A couple of summers ago, my wife and I promised our kids a special vacation. Our holidays usually involve visits with family at the Jersey Shore or road trips to places the Sierra Club is working to protect. Because I was spending many long hours away from home preparing for the presidential election, we told the kids that after November, we'd celebrate by going to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios.

Well, the election didn't turn out as expected, but a promise is a promise. The kids loved the trip, of course. But afterward, I wondered if future excursions to a national monument or a state park could compete with drinking butterbeer in Diagon Alley. Then last summer, I got my answer after our family joined a Sierra Club outing in Colorado with the Boulder Valley ICO group. 

ICO (Inspiring Connections Outdoors) started as a volunteer-led Sierra Club program in 1971, based on a simple idea: Make nature and wilderness accessible to people—particularly young people—who otherwise have little chance to experience it. We now have 50 Sierra Club ICO groups nationwide, and their volunteers run more than 800 annual outings for about 14,000 people. 

The ICO outing we joined was a service trip, which meant we'd spend some of the time volunteering. Most service trips feature jobs like habitat restoration or trail building, but ours included preparing dinner for a pack of gray wolves. See, this wasn't a camping trip but a weekend visit to Mission: Wolf, a nonprofit sanctuary for rescued wolves and wolf-dog hybrids. 

Mission: Wolf is located in a remote valley between the Sangre de Cristo and Wet mountain ranges and provides a home for animals rescued from, or surrendered by, people who couldn't cope with keeping a wild animal as a pet. It uses "ambassador" animals to increase people's understanding of these extraordinary creatures and to deliver the message that wolves belong in the wild. Sadly, captive wolves and wolf-dog hybrids far outnumber their wild counterparts in North America.

It wasn't always so. Gray wolves once lived throughout the Rockies, but they were systematically hunted, trapped, and poisoned during the first half of the 20th century. During the past few decades (thanks to the Endangered Species Act), wolves have begun to reestablish themselves in the West. Today, most Coloradans, as well as the Sierra Club's Rocky Mountain Chapter, support restoring wolves to Colorado's wilderness. We want to see wolves return not simply because they're awesome (which they are) but also because they're necessary. As apex predators, wolves play a crucial ecosystem role by regulating the behavior of prey species and mesocarnivores like coyotes. 

The reason why wolves haven't been reintroduced into Colorado—and why they're being hunted in states like Idaho and Wyoming—is fear rooted in ignorance. I can understand why some people are fearful. I didn't grow up with a dog, much less a canine that could bring down an elk or a moose. But when I looked into a wolf's eyes, I saw an intelligence and wildness that stirred the same awe I feel when I see a giant sequoia or the Grand Canyon. Over the course of the weekend, I came to understand why people would devote their lives to protecting these animals. 

For the kids, the connection was instantaneous. Never in their lives had they been so close to something so wild, beautiful, and mysterious. A child who meets a wolf will forever be a champion for the species. One weekend forged a connection that will last a lifetime. 

A few weeks after returning home from Colorado, I brought up the subject of vacations one evening during dinner. "If you could pick any trip you wanted for our next vacation," I asked the kids, "would you go back to Harry Potter World or back to see the wolves?" 

The vote was unanimous. Sorry, Harry.

This article appeared in the November/December 2017 edition with the headline "A Wild Connection."