Utah family's bobcat shock caught on camera
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When a bobcat crashed a family portrait shoot this week on a Draper trail, the camera captured something primal and relatable in the faces of two young girls in matching outfits.
The big picture: Any Utahn who hikes as much as the Higley family has probably felt some version of the kids' reaction to a sudden encounter with wildlife.
- It's startling, awe-inspiring and intimidating. You know you're lucky to see something so special, but your lizard-brain is even more certain that you shouldn't be that close to it.
Driving the news: The latter reflex prevailed in the moment when, at the Lupine Trailhead in Corner Canyon, Lauralee Higley's family noticed a rabbit charging directly at them as they posed for a photo Monday afternoon.
- Then a bobcat followed in hot pursuit.
What they're saying: "Literally both were within 10 feet of us," Higley wrote on Facebook.
The parents, who had taken off work to dress up the kids and meet with a neighborhood photographer, initially tried to keep smiling in hopes of one usable portrait.
- "We weren't going to let a once-in-a-lifetime experience stop us," Higley jokingly tells Axios.
Then the bobcat hissed at them. The photo shoot was over.
The bottom line: It was "easily the coolest wildlife encounter we've ever had, and we hike weekly," Higley wrote.
Yes, but: That night she couldn't sleep.
- "Honestly, it was cool, but also too close," she says.
Higley cropped herself and her husband out of the photo because "we look evil smiling while the kids are losing it."
The latest: The next day, her daughters, 5 and 7, were laughing about the photos.
- Higley crossed back to the thrilled side of the thrilling-scary line. She's just sorry her 9-month-old son "won't remember one of the coolest experiences of our lives."
Show and tell: Have you had a heart-racing encounter with wildlife in Utah?
- Tell us about it — and if you have a photo, send it to [email protected].