A pair of backpackers spotted a cougar in Olympic National Park, and their video of this chance encounter is making many people wonder how many times they’ve passed a cougar without even realizing it. Rusty Wadleigh shared the footage to Instagram, saying this isn’t really something he had on his backpacking-Bingo card for 2026 . . . or ever.
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“Cannot imagine a better capstone to a rainy Olympic NP backpacking trip than @laceyjfaught spotting this cougar on our hike back,” Wadleigh wrote in his post. “Honestly never thought I’d see one in the backcountry.”
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Lacey added in a comment:
“A chance of a lifetime. It’s hard to talk about anything else after seeing this. We didn’t speak about anything else for hours after.”
One person in the comments section wrote: “I always wonder how many mountain lions have seen ME.”
Check out the cougar these backpackers saw in Olympic National Park:
Header stock image by Jupiterimages/Getty Images
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