The Quiet Season
It is the quiet season – the season between seasons. The roads are empty, the tourists gone. “Closed” signs hang on doors and in windows. Our trailer looks like an orphan in the only Yellowstone campground remaining open. A dusting of snow covers the higher peaks, and lies in frozen patches along shaded hillsides. Ice rims a stream that meanders through a slough of golden grass and burnished red sedge. It will not be long before the winter snow flies. The animals know, and take this time to fatten up for what lies ahead.
There is something marvelous about hearing elk bugling, watching hundreds of buffalo move slowly across the Lamar Valley, or to see big horn sheep drinking from a pool of water beside the road, unconcerned with we humans in their midst. It reminds me of my visit to the Galapagos Islands when I walked past blue boobies sitting on their ground nests, iguanas, both land and sea, and swam with a penguin. The wild creatures knew no fear because they are protected from harm.
On our drive today, we crossed the bridge over Yellowstone River heading east on the Roosevelt Tower Road – the only road open to us. A movement near the road caught our attention. A wolf ready to cross the road, was caught in that moment of indecision at hearing the approach of our car. For a moment we all looked at each other, surprised. Then the wolf turned and retreated back into the trees. Further down the road we saw several groups of cars and people. They stood on a knoll with high-powered spotting scopes mounted on tripods. We looked in the direction they were pointed – could it be big horn sheep they were watching? We continued until we saw another group pulled off the road. Our curiosity finally got the best of us, and we stopped. Bob got out of the Jeep to ask one of the men what they were looking at. The man requested that Bob turn off the engine and then brusquely said that he was listening to wolf howls, and trying to locate them. Bob said, “We saw a wolf just down the road,” but the man paid no attention. Probably thought we were just stupid tourists who didn’t know what we were looking at. So we went on. I don’t know if they ever saw the wolves but we had to laugh at how close the wolf was to the very group that was looking for him – in the wrong direction.
Yellowstone National Park is a treasure, saved and protected by farsighted men in 1872. It was the world’s first national park. Native Americans historically spoke of being good stewards of the land so that it remained unchanged for the seventh generation to enjoy. In Yellowstone’s case we are close to that seventh generation now – can we do the same for future generations?
...P. L. Morningstar
Roosevelt Arch at North Entrance
There is something marvelous about hearing elk bugling, watching hundreds of buffalo move slowly across the Lamar Valley, or to see big horn sheep drinking from a pool of water beside the road, unconcerned with we humans in their midst. It reminds me of my visit to the Galapagos Islands when I walked past blue boobies sitting on their ground nests, iguanas, both land and sea, and swam with a penguin. The wild creatures knew no fear because they are protected from harm.
On our drive today, we crossed the bridge over Yellowstone River heading east on the Roosevelt Tower Road – the only road open to us. A movement near the road caught our attention. A wolf ready to cross the road, was caught in that moment of indecision at hearing the approach of our car. For a moment we all looked at each other, surprised. Then the wolf turned and retreated back into the trees. Further down the road we saw several groups of cars and people. They stood on a knoll with high-powered spotting scopes mounted on tripods. We looked in the direction they were pointed – could it be big horn sheep they were watching? We continued until we saw another group pulled off the road. Our curiosity finally got the best of us, and we stopped. Bob got out of the Jeep to ask one of the men what they were looking at. The man requested that Bob turn off the engine and then brusquely said that he was listening to wolf howls, and trying to locate them. Bob said, “We saw a wolf just down the road,” but the man paid no attention. Probably thought we were just stupid tourists who didn’t know what we were looking at. So we went on. I don’t know if they ever saw the wolves but we had to laugh at how close the wolf was to the very group that was looking for him – in the wrong direction.
Yellowstone National Park is a treasure, saved and protected by farsighted men in 1872. It was the world’s first national park. Native Americans historically spoke of being good stewards of the land so that it remained unchanged for the seventh generation to enjoy. In Yellowstone’s case we are close to that seventh generation now – can we do the same for future generations?
...P. L. Morningstar
Roosevelt Arch at North Entrance
posted by Looking for Hope | 8:42 PM
1 Comments:
Thanks Bob. From me, Ken
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