If you know me, you know I love our national parks. We are so lucky to have so many majestic and interesting places to explore in our country. I have a special place in my heart for our national parks and I try to visit whenever I can. This was my fifth visit to Yellowstone and I will never get sick of it. It's always changing which means there's always something new to discover.
I want to take this opportunity to talk about respecting each-other and the environment. This is the part where I rant then preach a little bit but it's my blog and my photos so keep on scrolling if you don't want to hear what I have to say.
As much as I love visiting our parks, on this visit, I saw so much garbage in the pools and the terraces, people disobeying the warnings to stay on the board walks, we even saw folks walk right up to bison in the meadows, throwing pennies into the geothermal pools, and my personal trigger - cars idling in the parking lots so passengers could take naps. Whole naps! That could be over an hour of idling and emissions spewing into the air.
I was shocked and sad to see level of disrespect to one another and our precious lands. The amount of stupid just blew my mind and it made me angry. I had to practice patience and use all my tools to avoid a straight up panic attack born out of disgust. Our parks are beautiful and the reality is that they are underfunded and over-crowded especially in the high tourist season. That means there are less folks to clean up after you, less folks to enforce the rules and less folks to keep people safe.
So this is my plea. Please be a mindful park visitor. Be courteous, respect the rules and don't be stupid. Don't run your car when you're not in it or if you're stopped for a long time, respect the animals, clean up after yourself - leave no trace is the best policy in nature and at our parks, and just be considerate of each-other. Also, stop it with the bottled water. Just stop. It's stupid. Buy a reusable bottle from the gift shop and fill it up at a water fountain. You'll save money and win environmental karma points! When it comes to the environment we are all roommates. Don't be a crappy roommate. And if you see a crappy roommate - call 'em out! We have to hold each-other accountable for each-other's sake.
<End Rant>
With that I hope you enjoy these photos of this amazing place. Cheers!
