Tyler and Emily in PNG

Last week, Emily and I had the pleasure to visit America’s oldest and the world’s first national park. Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 some 600,000 years after Yellowstone was created from a super volcano. This super volcano is the originator of half of the world’s geysers. In fact, 60% of the world’s geysers reside at Yellowstone.

Emily and I spent two nights and two days at Yellowstone camping in a tent at Indian Creek Campground. We spent the short time we had driving and hitting all the tourist sites inside the park. We visited Norris Geyser Basin the home of the world’s tallest geyser at over 400’, Steamboat Geyser. However the geyser has not erupted since May 2005. We visited the park’s claim to fame, Old Faithful and yes it was faithful. Old Faithful is a very frequent and active geyser with intervals of about 91 minutes. Following Old Faithful, we crossed the Continental Drive twice then drove the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake before turning north to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. A very impressive canyon that varies from 800 to 1200’ deep and 1500 to 4000’ wide. It is about 24 miles long. The upper falls were about 100’ and the more stellar lower falls were over 300’. Nonetheless, a beautiful site to take in and a wonder to imagine.

After a long day, we settled into camp for beef brats, fried potato wedges, and a bean soup cooked over a campfire. After a few hands of Skipbo and an enjoyable campfire it was time to turn in for our early departure the next day.

I expressed to Emily how blessed and fortunate we are to have such a preserved site as Yellowstone. Every turn and every road was breath taking. To see creation from an eye-witness point of view is far better than seeing pictures from the internet or a science book.

As we left the park on Saturday morning, we had yet to see any bears in the park. We saw lots of American Bison, few mule deer, and a few pronghorns. On the last morning driving out of the park we came upon a usual site of many cars stopped on the road. This time there was a black bear (3-4 years old) not to far off the road grazing in the grass. After a few quick shots from the camera we drove on. Not to far after, another mass of cars was stopped along the road starring down into Elk Creek. It was think trees and I could not make out what everyone was looking at. Then I saw another bear and just behind the bear were two cubs wrestling on the ground.

Yellowstone NP was a great reminder to me how big our God really is. A God so big that He spoke this land into creation. The magnitude and raw beauty of this place we call home just scratches the surface of the land I will be going to in eternity.