When I was a kid I loved Geography. I know that sounds like a dumb thing for a kid to love, but I was obsessed with looking at pictures of natural parks. One of my favorite books was about Yellowstone National Park. My parents surprised me in the summer of 1988 by telling me we were driving from Los Angeles to Yellowstone. I was so excited, I could burst. I started to review my book and make lists of all the sights I had to see, like Old Faithful and the hot springs. I wanted to see a deer and my mom wanted to see a moose. We were all looking forward to the trip.
The drive to Yellowstone was uneventful. But once we got there, it was as if time stood still. I was so excited.
One of the first things we did was see Old Faithful geyser. I remember sitting and waiting for Old Faithful to erupt and imagining how high it would be. It didn’t look that high in pictures. Needless to say, when it finally did erupt, my little neck was craned back as far as it could go. It was truly an awesome sight.
Next on my list to see were the hot springs, especially Grand Prismatic Spring. The Grand Prismatic Spring is a hot spring that is rainbow in hue. The edges of the spring are red and orange, and the center of the spring is a deep blue. I was overwhelmed by its beauty in the book and I knew I had to see it in person. When I finally did see it, it lived up to my expectations and more. It was so much bigger and prettier than I had imagined. The one thing my book did not prepare me for was the smell. The entire hot springs area reeked of sulfur. A lot of tourists could not handle it and had to head back to their cars. I was not going to let a little sulfur smell keep me away from these beautiful springs.
My goal of seeing deer never materialized, but we saw plenty of buffalo! They were everywhere, even blocking the roads sometime. I thought this was hilarious, but my parents probably did not find it nearly as funny as I did.
On our last day in Yellowstone, as we were driving out, my mom suddenly shrieked and told my dad to stop the car. My dad pulled over and we all got out. My mom told us all to stay quiet and follow her. We walked along the road about 50 yards and suddenly there they were – a mother moose and two baby calves. We snapped a million pictures and to this day, I am not sure I have ever seen my mom as happy as she was in that moment.