What is your best nature/outdoor experience?

Question

More specifically, what is your favorite experience in nature that enabled you to connect with it?

Answer 1

...having midnite s*x outdoors....

Answer 2

Camping on the rim of the Arizona meteor crater in '77. Dark when we arrived, but sunrise was breathtaking. Saw the total solar eclipse in Mexico, July '91- amazing, but brief. Haven't seen any Auroras, yet. The Northridge earthquake of '94 was something I don't wish to repeat. 10 miles from the epicenter.

Answer 3

the Northern lights are the most awesome thing I've ever seen!

Answer 4

Two-plus-week backpacking trips in the Grand Teton & Big Bend in Texas.

Answer 5

Hiking the back country of Yosemite. 3 days of really nice walking in pristine nature. Ahhhhhhhhhh....

Answer 6

I went backpacking up in the Sierras some years ago, and my friend and I took a dayhike up to Charlotte Lake.  Near the junction we came across a young buck calmly searching for food.  We stood silently for nearly 10 minutes and watched, then went over and tracked the animal after it left.

And that would have been the best, except the next year we had a B&B up in the mountains.  It was my birthday morning, the husband and daughter were sleeping.  I took my coffee and stepped out the front door.  It had snowed during the night, and about 50 feet in front of me were 6 deer, grazing.  I don't know how long I watched them -- I know I finished my coffee! -- but again, after they moved on I checked out the main spot to see what fresh deer tracks in new snow looked like.  It was my best birthday present ever.

Somehow, experiences like those make me feel whole.  I feel priviledged to have witnessed what for me is a very special moment.