I'm almost completely convinced that my wild canine friends are Coyotes. Almost. I saw them again today. This time we were pretty close.

I hadn't been walking the dogs this week. Something about a woodworking project, a kitchen and a brother-in-law. But with my newfound freedom I had time this afternoon to get out on the mountain with the boys. This time I remembered to bring my binoculars.

I was up on the Lake Bonneville trail in a familiar spot. I'd been walking slowly, looking around. Something caught my eye on the trail a hundred or so feet ahead. I looked at the spot until the outline of some pointed ears registered in my brain. Then a full grown coyote appeared, heading up the hill. I had my binoculars handy and watch through them until I heard Champ start to run. I looked over and yelled for him to stop. He headed back to me. I lost sight of the coyote.

I know that every source says coyotes are more afraid of us than we are of them. And I've found out that coyote hunters go out with the expressed purpose of getting close to these wild animals. But I still felt a bit unsettled. I wondered if there were any other coyotes near by and I wondered how my dogs would react to a close up encounter. So I decided to head back up the trail for home. Just then I heard a bark coming from up on the hill. It was in a different area than where I'd lost site of the first coyote.

I looked all over the hill. There was no question that a coyote was up there some where. I took out the binoculars and did another thorough search. Still nothing. I was about to give up when the coyote moved. He was much closer than I'd expected, only about half way up a 350 foot rise. He was lighter in color than the first and much smaller. This one was young, reminding me of a friendly, fun-loving puppy calling out to some potential new friends. My dogs watched him but didn't show any desire to run up after him. Probably because of all their neighborhood dog friends that were a lot like this little guy.

The pup barked for a while, moved on up the hill, stopped to watch us, barked some more and repeated this process for about 15 minutes. It fascinated me to be that close to these wild creatures. Sure, Coyotes are plentiful. They aren't protected or respected. In fact, I get the distinct impression that they are pretty much disliked on most fronts. But I really thought being that close to them, and having the young one bark at us, was fun. I told my wife about them when I got home. She wants me to take her up on the trail to see these coyotes. She also informed me t
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