Most traditions, including the early Christian tradition, taught that the only way the divine could talk to humans was through nature. You can t look at the metamorphosis of a butterfly without realizing that the divine is operating all around us. We cloak ourselves in civilization, but we are still fully a part of nature. Everything that happens in nature affects us and everything that we do affects nature. We can starve as much from a lack of wonder as from a lack of food.
Nature keeps that sense of wonder alive.
Other people might argue that encounters with animals, as you re describing them, are just pure coincidence. I don t really believe in coincidence. I think everything happens for a reason. So when something happens, it s significant and we need to pay attention. When people come to a place like Angel Canyon, they re getting away from their everyday life.