One of the great wonders of our family trip in 1962 was Yellowstone National Park. I don’t know how well my memory serves me, but having a few photos from that trip helps to keep it alive.
Buffalo are the kings of the highway. If they’re on the road, you stop. On our drive through Yellowstone, we stopped to see elk and to look for moose. There’s little to compare with seeing a moose in shallow water eating the marsh grasses or at the edge of the water pulling down a willow limb. We drove along and soon cars slowed down to a stop. If cars are stopped up ahead, you can almost guarantee there is something you need to see. There was a bear! That’s one of the prizes in Yellowstone! It was so close Daddy was able to get a good picture. I remember being scared that the bear would come over to the car and rip the door off to get to me. What a sight! I still get all jiggly inside when I see a bear in the wild. The massiveness of their haunches and the power they can wield is frightening but awesome.
Yellowstone Lake was gorgeous – and cold. The waterfalls were impressive as the upper falls tumbled into the canyon then continued to flow into the lower falls dropping some 300 feet. The canyon is absolutely breathtaking. To a little girl, the whole scene was massive. It seems when you’re little, everything looks bigger.
We were there to see Old Faithful erupt. Though I’ve seen her many times, she’s still amazing to witness. Walking along the boardwalk with the sizzling of fissures sending out a burst of sulfuric steam was intimidating. Morning Glory pool showed off its brilliant colors. The “Stinky Paint Pots,” as my grandmother called them, boiled and with each bubble of mud that burped, a smell that matched was released. Boiling mud, caked sulfur, people relaxing in hot thermal pools along the edge of the cold rushing river, the Dragons’ Mouth, the white cascading steps of Mammoth Hot Springs – all of those things come to mind when I think of my first visit. It is truly a wonder to behold and to experience. Can you imagine explorers seeing that land for the first time?
Outside of the park, we went to Hebgen Lake. That was eerie! The Hebgen Lake Earthquake of 1959, aka Yellowstone Earthquake, ravaged the land. It was the strongest and deadliest quake to hit Montana. When we visited in 1962, there was still debris from landslides. Jagged sections of road still lay at an angle where the quake had ripped the road in pieces, looking like uneven edges of a giant jigsaw puzzle. An old house barely hung to the bank while other parts of the house were submerged in the lake. The boys walked into the house. I just knew the house was going to break free and float to the bottom. I told Mama they didn’t need to go in there! Truth be known, I think she agreed and probably voiced her disapproval to Daddy.
All those sights, feelings, smells and thoughts are etched into my memory. What a blessing it has been to be able to go there with my children and grandchildren. My desire is that they will hold those memories close and make new ones for themselves!