Longer days become languid days. By the coolness of dawn in the Fernhill wetlands of Forest Grove, Oregon, before the heat melts night’s calm, the superlative colors of sky break across morning. Alive with a swelling chorus of avian songs, the marshes embrace another day. ♨
The inequities of our investment in food stability seem distant from the calm Ohio landscape. For now all is well on the farm, where at least a few hardworking Americans have earned their good lives.
Wonder-Land Illustrated by Harry J. Norton, published in 1873, was one of the first tourbooks recounting the Yellowstone experience for a general audience.
Leaving brings movement toward something new, toward a fresh sense of being and becoming, as we break free from the stagnant orbits of settled lives.
Warren Angus Ferris visited Yellowstone in 1834 as the first tourist to experience the thermal features, and the first person known to use the Icelandic word “geyser” to describe them.
On a winter visit to the Fernhill Wetlands in Forest Grove, Oregon, ice covered the lake, thick enough to support a crowd of Canada geese. The breeze did not allow a leisurely contemplation of the scene; the morning blew hard through me and left me empty of thought or feeling or desire. I moved quickly through the landscape, leaning like the cattails bent by wind. ♨
National parks reveal who we are as a people, what we value, how we envision the future. We learn something of ourselves by viewing our national parklands, monuments, historical sites, battlefields, and other units of the National Park Service through the critical lens of the curious student. ♨
