by Natalie Ogbourne | Jan 21, 2019 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
The gradual slipping away of the pine-lined path went unnoticed—by me anyway. We’d set off that morning, wanting to spend just a little more time on the trail and in the park before heading home from our week in Yellowstone. Situated along the way, the Gneiss Creek...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Apr 23, 2018 | Navigating Tough Terrain
A couple of Mays ago, our family was in Yellowstone, standing in line at the Visitor Education Center at Mammoth Hot Springs, waiting to find out if a trail was open. Because the wait was long, we ended up eavesdropping as a ranger recommended the Sepulcher Mountain...
by Natalie Ogbourne | Oct 10, 2017 | Pondering Life Outside
Out west, our family sometimes stays in a cabin on a parcel of land plunked down in the middle of a national forest. There—with no cell service, no cable, and no wifi– we watch the weather unfold in the sky rather than on radar. A couple of years back, a sunny...
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 | 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 12, 2016 | Pause, Ponder the Path, Press On
Sometimes, when we head west, we land for a few days at a cabin. In a meadow in Custer National Forest, it’s far enough from civilization that the siren song of phone, internet, and television falls silent, replaced by the gentler sounds of wind in the trees and...