{"id":432,"date":"2023-03-13T17:42:48","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T17:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/?p=432"},"modified":"2023-06-27T21:54:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T21:54:56","slug":"rajaji-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/postcards\/rajaji-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajaji National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rajaji National Park, a picturesque and sparsely visited wildlife refuge near the foothills of the Himalayas in India, is best known for its frequent leopard sightings. So on a chilly winter day I woke up at 4:00am and excitedly put my camera gear together for a day of adventure.<\/p>\n

A short drive through Dehradun brought us to the unassuming entrance, then, inside, across a new highway being built between Delhi and Dehradun. And then into the tranquility of the Garden of Eden.<\/p>\n

[It was waiting for the safari that I saw The Girl Carrying Water<\/a>.]<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The park is home to its famous leopards, and is visited, less commonly, by their smaller cousins, the jungle lynx, and even their larger cousins, the Bengal tiger. And there are wild boar and monkeys and snakes and lizards and elephants and birds.<\/p>\n

Even without wildlife, the refuge is beautiful<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Driving Through Rajaji National Park is Spectacular<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and deer are everywhere (prey for the cats?)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An Indian Deer in an Indian Paradise<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

but of course I wanted a leopard, which I’d never seen.<\/p>\n

I did see birds and lizards<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
An Owl of Some Sort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
An Eagle of Some Sort<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
A Monitor Lizard Hiding<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

but no leopard.<\/p>\n

Then, as dusk descended, we saw, not a leopard, but an elephant. And it was magnificent!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
How Can Something So Big Be So Small?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though a child, it seemed huge as it exited the forest<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Juvenile Elephant<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

and charged us!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Charge!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A leopard may be a better photo, but seeing a wild elephant is a nearly unmatched experience.<\/p>\n

Still, I’ll be back to see a leopard. For now, so long, Rajaji.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Dusk Descends on Rajaji National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On a chilly winter day I woke up at 4:00am and excitedly put my camera gear together for a day of adventure. What would I see at Rajaji National Park, the picturesque and sparsely visited wildlife refuge near the foothills of the Himalayas in India, best known for its frequent leopard sightings? \ud83d\udc06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[109,106,4,108,101,99,100,103,107,36,102,110,104,105],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-postcards","tag-deharadun","tag-elephants","tag-india","tag-leopards","tag-photography","tag-rajaji","tag-rajaji-national-park","tag-safari","tag-tigers","tag-travel","tag-travel-photography","tag-uttarakhand","tag-wildlife","tag-wildlife-safari"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":793,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joelmhoffman.com\/Human-Stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}