Yellowstone, Pt2
8/11 – 8/12
I’ve become slightly jealous of people who live out here. It’s a completely different lifestyle filled with what feels like more adventure, with the environment as a fantastic backdrop. And, even though I have taken several geology classes, everyone seems to have such a greater understanding of the land. The words caldera, butte, and glacier, among so many others, are just common ways to describe the land around them – not some vocabulary for a test.
With that said, at Yellowstone I felt like I was in some turn of the century car or tourism commercial. Everything was as advertised: wondrous. But also crowded. A single file of cars wound their way slowly along the mapped loops. Every few miles a large sign would point to a parking lot, and everyone would get out, walk along the designated less than a mile with no steep inclines path that would guarantee you the best spot for a photo-op. It was a gorgeous day with the most fascinating scenery, but somehow it all felt like an amusement park ride at Disney World or a sideshow for Ringling brothers. Was still a fantastic less than a day, and I would love to come back and be able to hike around, explore on my own the first National Park’s beauty without being annoyed by tourists with hiking boots and water bottles for a ¼ mile loop.