I spent the day in Yellowstone .... the weather was overcast initially but as I traveled west and then south the weather cleared ... again reinforcing my thinking that eastern and southern travels do not bother whoever is watching .... it is moves to the west ....
The park itself was the first national park in the world and it's story and that of those to follow (in the US) was covered in Ken Burn's excellent documentary on the US National Park system.
The park was busy ... not as busy as July and August I am sure .... but never the less, busy. The geothermal activity in the park, combined with the wild life, make it a great visit for photographers of all qualifications. That said, you get the feeling you must stand in line for the photo op .... there's that much pressure in those particular areas.
I read a fascinating book by David Thompson in 1980 titled, 'In Search of the Shining Mountains', .... the author had a dream to live like a mountain man in the late 19th century, to experience it in a solitary fashion, to listen to the messages that nature was communicating, messages lost in the cacophony of today's existence. He set out to do that in the lower 48 ... but he soon discovered he could not ... barbed wire, rights of way, fencing, tourists in campers and Winnebago's, etc. ... either prevented him or were always there to 'poison' the experience ... he concluded that while we have preserved wilderness areas, we have lost something in the process, and what that is, is the ability to both truly get away and to experience the solitude and quiet, that is the solace that the 'nature' experience offers.
I experienced what Thompson was talking about today in Yellowstone .... it is a beautiful natural setting ... polluted by all of us with our constant engine noise and haste to take the quick snap and move on .... I even had someone lay on the horn behind me because they thought I had pulled out in front of them and slowed them down.
The best though was at Old Faithful ... there is an outdoor seating area that is probably 100 feet from the geyser site .... it is two rows deep and forms a semi-circle of about 25 degrees of arc that can easily accommodate about 1700 people ... and today that area was filled. So we all know when the geyser will erupt within a minute or two ... after all it is called Old Faithful ....
So ... we're all sitting there ... it's coming time ... folks are texting ... folks are talking on their cell phones ... folks are jokingly complaining that it is late ... sure it enough it erupts, pictures are taken ... everybody runs for the cars to get the jump to the next stop on the itinerary ... I really believe that nobody saw the eruption with their own eyes ... it was either behind a cell phone, an iPhone, a camera ... or they were texting and talking on their phones and missed it.
Thompson's book did not anticipate this but it did suggest that it might come to this ....
Now that said, we are indeed truly in deep gratitude to some visionary and forward looking people who set aside lands that form the National Park system.
To get a true sense of how grateful we should be it is worth while reading Wallace Stegner's great, great book on John Wesley Powell. The first part of the book is about Powell's expedition down the Colorado River - the second part of the book and most important in my opinion, is about Powell's struggle to bring common sense and science to the settlement of the American West ... and how he was undermined and over ruled by lobbyists and politicians and state interests so that the west could be settled without federal government interference and how years later this would lead directly to the dust bowl 'dirty thirties'.
The National Park system is not perfect ... the area around Old Faithful is too developed for me ... but without that system, there would be condos, casinos, strip joints and liquor stores around the geyser site ...
Thompson was right .... we have become a society that either enjoys everything vicariously ... reality TV, DVDs, Blu-Rays, internet ... or we rush out there with all our electronic toys, see it through these toys and then move on .... we get a facsimile of the experience ... not the experience itself.
I would suggest a read of Edward Abbey to get in touch with the sentiment I am talking about here ... start with, 'Desert Solitaire' ...
There were some folks in the park though that were getting the real experience ... the fly fishermen ... and yes ... fisherwomen ... there is something very elemental about standing in the stream, casting a line in sparkling water, catching and releasing a fish, and enjoying the sense of being out there, in one place, for more than just a fleeting moment. They have no cell phones, they are not texting, they are not rushing from place to place in a state of becoming ... they are truly in state of being.
More later,
Forever Man
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