Pika
Silver Lake to Twin Lake Loop Trail (Utah)
The morning mountain air was so clear it felt like breathing in shards of light. On the slope above Brighton, Utah, a tiny figure emerged from the scree — a pika, perched atop one of the many rocks in what could have been a prior avalanche. The pika twitched its whiskers, then darted — fast and fluid — into a crevice again, disappearing like a whisper. I lowered the camera and sighed. In the long silence that followed, every stone seemed full of stories, every shadow alive. I walked away slowly, leaving the mountain its solitude, carrying in memory not just the image but the spirit of that small being, perched between earth and sky.
Also, this rodent near Brighton is unrelated to the much more electric, far-more-famous, Japanese pikachu.