In the March 2014 issue of Sunset Magazine, Nevada Barr writes a wonderful essay on the beauty of our National Parks and the reason we should all visit them and enjoy what we can get from them that can be gotten from no where else. She says:
Whatever your abilities, if you are alive and sensate, the parks will make you whole in a way man-made aids and entertainments cannot. Might you fall from a trail in Zion? Might a bear maul you in Glacier? Could a storm trap you on a mountain in Grand Tetons? Yes! Isn’t it grand? Do you want to die in a hospital bed, tubes in your orifices and a truncated view of a parking lot? Wouldn’t you rather go down in glory, lunch for a cougar?
About 8 years ago, I went hiking to Silver Lake in American Fork Canyon, south of Salt Lake City, with the Scouts. The Scouts had planned to just camp in the open, bringing tarps in case it started to rain. Despite that, my son and I were the only ones that showed up without a tent. Despite some ominous looking clouds, we decided to drive on up to the parking lot and start the hike up to the lake area.
It’s a pretty nice hike up, not too steep, but with a backpack on, it took me a little longer than the others. By the time I got up to the lake, weather was threatening. My son had put our tarp out on the ground, with his sleeping bag on top, but it soon became obvious that wasn’t going to work. The clouds unleashed the rain that they held and my son and I crowded into the leader’s one-man tent for a short while to get shelter from the rain. Dinner was not possible, so we were all going to bed hungry.
Eventually, we realized there were two boys that were each in a tent by themselves. They graciously agreed to share one of the tents and my son and I took refuge in the other one.
The storm intensified and we were treated to lightning that lit up the sky and thunder that echoed over and over off the granite cliffs. It was a sight and memory that I will never forget.
Was it dumb to not bring a tent? Yeah, probably was. Could we have survived anyway? More than likely, but it would have been a miserable night. Should we have turned back when we realized that we weren’t as prepared as we should have been? Maybe. But in the end, we were treated to a fireworks show by Mother Nature that was better than anything you would see on the Fourth of July and we were given a memory of a lifetime.
Don’t be afraid to explore our National and State Parks and other beautiful areas of nature. Take the necessary precautions, be prepared, and be careful. But enjoy the challenges you might face. You may remember them forever.
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Photo by USFWS Mountain-Prairie. Used by Creative Common License