Otherways- Fiction Fanatics

As you might have guessed from the lack of recent blog posts, I have been on vacation. This year’s adventure was Yellowstone National Park, where we spent a full week. As usual, the experience has got me thinking about a lot of different things. I promise we won’t get into the 3000 photos we took while we were there, but there is something I’d like to share with everyone.

To be honest, I was a little concerned before we set out that we wouldn’t have enough to do to fill an entire week. Honestly, if all we’d done was hit the tourist attractions and drive through the park, I might have had time to read the novels I packed or work on the laptop I’d lugged through airport security.

I’m not saying that those things aren’t amazing, they certainly are. Driving through Yellowstone in your air conditioned metal cocoon is wonderful. Herds of bison graze right up by the roads, mountains still wreathed in snow loom over seemingly endless valleys, idyllic trout streams with lone fishermen in the sun give way to rapids, followed by roaring waterfalls. All this is well worth seeing, and sometimes it is the best place to be, like when you’re watching a young grizzly bear explore near you.

If you don’t mind getting out of your car, there are the biggest tourist attractions: Old Faithful, Mammoth Springs, and a couple of geothermal walks. These require you to walk a bit, but wide boardwalks make it easy, and benches are provided for those from lower altitudes who find the oxygen at nearly 8900 feet above sea level hard to find. You’ll share these views with tourists from all over the world, which is an experience in itself, and again, worth doing.

Sadly, though, this is as much of Yellowstone as most people ever see, and this isn’t the Park. The fact is, if you want to see the real Park, you have to step outside your comfort zone. You don’t have to be a completely rugged back country camper to see spectacular things, you just have to be willing to get a little sweaty, and put some work into your adventure. Trails are readily available, usually well maintained, and they range from a single mile to more than 14 miles long. Every one we took held surprises, things we never would have seen from the roadway. From a snowshoe hare that decided to come sit on my foot, to marmot families hiding in their rock castles, to geothermal features that had clearly just sprung to life, every turn held something new, something no one else might even get to see.

I think that this is the way all of life is. The deeper in your comfort zone you stay, the less amazing your life is going to be. It may not be bad, it may even be great, but it won’t be the kind of amazing it could be if you’d just step a little outside the beaten path. I found I needed two or three more weeks at least to see everything I wanted to see, one simply wasn’t enough. You only get one life, don’t waste it.

Cheers,

Michelle