of a clearing. Behind them, the forest started, the trees a deep brown. Beneath them lay a carpet of lush green grass. Had we continued on for several minutes longer, we would have missed this scene.
And we wouldn't have known we missed it!