1 day Ago
My family recently returned from a trip to Yellowstone National Park. This adventure began at the east gate, where a newly minted park ranger gave us a stack of paperwork that, among other things, explained some of the rules, including staying at least 25 yards away from all bison. Surely, no one would want to be within 25 yards of a bison.
Right? Within about an hour of saying goodbye to our friendly park ranger, somewhere out in the Hayden Valley, we encountered scores and scores of bison. But what interested me most weren’t the bison that stretched as far as the eye could see, like something out of a great Western. What interested me most were the herds of humans, piling out of their cars, abandoning their protective metal shields to hide behind only their cell phones and telescopic cameras, seeking their Instagram shots.
This spectacle quickly turned into a sort of wildlife traffic jam, with cars lining up by the hundreds, waiting their turns for the humans of Yellowstone to recede back to their creature comforts and move along so the next set of cars could perform the same ritualistic dance that any ranger would frown upon. I didn’t see anyone get mauled myself, but the bison would have been perfectly within their rights to do so — an occurrence, I’ve read, that isn’t even that uncommon in this remote part of civilization. Other adventures followed.
We visited Grand Prismatic Springs with about 1,000 other humans, walking almost on top of each other in the solemn and spectacular procession around the boardwalk. Feeling adventurous, we hiked to the taller of the two major waterfalls, this one over 300-feet tall. It was breathtaking, and another 1,000 people must have agreed because they were all going to the same place as well.
Our day concluded with the biggest attraction of all — Old Faithful. Even though we didn’t get there until late in the day, after many of the charter buses had left to wherever charter buses go in Yellowstone, my family and I, along with thousands more, waited in nervous excitement for Old Faithful to erupt. It did so (in our case) down to the minute of when it was supposed to, but not before many other humans repeatedly asked the same question: “How much longer?” Our only night at the park was spent at one of those developed tent sites near Yellowstone Lake.
We set up our two-room tent in what looked like a parking lot in the woods, with only the veneer of “wildness” separating our party from the other humans, of which there were many. And like them, we traveled to this great national park seeking adventure and perhaps a few good stories. We certainly found that.
The humans of Yellowstone were numerous and not always making the best decisions. But would I return? The answer is decidedly, yes. Ruth Wiseman is a Woodland Park native and a dual-enrolled high school student attending Pikes Peak State College.
.
