New Mexico’s state nickname is land of enchantment, which is fitting for a ruggedly beautiful, culturally rich state. With all due respect to the great state of New Mexico, all of our public lands should be considered lands of enchantment. On a recent trip to Yellowstone National Park and Craters of the Moon National Monument, we saw once again how enchanted they are and how they enchant people from all over the world.
Our public lands enshrine some of the finest natural, cultural, scenic and historic treasures in the United States. They inspire, inform, relax, and bring us together as a people. We should be proud and patriotic about them.
This summer, tourists are flocking to our public lands in record numbers. This is due in part to Covid restrictions on foreign travel, but it is also due to an increasing trend of visitation by US and foreign tourists to our nation’s extraordinary public lands.
Recently, my wife and I traveled to Yellowstone National Park, one of the busiest of all national parks. Yellowstone is on pace to break its all-time visitation record. On average this park receives four million a year.
As soon as you enter Yellowstone, you anticipate seeing wildlife. It usually does not take long until you actually do. It took ten minutes for us to
find elk and bison in the majestic Madison River valley.
Soon afterward, we came to Gibbon Falls, one of 45 major named waterfalls in Yellowstone. Next came the thermal features — over ten thousand geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles (steam vents) exist in the park.
One of the unheralded “layers” in Yellowstone and other national parks and monuments is the people who visit them. We met and talked with people from all across the U.S. and world. We shared our spotting scope and sightings with them, and most importantly, the joy of being in Yellowstone. There was the chain-smoking woman, the guy who never put down his Bud Light can, the boys who wondered if I had ever killed an animal, the people who feared coyotes, and the boy who thought all distant bison were bears. To a person, we got along with everyone, and stood next to them as we viewed the landscape and searched for wildlife. Where else can you mingle with people from California, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Ohio, Oregon, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, and countries ranging from Canada to India to China.
All age groups and many ethnicities were represented. Different languages were spoken. It was a place where natural diversity met human diversity. Everyone we met was friendly and tolerant.
We were sad to leave Yellowstone. In fact, we turned around at West
Yellowstone and came back for one more hike to Harlequin Lake, a remote lake partially covered by lily pads that created a nursery for waterfowl.
Five days spent in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem yielded a tally of 104 species of birds and 14 species of mammals. The wildlife safari is ongoing throughout the park’s entire 2.2 million acres and beyond in the 20.5-million-acre Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.
On the way home, we visited Craters of the Moon National Monument. This geologically fascinating landscape surprised us with a number of Limber Pines growing from cracks in the lava. Even on a 97-degree July day, we noticed a number of species of birds, and a variety of plant species. We plan to revisit this special place in the spring.
Upon our return home, we felt relaxed, inspired and heartened that so many of us can get along despite the media portrayal of perpetual conflict. What was the catalyst of these wonderful feelings and positive encounters with a wide variety of our fellow humans? Public lands, our lands of enchantment.
