Charger Blogger Reflects on Venturing 20,000 Steps at Yellowstone

To set our scene, it’s about 4:45 AM in the middle of Montana, and the author is trying to get her boyfriend awake so that they can start making their way to one of the best landmarks known to mankind:

Yellowstone National Park.

To all my girlfriends out there: does your boyfriend actually wake up on his own? Apparently, me in PJ pants and an oversized T-shirt isn’t enough to do anything. After checking out at the front desk of the hotel and stuffing our suitcases back into the car, we’re munching on granola and beef jerky on the drive, just as the sky starts to lighten.

By the time we get there, it’s about 6 AM. The air is clear, there’s plenty of parking, and there’s a small handful of people walking around. Perfect.

Between the sunlit white crests of mineral deposits and steaming water, I thought that this would have to be Mars eons before we found it. The air was tinged with sulfur, and little piper-like birds wading in the water and gobbling up whatever goodies they’ve been able to find. Fun fact, the water that runs off of the hot springs is deadly. Not only is the water like a bajillion degrees Fahrenheit, but all the trees that you see poking out of it are dead because of how saturated the water is with minerals. Clearly, adaptation has its favorites.

After we wandered around Mammoth for a bit, it was time to head to the North Geyser basin. There, we’d see geysers big and small and walk across the boardwalks connecting them together. Interestingly, the pools are filled with thermophiles, a type of heat-loving bacteria that thrive in environments such as these. These bacteria are also responsible for the color of the pools, washing them in a minty green or rich cerulean as they bubbled away. While seemingly useless, these little guys have helped make huge advancements in biology. How interesting, and this wasn’t even the biggest part of the adventure yet.

Following a brief break for water and a new friend (peep the photo), we were on track for our most demanding spot: Yellowstone Grand Canyon. But we weren’t going to park and walk over, oh no, we were going to hike it. Starting off in some random place I forget the name of, we were off. Keep in mind, the sun is beating down, and we are hiking in a field with nothing. No shade, just yellow grass, hiking poles, and our camelbacks. Eventually, the grass got greener. We climbed some elevation (my poor lungs!) and after what seemed to be an eternity of hills, rocks, knee pain, warm water breaks (ew), and what I can only describe as hell, we finally made it to Artist's Point.

After sightseeing for a bit and eating our well-deserved lunch, we ended up doing about 20,000 steps on that one hike, 1,000 feet of elevation, and who knows how many calories burned. When we got back, Boyfriend and I flopped into the car and blasted the AC.

Author, out of breath: “What did we just do [pant] why did we do this [pant, wheeze].”
Boyfriend, also dying: “I don’t know but, uh, I gotta pee”

With that statement, we’d made it to the final part of our trip:

Lamar Valley.

Also, a quick shout-out to my boyfriend for letting me be the passenger princess for all of our trips together. I love you so much ❤️ (not just because you drive but because you’re a fabulous person).

The drive there was about an hour long, and my knee was grateful. As we watched the valley grow greener and its river widen, I was greeted by hundreds of beautiful bison. They’re huge, by the way, and I looked for anyone trying to do anything irreparably stupid near them. Eventually, we did have to make our way back. The sky was creeping towards sunset, and we had places to be for dinner.

I guess the moral of this blog is to embrace your natural curiosities. Get messy. Get dirty. If you have homework, try doing it outside and feel the breeze on your shoulders. There’s a lot to take away from the natural world around you, and I feel that we as a race have very much strayed from our roots. If you’re not into hiking or anything, that’s totally okay too ☺️ Fresh air can be kinda nice sometimes, though.

I hope that you all enjoyed reading this blog as much as I did writing it, and I wish you all an amazing week ahead. You can do anything you put your mind to, I promise.

With lots of peace, love, and peanut butter,
Bea