Memories of times spent gazing at the wonders of nature are timeless. There are places one can visit and be left with a true sense of awe: How could such a thing exist?
And what better day to celebrate this notion than today, which marks the 100th anniversary of the formation of the National Park Service. Without it, who knows what would have happened to so many of the sites we now take for granted as protected spaces: Yellowstone, Yosemite, Arches, Acadia, Badlands, Everglades, and so many others.
On Aug. 25, 1016, then-President Woodrow Wilson signed the bill that would create the NPS, with Stephen Mather as its first director. While this certainly didn’t mark the exact beginning of a nation’s respect for its most treasured places, it gave definition to the idea. With a stroke of a pen, it formalized this bond with the nation’s natural wonders.
Last summer, I had the chance to visit Yellowstone for the first time, exploring the park with my dad and brother. Although I only spent a full day within the park’s vast expanse, the place has left a mental and emotional impression completely disproportionate to my time spent there.
In other words, it has left a mark, like ancient waters slowly but surely carving canyons in the land, snaking slowly through the rock.
For anyone who cares even a little bit about this country’s national parks and their rich history, Ken Burns’ documentary series on the subject — “The National Parks: America’s Best Idea” — probably isn’t unfamiliar territory. I plan on rewatching it in the near future to remind myself of all that it took to preserve these places, and, most notably, how much it took to convince people that they were worth preserving.
One such place was Yellowstone National Park, designated as such well before the inception of the NPS. In 1872, Yellowstone became the country’s (and world’s) first national park.
Since then, many others have received national park recognition — but as we all know, there’s something special about being the first.
Spanning multiple states, Yellowstone is an impossibly vast and diverse place. There are rushing waters, quiet lakes, ambling bison, malodorous sulfur caldrons and the triumphant Old Faithful geyser.
It’s quite easy to become attached to the world of things, tethered to the comforts of modern life: of Wi-Fi, instant access to anything, high-speed communication, social media of all kinds. In the extreme, those things have a dizzying, constraining effect.
But in nature, as people like John Muir, Henry David Thoreau and a great many other naturalists have found, one can escape all of that. In the face of such timeless enormity, untainted and pure, how can you care about the sound of your ringtone when your ears are filled with the orchestra of the outdoors?
I hope I’ll make my way back to Yellowstone someday, and to many other parks on my to-see list. If I never have the chance to go again, I will always remember my day there in June 2015.
And through the work of the people at the National Park Service, spanning a wide variety of job functions, many others will get the chance to carve their day of memories out of the sedimentary rock of Time.
Some shots from my day in Yellowstone, June 2015:
77 and beyond 