A Yellowstone travel memoir about four decades of returning to Yellowstone National Park—and the quiet ways it shaped one life.
Some places don’t just hold stories—they shape them.
Yellowstone is one of those places.
A Yellowstone travel memoir about the ways one extraordinary place can shape a life, Waking Up in the Wilderness invites you into Yellowstone National Park. Drawing on four decades of returning to the park, Natalie Ogbourne explores the fine line between solitude and isolation—on the road, on the trail, and in life.
Through personal stories and observation, woven with touches of park history and science, the people, places, wildlife, and geography of Yellowstone come vividly to life. Across seasons—hiking, canoeing, fly fishing, snowmobiling, and camping—the landscape reveals itself in shifting light and changing weather.
More than a collection of adventures, Waking Up in the Wilderness is a memoir of a life shaped, challenged, and quietly changed by Yellowstone. It is an invitation to notice what is easily overlooked, to understand why it matters, and to witness the transformational power of wilderness.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Or the rotation of a tire. Or the turn of a page.
Let’s go to Yellowstone.
Perfect for armchair travelers, outdoor adventurers, and national park enthusiasts who want to experience Yellowstone more deeply.
Now Available in Print, Ebook & Audio
For Natalie Ogbourne, Yellowstone has never been just a destination; it’s been a lifelong companion. A former park employee and longtime return visitor, she weaves decades of experience into Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey. Despite being neither athletic nor an outdoorswoman in the traditional sense, she’s finds herself at home in the mountains–usually in hiking boots or on skis in the landscapes that inspire her writing. From her home in central Iowa, she invites readers to see wilderness not simply as a place to visit, but a way of seeing the world–and their own lives.
Let’s go to Yellowstone!
Waking Up in the Wilderness is honored to be part of the Inspired by Yellowstone Artist Series.
Endorsments
“Natalie Ogbourne is a long-standing citizen of the Yellowstone Nation, and in Waking Up in the Wilderness she chronicles the richly rewarding arts, skills, and wisdoms she has earned in many seasons of watching “Yellowstone being Yellowstone.” Her enthusiastic and affable tales of exploring the park display not only good sense but an admirable humility in the face of Yellowstone’s wonders.”
~ Paul Schullery, author of Mountain Time, Searching for Yellowstone: Ecology and Wonder in the Last Wilderness, and The Bear Doesn’t Know: Life and Wonder in Bear Country.
"This book is as close as possible to experiencing the beauty and grandeur of Yellowstone without being there. Through Natalie's words and descriptions, the reader can almost hear the thundering waters cascading over the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River or feel the stream of hot water gushing upwards from Old Faithful Geyser. Waking Up in the Wilderness brought back precious memories of my own visits to Yellowstone National Park."
~ Paul Stutzman, author of Hiking Through: One Man's Journey to Peace and Freedom on the AppalachianTrail
“Natalie Ogbourne’s Waking Up in the Wilderness takes us on adventures where the epic wild majesty of Yellowstone National Park is as much a character as Ogbourne and her family. This account of Ogbourne’s repeated pilgrimages to Yellowstone illuminates a place where the wilderness and civilization interact in a very intimate and strange way, like the dynamic landscape in Yellowstone itself. Through this lens of repeated forays into this special place, Ogbourne shows readers the mercies of nature, love, passing time, and family.”—
~ Nicholas Trandahl, award-winning poet, author of Mountain Song and Purgatory
Reviews
~ Barbara Lee Harper (read full review here)
"This book is a marvelous journey led by a skilled guide."
From the Back Cover
Experience Yellowstone for Yourself.
Waking up in the Wilderness invites you to embark on a four-decade journey into Yellowstone National Park. Travel with Natalie Ogbourne as she navigates the fine line between isolation and solitude—on the road, on the trail, and in life. Encounter the park’s inseparable dangers and delights. Explore Yellowstone through each of its seasons—hiking, canoeing, fly fishing, snowmobiling, and camping along the way. Experience the transformational power of its wilderness.
It’s said that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Or the rotation of a tire. Or the turn of a page.
Let’s go to Yellowstone.
Available online, in Yellowstone, and at these Iowa Booksellers:
Beaverdale Books • Book Vault • Choices • Hidden Treasures • Iris Coffee Company • Stepping stones • The Coffee Connection • The Wandering Raccoon
