Yellowstone

July 2017 | Park 4

Part + Park 2 (of 3) on our summer road trip.

We’ve been to Yellowstone a couple times in our relationship: First as part of this summer trip, and later for our fourth anniversary in early March to see wolves in the Lamar Valley. Both trips have given us a glimpse into the enigmatic, wild, truly unforgettable landscape of the US’s first national park. The dazzling colors in the sulfuric pools, the bison scattered across the hills and meadows and walking on the roads themselves, the steam billowing out of cracks in the earth, the bears and wolves and deer and elk. In the summer, it feels like a place of abundance and plenty. In the winter, a hush comes over the snow-blanketed land, pierced only by the occasional haunting howl of a grey wolf.

The downside of the summer months is that the park is overrun by humans. It is difficult to find solitude if you stay on the beaten path, in a developed campground, or on the paved roadways. The inclusive, spacious parts of myself are happy to see so many people enjoying time outside; other less charitable parts of me chafe when observing people not showing respect and deference to the land and animals we’re all so lucky to share space with. It seems like almost every summer there is another story of somebody getting into an altercation with a bison while trying to take a selfie. And with so many people come other seemingly inevitable impacts, like more trash that can easily pollute the landscape.

One of these days, I’d love the chance to backpack in this park, giving myself the opportunity to find that quietude in the summer that struck me so profoundly on our winter visit. This is certainly a park that could draw you back again and again.