by Natalie Ogbourne | Apr 23, 2017 | Navigating Tough Terrain
Along the road between Mammoth Hot Springs and Cooke City, the meadows are open and greening, quite in agreement with the calendar: spring has arrived. Leave the dry, temperate north end of Yellowstone and try to head into the interior, though, and you’ll see...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Feb 19, 2017 | Navigating Tough Terrain
J and I took our first trip to Yellowstone together twenty-two springs ago. As we zipped down the interstate ahead of schedule in the middle of the afternoon, I realized we could make it to the park that night. We could cancel our along-the-way reservation, drive to...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 25, 2016 | Navigating Tough Terrain
Once, long ago, before babies and moves to houses in new communities, I picked up the beginning of an understanding of the seasons—their rhythms, their tasks, their hard realities. Learning to be a mom to three babies while finding my way in three different towns left...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Aug 25, 2016 | Navigating Tough Terrain
On the eve of our son’s return to college when the kids were snarly and I was weepy, my husband looked at us and said, “Transitions are always tough.” They are. I know. But I forget. With his words barely out into the air between us, I remembered...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Apr 15, 2016 | Navigating Tough Terrain
We sprinted up the switchbacked trail, pausing occasionally to measure how far we’d come, to rest our already used-up legs, to fill our lungs with as much oxygen as the mountain air would give. In previous years, I would have decided that it wasn’t worth...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Feb 3, 2015 | Navigating Tough Terrain
We pulled into the gravel parking lot at the base of Bunsen Peak, piled out, grabbed day packs and water from the back of the vehicle, and set off. Dust had barely begun to accumulate around our ankles when we saw him: a lone bison, a bull, just twenty-five feet off...