Yellowstone - Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone! The world’s first National Park! When my mom asked me if I wanted to join her and my step dad on a winter trip to Yellowstone I jumped at the opportunity! I’ve been to Yellowstone several times, but only during summertime. Yellowstone during wintertime is a whole new Yellowstone. It’s unlike anything you’ve experienced before. It’s a world where everything moves a little bit slower, animal tracks can be traced all over, and hot steam fills the cold valley air.

Yellowstone has some amazing history to it. Theres a poetic farewell that really transports you back in time:

THE STAGE DRIVER’S FAREWELL TO THE AUTOMOBILE MAN.

A stage-driver lay asleep by his wagon;

He was one of the old-fashioned school.

He had a big glass jug of whiskey,

And nearly a quart of white mule.

His cuffing sack served for a pillow;

His robes he used for a bed;

And when he awoke from his slumbers,

He rolled him a pill as he said:

All my life I have been a wild savage;

All I know is the tackie and dude;

And I’ve stemmed them around this old circle

For the last twenty years. Am I rude

When I say you're a misguided pilgrim,

And you're driving me away from my home,

With your sweet-scented gasoline wagon,

So that to foreign lands now I must roam.

I just want to say to you, stranger;

You may be a pretty good scout;

But you motored into this National Park

And chased the old savages out;

And I'll be damned if I ever can like you,

Or pretend that I like your machine,

Or your racket and noise, or the rest of your junk,

Nor the smell of your cheap gasoline.

Farewell, you old wonderland country,

Good-bye to the geysers and falls.

Adios to the bo’s and the heavers,

I am going away from them all,

No more shall I drive the wild pony,

As in the old days gone bye,

And he took a big drink from his bottle,

And brushed a tear from his eye.

Farewell you evergreen mountains,

The fairest green spot on God’s earth;

I am going to leave you forever,

Going far from the land of my birth.

But here's luck to all you spark-plug cleaners,

You have gasolined in here at last,

May you have the same luck in the future

I and my tackies have had in the past.

Yellowstone means the world to, well, the whole world! But it’s also important to know that before we arrived and turned it into a National Park, this was home to at least 26 Native American tribes. These Native American tribes also called Yellowstone home. And for 150+ years, Yellowstone has captured the awe of our beautiful world. To quote the Leopold Report, lets “embrace continued traditional and sustainable use of natural and cultural resources by indigenous communities and tribes, within the broader goal of preserving ecological integrity and cultural authenticity.”