In the forest, unless they have really big paws or there is some really soft dirt, you typically don't see the prints and signs of animals. On sand, however, there's a different story. You can see every single track from every animal that has passed through, until the next wind or rain washes them away. On the morning we woke up in the dune field of Great Sand Dunes National Park, Torrey and I found several sets of prints near our camp. Most of them were small, as from insects or maybe lizards or kangaroo rats, but we did see some larger prints that made us rethink whether or not we were really alone the night before. We saw some prints that might have belonged to someone's dog, or maybe a coyote, then we found these prints that were clearly not a dog. The only thing we could think of was bobcat, because they looked like they had been chasing something (a kangaroo rat probably), we saw scuff marks, then just these prints walking away back towards the edge of the dunes. I wish I had taken a scale shot with my hand or something, but these were definitely not house-cat sized tracks, but were also much smaller than a mountain lion's. Here, kitty kitty!
Leave me a comment below and tell me about a time you came across tracks on one of your hikes.
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