Happy Birthday NPS!
Happy 100th birthday National Park Service! Alanna and I feel so fortunate to be celebrating this event in Yellowstone National Park, which was designated as a park in 1872, well before the formation of the NPS, perhaps the one good thing that US Grant did in his presidency!
Yellowstone is what I think of as my home park, as this is the park in which I have spent the most time. Granted, it has been around twenty years since I have been here, but during college and my early twenties, I spent a great deal of time grounded in the wonder of this park. When I lived in Cody, I used to take day trips into the park, maybe just to sit at the lake for a few hours or to walk amongst the geysers, marveling at their power and beauty.
I've had some funny misadventures here, too. One summer, a buddy was working at the lodge at Old Faithful, so a few of us came up to visit. At some point, my car keys disappeared, but that did not deter us from an overnight backcountry excursion to Shoshone Lake. I don't recall that we were super well prepared, yet we were wise enough to string up our food so that any bears poking around in the night would be forced to move along, hopefully. The next day, we hiked out to the south entrance road and then hitched a ride back north. A cute family picked us up in their minivan and we had a mini-vacation on the way back, stopping at a number of sites on the way. It was hilarious and very indicative of the craziness of our age.
Today, Alanna and I move into the backcountry very well-prepared and we are creating our own incredible memories in this place that I love. We did the hardest descent of our lives down the 7-Mile Hole Trail into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and sat to eat lunch by the river while an osprey fished overhead. In this park that gets 4.2 million visitors a year, mostly in the summer, we were alone, with the roar of water and wind and the magical shifting light on the walls of this canyon Thomas Moran made so famous.
On Tuesday, we got up before the sun and drove to Fountain Flat Drive where we had breakfast while watching bison graze by the Firehole River. Mountain bluebirds, both male and female, flitted about. It's thrilling to watch the residents of the park wake up and start their day! Once the sun was high enough, we hit the trail to Fairy Falls by way of Goose Lake. Our bison friends had moved up to rest on the trail so we had to head off trail a bit to create a safe distance between us. While we enjoyed Fairy Falls, we were mesmerized when we got to Imperial Geyser. Just one other person was out there, as opposed to the throngs on the boardwalks at the popular spots. We sat and ate a snack while the geyser erupted and talked about how grateful we are to be doing this trip. The way back was through a wide-open plateau with bison in the distance and raptors soaring well above our heads as well as close to the ground. One rather immense bison was taking his afternoon nap ten feet off the trail, which once again created an interesting detour for us.
After dinner on Tuesday, we headed into Mammoth to get a cell connection and watch the elk lounging about on the lawn. One little one playfully romped and rolled and then darted for his mother for a refill. I was dismayed as we were driving out when we came across a group of people mixing in way too closely to about five or six elk. One woman had her hand out to an elk and a man held a tiny baby up for a picture with an elk right behind him. We prefer to watch and wonder from a respectful and safe distance.
It never ceases to amaze me when people think a place like Yellowstone is a petting zoo rather than a wild place. Perhaps it's because there is a cell connection in Mammoth or maybe it's because elk have historically enjoyed the lawns of Mammoth, both for nourishment and for safety. This is a wild place, tour busses aside, and while we are enjoying seeing all of the popular sites, usually early in the morning before the mass of humanity descends, we are happiest on the trail as this is where we find peace and the beauty unseen by most.
On the way back to camp from Mammoth, we stopped at Swan Lake Flat, just to sit and watch and listen. The sun was setting, the trumpeter swans were swimming in the lake, choppers were flying overhead fighting the fires, and then there came an unfamiliar and unusual sound. A very large bird was flying fast and low to the ground. We watched as it landed in a grassy field not far from us and began to feed. It was a sandhill crane, which we have seen before but never heard. By sitting and listening and watching, we end up with gifts like the crane. We know we are fortunate to have this time.
At midnight, I woke to a long howl which I quickly realized was not the familiar coyote. A wolf was making itself known somewhere to the south of us. I opened the window next to the bed and lay there, thrilled beyond words. Alanna was awake at that point and we listened until the calls faded in the distance, amazed at our good fortune. Though we have not seen a wolf yet, it was a thrill to hear this one's beautiful song.
These are the gifts provided by the National Park Service. They preserve and protect our wild places, maintain healthy and natural ecosystems and allow folks like us to have splendid adventures. I can live with the crowds in parks like Yellowstone so long as I can hit the trail, surrounded only by the sounds that wild lands produce. Thank you NPS! Happy Birthday!
