My appreciation for wild things came early. My mid-western family relocated to the west when I was just 4, and it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the mountains around our new home.
Soon after arriving in Washington, my family took to the low, pine-covered mountains that flanked our small town. As I grew up, my summers were filled with weekends in the Blue Mountains. We drove the old logging roads and hiked through thick pine forests. We hunted wild mushrooms and gathered juicy huckleberries. Wildlife was commonly seen on these outings, and I was soon able to tell the difference between a whitetail and a mule deer at a glance and grew to love the big elk that roamed the Blues.
In the half-century I’ve lived in Washington, my love of the local wildlife has continued to grow. Shown here are just a few of the critters I regularly see when visiting the wild places they call home.
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