{"id":780,"date":"2013-12-16T10:50:37","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T16:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shawnbeelman.com\/?p=780"},"modified":"2020-11-24T18:24:27","modified_gmt":"2020-11-24T18:24:27","slug":"pinnacle-peak-trail-pika","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shawn.photography\/pinnacle-peak-trail-pika\/","title":{"rendered":"Pinnacle Peak Trail Pika"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hiking down from Plummer Peak, we were on Pika alert. As we walked past rock fields on the hike up the mountain we kept hearing their high-pitched “eeeek” calls, but the little critters were elusive.<\/p>\n
It was my trip to Mount Rainier National Park in August and we had just spent a productive afternoon on Plummer Peak shooting Rainier. The critter is the American Pika<\/a>, and our guide, Aaron, told us that the little animals were a threatened species. We heard them at every scree<\/a> we passed but they were hidden from view or too far away to photograph\u2014until the hike down the mountain on Pinnacle Peak trail when one of us spotted a Pika down below us. I assumed that by the time I hiked down to his location he would flee, but Aaron encouraged me to try. I slowly made my way down about 50 yards until I was close enough to get my first shot of him peeking out from under a rock:<\/p>\n