Yellowstone Musings

Went to Yellowstone this month and I am totally surprised by how much fun I had on my mini-national parks tour. I thoroughly enjoyed myself seeing lots of animals and some cool features and I also enjoyed seeing the geologic features every where and it is a good thing that I had my environmental classes because it helped make me learn what I needed to do well on the trip. There was no one I would have liked to go on the trip more than my Mom and getting to go on the BUS tour in the yellow old-school BUS and doing the ranger talks and at my count over or close to 30 miles of hiking I was so grateful to have gone there. My favorite things were the license plates from all over, the continual language appreciation for everyone and the diversity of both staff and visitors other than elk causing a lot of inconvenience in Mammoth there was not a lot of strange things happening from a visiting perspective. I enjoyed the falls the most out of any geologic feature and I also enjoyed the mud pots and the pools and springs. Some people like the geysers- outside of Old Faithful I didn't because otherwise it was  like seen one seen them all and Norris Geysers were my least favorite hike too crowded and too much of the same thing. Regardless of all the various things that were off including one time after a long day where I needed time alone to not melt down I was able to stay composed and learn a lot and use my words- my Mom is a very solid travel companion and this is not the first long trip we have been on. Sleeping in a different place every night was fine and I didn't have too many horses go into the night- actually I slept great because I was exhausted. Continuing to learn about the features and listening to the ranger talks was great and some of the history like the trinkets and feeding the bears that were able to be done in the distant past as well as Leonard Nimoy sitting in the hot spring for a filming of his Star Trek movie- all these things were impressive and I think that there is a lot of disconnect in how the overall lessons of how the park was and is now continue to amaze me and I continue to learn why things are the way they are after a lot of reinvention and lessons. Regardless of what I can continue to discern and ascertain from this time I continue to see impressive lessons in the overall schemata of Yellowstone and I look forward to going again. There were 4 bison herds and 3 elk herds I saw in addition to a coyote, 2 bald eagles, 2 trumpeter swans, an osprey, an otter, 2 hawks, and a host of seagulls other birds and bugs and 3 other elk and about 8 other bison. Apparently I wasn't the only animal there and that was kind of a good thing I get tired of when that happens. I hope to go back in several years but then my Mom will be in her mid-70s so maybe I will go with my sisters so that they can have implicit memories or some friends. Either way I look forward to getting back to Yellowstone and I look forward to continuing to travel more this next little bit because traveling is loads of fun. Tiring yes but also loads of fun.