Yellowstone Vacation part B

 

It’s been about six weeks since our Yellowstone vacation. Needless to say, time has gotten away from me. I wondered if I should scrap writing about it. Maybe it’s no longer relevant. Maybe you’ve read about so many others’ summer trips to the national parks that you’re bleary-eyed. Maybe you’ve heard too many stories about campers being attacked by bears (one particularly gruesome story in Russia caught my attention this past week). Maybe you’re just scrolling through, completely unmoved by pictures of wild animals or scenic mountaintops. And maybe you’re right, maybe it’s lost its relevance.

But I’ve been reading the headlines lately, and it’s not very cheerful. If you’re feeling down about the current state of affairs, you’re not alone. I was reminded of my favorite poem by Wendell Berry:

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

So…it is in this spirit that I present the rest of our journey to the “peace of wild things.”

Day 4

On our fourth day, having gained an hour by traveling into the mountain time zone worked to our advantage. Sarah told us to pick her up by 5:30 am to get into the park by 7:00 am. This would ensure we would see the animals at their morning feeding time. We would be doing a big route today, entering Yellowstone’s northern entrance, then turning east to go through the Lamar Valley. After Lamar, we would exit the park through the northeast entrance to go through cute little Cooke City, then we would head north on the Beartooth Highway to go over the Beartooth Pass. At around 11,000 feet in elevation, the pass had been covered in snow only three weeks before. We were hoping for fantastic views. (We would not be disappointed.)

This day was hands down my favorite day of our trip. Early morning in the valley, with woods and flowers and snow-tipped peaks; with birdsong and bubbling brooks and expansive rolling vistas covered with a light mist? There is no better time of day. As per tradition, we entered the park through the Roosevelt Arch. And as if on cue, the “welcoming committee” of pronghorn antelope appeared, too quickly for us to even snap a picture before we had to line up at the entry gate. We had less than a five-minute wait to enter the park, and we were on our way.