Do you hear the Call of the Wild, Piggies! Blaze and graze a mini-trail for John Muir Day! 🐹 🤠 🗻 🗻 🗻 🌲 🌲 🌲 🥕

If you're not able to travel to your ancient and ancestral stomping and scurrying grounds in South America, piggies, you still may be able to hike on American soil in the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range in the National Park thanks to Scottish-American naturalist, John Muir! You may even meet a cousin with the same tail configuration as yourself!

John Muir, born in Scotland in 1838, moved to the United States at the age of eleven, carrying with him a lifelong love of wild places that blossomed in the Sierra Nevada. Known as the “Father of National Parks,” his writing and advocacy helped protect Yosemite National Park and set the stage for conservation across the country.

Muir famously camped in Yosemite with Theodore Roosevelt in 1903, helping nudge national policy toward preservation. He met shepherds, naturalists, and Native inhabitants, and ... a quite a few small creatures to keep him company.

Because tucked among those same rocky slopes are the American pika—round, rodentish, tailless, and wholly committed to the noble pursuit of hay. Hmmm ... sounds like someone we know.

These tiny alpine specialists spend their days gathering mouthfuls of grasses and flowers, drying them into neat little “hay piles” for winter like the most organized guinea pigs imaginable. Perched on sun-warmed rocks, they chirp and squeak across the hillsides, at passing hikers - maybe as a warning, maybe as a call for a snack.

Happy Birthday, Johnny! And thank you!

Wheek! Wheek!