by Natalie Ogbourne | Feb 4, 2025 | Lessons
Not far into a long trudge over a snow-packed boardwalk, our snowcoach-driver-turned-Yellowstone-guide stopped and stooped down. My husband and I, along with six other snowcoach travelers, halted behind him. Surrounded by emerald and sapphire geothermal pools set in...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 10, 2024 | Lessons
“Where do the rangers keep the animals at night?” Standing across the camera counter from the man who asked that question, I almost laughed. Surely he was joking. But I looked at him and saw he was serious. This guy has to be at least thirty. I thought. How could he...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Sep 12, 2024 | Lessons
This summer one of Yellowstone’s thermal features had a moment. Headlines featuring the word explosion will do that. At the end of July, Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin didn’t just erupt. It exploded. Something happened in the unstable ground below it or maybe...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Aug 15, 2024 | Lessons
Walking under a canopy of lodgepole pines, I heard the melody of the rapids long before we reached the river. Although the day was sunny and dry, the season had been wet, and the ferns flourished in the shade bestowed by the towering trees lining the bank. Here at...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Jul 2, 2024 | Lessons
Most of Yellowstone’s signs are posted along roads, at trailheads, or in front of points of interest. Sometimes, though, they’re situated down the trail—a billboard of sorts in the woods. We once came upon such a sign on the gentle beginnings of Uncle Tom’s Trail, its...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Nov 28, 2023 | Lessons, Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
Yellowstone is quiet right now. Its hibernators have denned and many of its birds have flown away. Its roads, except for the one between the North and Northeast Entrance, are empty. The park and its visitors are waiting. They aren’t waiting for the traffic to unsnarl...