I will leave for Yellowstone very early Friday morning... probably about 4 am. This park is one of my favorite places in the world. Crowded yes, but I have come to learn the minutiae of this place, come to know the regulars, the geyser gazers that spend their summers wandering from eruption to eruption.
I have enjoyed a meal with the Old Faithful Lodge potter who has spend the last 20 summers at Yellowstone working his craft.
I have watched Castle geyser erupt with a photographer whose book on the history of the park I was browsing only hours before in the bookstore.
I have wandered the turns of Slough Creek watching the trout wander in and out of the shady eddys.
I have stood at the most photographed spot on the Firehold river, fly rod in hand, and experienced the humbling experience of watching the trout wander past my fly and weave in and out of my legs, laughing at me I am sure.
I have walked the trails of the northwest corner of the park with pepper spray in my hand because grizzlies were sighted only hours before.
I have watched over the years, the eruption cycles of the geysers ebb and flow in their time and intensity. I have come to know their personalities and it is like visiting an old friend and discovering how he has changed.
I took a picture of my children in front of a stand of burned trees (from the great fire) and where there was a carpet of little saplings emerging from the forest floor. I have gone back over the years and seen those trees grow, now taller than me.
I have zoomed around Lake Yellowstone in a motorboat with my kids.
Late at night, under a moonless sky I have walked to Morning Glory Pool with trepidation at the thought of buffalo on the path.
I have spent my days listening to A. tell me the stories about the science of the park including the DNA bottleneck discovered in the human race - traced back about 60,000 years - roughly the same time as the last catastrophic explosion of the caldera that makes up much of Yellowstone.
Did I mention that cyclicly we are due for another. The caldera is starting to bulge. Something is due, maybe in the next 10,000 years:)
Yes, Yellowstone is a good place.
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6 comments:
You describe it in such vivid detail I can remember my trip with clarity. Have a wonderful time and take pics to share, of course along with the experience of sharing it with the "other relationship"
Leann
Yeah for SuperVolocanoes!
I've never been to Yellowstone, and for whatever reason, it's never been high on my list. But we should all go together sometime and you can show us all the "good" parts! :)
Gavin is going to love it when he gets back from Hawaii and reads about the supervolcano.
Cool, Yellowstone. :) Jen and I spent a few days there right after we were married, it was my first time back to Yellowstone since I was 8. It was great.
And then I found out a few years ago that Yellowstone is a supervolcano! Very cool.
*sigh*
I really love Yellowstone, too. We went about every other year while I was growing up. We got to the point where we'd seen things enough that we'd target guysers we hadn't seen and wait for hours to see them erupt. Grand Guyser is really something to see. I remember being really disappointed when we read that Steamboat Guyser had erupted that I hadn't been there.
I'm still waiting to hear how this trip turned out :-)
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