Natalie Ogbourne

true on the trail • true in life

Waking Up in the Wilderness Book Cover

Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey

Are you an armchair traveler, outdoor adventurer, or national park enthusiast? Are you ready to trek across Yellowstone through the pages of a book?

If so, this may be the book for you.

It’s more than an adventure story about  me and my family doing what we love in a place we love with people we love. It’s a sign pointing beyond all that and saying, “Look at this!” so you can see what there is to see for yourself.

recent posts

2025 Gift Guide

2025 Gift Guide

It's that time of year. We're searching for ideas for that special something for that special someone. Last year, one of my author-friends asked me to pair my book with a gift idea for her readers. This year, I asked some of my nature-writing friends to do the same. I've also created a gift guide with a few items for hikers and anyone who wants...

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Postcard from Yellowstone: Great Fountain

Postcard from Yellowstone: Great Fountain

Once upon a time, I worked in Yellowstone National Park. It was 1987--just shy of forty years ago. Numbers are not my first language, so this is always something of a shock. I digress. Specifically, I worked at the Old Faithful Inn Gift Shop, where I invested a good portion of nearly every hour restoring and restocking. During quiet moments when...

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Lessons from Yellowstone: Seven Mile Hole in Midlife

Lessons from Yellowstone: Seven Mile Hole in Midlife

Going Down I’m not sure I’d even heard of Seven Mile Hole, a challenging trail into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, until I was in my thirties—a decade when I was still a reluctant hiker, a very reluctant hiker. By my mid-forties, I had developed an affection for hiking but dismissed Seven Mile Hole as a path I would never go down...

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Waking up in the Wilderness is honored to be included in the Inspired by Yellowstone Artist Series.

“There is a great deal of good to be learned from what we see every day, if we would but consider it.”

~ Matthew Henry