Antelope Running Across the Road? In America?!

And Other Wild Adventures

The significance of the glorious sunrise today is not lost on me, though I feel that every day.

Happy day beloved Joy Train Rider! It’s a sacred day and a sacred season for hundreds of millions of people around the world who are Christians and Jews. I pray it leads to a softening of hearts, a laying down of arms and “making them into peace pipes.”

The sentence that came into my mind following that introduction was so harsh that I censored myself and refused to write it. It included a mirror showing what transpired on this landmass in the past 600 years. Everyone knows it, and if I allow myself to think of it, I can see why the metaphor of smoking a peace pipe could be healing, and also why healing is needed.

Instead I’m going to take you traipsing through some of the most wonderful experiences we’ve had in more than a quarter of a century exploring America’s National Parks, forests and wildlife refuges, a sliver of the 630 million acres of recreational lands held in trust for the enjoyment and benefit of the American people.

I think a big part of our challenge in America is that the majority of us know very little about the history or present of our country, so we make it into what we think it should be and hold on for dear life. Reminds me of the story of the six blind men trying to describe an elephant based upon the part of it they could feel.

The first one that always leaps to mind is when I saw the herd of antelope bounding across the road in front our car as we drove toward Moab, Utah. My mind was already blown because since turning off the highway from Denver Airport we had been traveling through a phantasmagoric landscape of high, walled cities towering into the sky. But these artful cities contained no metal or concrete, instead being sculpted by the Forces of Nature. Fire; Air; Water and Earth into 100-floor high roofless enclaves that resembled pyramids and temples. If it wasn’t for the fact that my friend was also gasping in amazement, I may have thought I’d fallen into a trance.

So when he suddenly braked and I saw an entire herd of antelope bounding across the road in front of us, no words were uttered - my expression of utter awe and disbelief was mirrored in his face.

Yes, there are wild Pronghorn Antelope herds in America, and in the parks, forests and refuges you can observe them and other wildlife you would never dream are here, from a safe distance, just as if you were in the African Serengeti.