I have a hard time with Travel blogs. I love reading them, but I don't like writing them. Which is why this portion of my blog called "Trips and Travels" doesn't get updated as often as I'd like. I go on trips. I just never know how to share them without it sounding like an extra credit assignment a teacher gives you where you journal your experience to make up for the school time you miss. When I go on trips, I have a hard time pulling myself away to make sure I'm taking the perfect photos and thinking of the perfect things to say when I get back to sit down and write about it. It's a major killjoy and timesuck for me. So if you're expecting a post on the "Best 10 things to do in Yellowstone," or "The Tetons in Ten Minutes," I can point you in the direction of some other bloggers who do a great job sharing those experiences, but if you're looking for a blog about a girl whose mind was blown by creation then you've come to the right place. About a week ago, me, my hubby and two good friends of ours hit the road for the 14 hour drive to Dubois, Wyoming. Dubois is a tiny little town of about 900 people. Everywhere you look, there's all kinds of horses, cows, and even antelope, but no people. I once had a history teacher in high school tell me that if I was ever worried about the world running out of space for people, that one trip to Wyoming, Montana or Idaho would calm that fear. He was right. So yeah, it's pretty desolate and that was refreshing in a way. What isn't desolate is the amount of incredible creation that we were surrounded by for our whole trip. I'm a walking contradiction for two reasons. Reason 1: I love the mountains and the ocean. It's pretty rare to be able to have both landscapes in the same area (Unless you're the pacific northwest, which is next on the bucket list). Reason #2: I love the mountains but loathe winter and snow. Would I suck it up just to be in the mountains? I'm not sure. Regardless, I had this song stuck in my head the whole trip "So Will I (100 BillionX)." And it came across in a lot of my photos, because I could not help but hear a line of the song as I took a picture of a mountain, a tree, and even Old Faithful. So I'm going to do the best I can to explain photos that already speak for themselves.
I'm usually a sucker for a good Nebraska sunset, but Wyoming might have beat it in the category of sunrises. As you can imagine, Wyoming has lot's of wide open spaces, and what a better canvas for some gorgeous paintings. I remember being little and my mom commented on how pretty the sunset was, and I said something along the lines of "eh, I've seen better," and my mom was so upset. At first, I didn't understand why, but as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate a good sunrise or sunset. God created the sky and the light first, and He typically doesn't do things by coincidence. I image that in his mind, He knew they would be something that would provide a great opportunity to show off.
To my surprise, Yellowstone is a HUGE deal to the science community. There is tons of geothermal activity in the park with lots of geysers and mud volcanoes. In fact, all of Yellowstone is just atop of one massive volcano. I don't think I ever gave much thought to the idea of what's below our feet, but Yellowstone makes you think of such things. It's amazing to me that there's so much that goes on in this world that the human eye never catches. It's even crazier to think that when God created it all each puzzle piece fit together in a way that worked perfectly with everything else. Should there be no volcanic activity underneath Yellowstone, there wouldn't be a Yellowstone. The reason for the park's diverse landscape and lush forests has everything to do with the volcanic soil and dirt that helps the plants to grow. Because of all the plants in the parks, animals find easy food and stick around. Because of all the animals and plants, millions come and visit the park every year. It's all just one pre-designed puzzle.
So let's get to the cool stuff, the wild life. Luke was searching for a bear our whole trip, but I was content to see the more gentle animals like elk, moose, and buffalo. We saw TONS of buffalo, and they are interesting animals. They are slow moving and more massive than I thought they would be. We saw a couple elk, but had no luck on the moose. However, there were lots of people in the park looking for much smaller things like birds and insects. I'm sure some of those people saw the moose and elk and were disappointed they didn't get to see the birds they were looking for, and I'm sure we saw things they wish they had seen. It's all in perspective. God created a niche for everyone and everything, and while we didn't find ours, I'm sure we stumbled upon some pretty amazing things like the mama Elk who was grooming her baby in the lake.
To be honest, I was here for the views, and the crazy thing was, they were not that difficult to find! You'd think that we would have hiked hours to discover some of the waterfalls and mountain views around us, but they were only just a little ways off the beaten path. All it took was for us to stop and take a minute to actually look. I chose the quote above because of the reminders I was constantly given. If something as massive and eternal as a mountain range was made to worship, then something as small as me should probably consider it. If the ocean and waterfalls worship loudly as designed without stopping, then maybe someone who has control over their words should use them wisely, but if something like the rocks still worship without making a sound, then sometimes silence is the best practice too. If the wind goes where it's told without ever questioning where, why, or how, maybe that's something to think about.
All in all, it was an incredible trip. I love being in places where I'm constantly reminded of the creation story, and to see things that were spoken into existence thousands of years ago still constant even in though everything else has changed.
If you haven't thought about it in that light, I would give it a try. It's changed my perspective of hikes and scenic routes. It's changed my perspective of the difference between quiet and silence. In general, it makes the world a more beautiful place to live.
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PurposeI do on the off hand occasion get to exercise my love for wanderlust. All stories, info and pictures will be published here. |