Greetings from Yellowstone National Park

Looking past the neon orange “Watch Your Step” sign, I leaned against the flimsy, chipping wooden fence to get a closer look at the serene, steaming geyser lying a few feet away from where I stood.

Just one day prior, my family and I had landed at the Yellowstone Regional Airport, rented a car, and undergone the hour-long journey to our Airbnb. Passing through highways and valleys, I caught glimpses of nature that I never saw at home but which seemed so abundant here: the burly, shaggy bison grazing at the tops of the green hills, the thick, lush pine trees, and, most eye-catching of all, the geysers. Everywhere I looked I saw them; the strange, multicolored pools, layered with red, green, blue, and orange, some bursting with fumes, others as still as the surrounding stones and trees in the distance. They looked so mesmerizing, as if they were inviting me to jump in and swim.

Now, as I continued to stare into the hot spring, I began to feel its heat seeping up from the Earth’s core. As I inhaled, I absorbed its humid, musty smell, and I was reminded of the blazing danger that it posed upon even the slightest touch. But the geyser remained still, the water’s surface unbroken. Thus, there I stood, in awe of how something so hazardous could be so beautiful.

Sincerely,
Stanley