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Posts tagged “YNP2016

Thoughts on our National Parks

Posted on August 26, 2016

Earlier this summer I took a trip to a national park — Yellowstone, to be exact. Yesterday, the birthday of the National Park Service, helped me think about my own relationship to wilderness and to the idea of our national parks. It is, perhaps, the one area where I feel a strong sense of patriotism, and even in that it isn’t all that strong. Still — our national parks and our areas of wilderness that have been set aside for people to enjoy in their own untrammeled and natural setting is something I take pride in — that back in our nation’s past some people had the wisdom to set aside land from being used for commercial enterprises, energy extraction, or something else entirely. As a kid we were taken…

Visting Yellowstone National Park – Reflections

Posted on August 6, 2016

Thoughts on visting Yellowstone National Park: 1. It is still as beautiful and as magical as I remember it. 2. It is being, as my friend Kelly says, “loved-to-death,” which is true. 3. Everyone has a camera now and everyone has unlimited numbers of photos to take. This makes walking boardwalks and looking at thermal features feel overcrowded and at times frustrating. When I worked there in the early ’80s, photographers were there, but there were fewer of them and they only had 36 shots per roll, so each photo was taken with care (at least I want to think so). That said and aside, having a camera and taking photos is a good thing. Having and sharing photos of places that are meaningful…