Encounters with Wild Animals

Doe and fawn, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, Clarno Unit

One of the amazing things about our national parks and monuments is the opportunity to see animals in the wild.  We had several memorable encounters on our road trip to the Painted Hills and John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  Each sighting felt like luck and serendipity.

I saw this doe and her fawn on the trail in the Clarno Unit off the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument:

I saw two rabbits.  One at the end of the Arch Trail in the Clarno Unit, and one under a bridge on the Red Hill Trail of the Painted Hills Unit.  The second one seemed mesmerized by a huge rattlesnake nearby, but it eventually woke up and ran away.

Here is the huge rattlesnake.  I’m glad to have seen this one, as I had never before seen one in the wild.  But I was happy not to see more!

Snake skin

We saw a couple of antelope, but we were able to pull off the road and watch this one jump over a fence from a meadow, then run across the road, and finally change his mind and return back to the meadow:

And here is a pretty moth or butterfly: