The “family vacation” is part of most of our memories. For many of us there was one special place we fell in love with and visited most every year. For Natalie Ogbourne that was Yellowstone National Park following that first trip in the winter when as a young teenager her parents drove there from Iowa to introduce her and her brother Matt to this wondrous place.
Natalie’s new release, Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey, takes the reader on a journey she experiences again and again over four decades. If you have traveled to Yellowstone National Park this book will bring back many memories but likely remind you of so many places you missed or missed in all seasons of the year. If you have never been there, her adventures will invite you to step out and visit a place unlike any other. Within this park you can experience whatever level of adventure that suits you and the delights and dangers it can give. Whether you prefer hiking, canoeing, fly fishing, snowmobiling, camping or staying in a lodge or cabin, Yellowstone can offer you solitude or a sense of isolation and no one can tell you more than Natalie.
Her first trip there led her to a job working at the Old Faithful Inn at the age of 18 following her high school graduation. This opened her eyes to the park she had only sampled on that first family vacation. Despite not being an avid hiker or outdoors woman, she fell in love with this natural wonder and it drew her back over and over again. She introduced it to her husband who had never seen it and felt the draw of its majesty and magic to then sharing it with each of their three children from their infancy into adulthood.
It was the wilderness that stirred something inside her that forced her to face her fears of its wildlife, powerful swirling rivers, narrow mountain trails, thick woodlands where trails could disappear, and more. She came to know them in the spring when mountain snows could still happen in May, in summer when meadows blossomed with wildflowers, in autumn when days grew shorter and nights were sometimes very cold, and in the winter when fewer visitors were in the park and some trails that were open meant only snowshoes or a snowmobile could take you to your destination over many feet of snow.
One adventure with warning signs of bears and closed trails Natalie described as follows:
“Sometimes the weight of the wilderness sits more heavily than others. This was one of those times. As much as I worried about bears, sometimes even I managed to forget about their presence. Here, walking as we were on the fringe of a forbidden forest, the sign and the message loomed.”
Natalie had no desire for a bear encounter but the adventurous spirit of her husband, Jaime, helped her to discover places many never see.
“What’s true on the trail is true in my life. I want to take the road less traveled. I also want to feel comfortable and safe. Rarely is this the same road…the wilderness was always teaching me something.” Natalie Ogbourne
I understand the draw of a place like Yellowstone because my husband and I have always been drawn to the mountains as a place of wonder and respite from demanding careers, a busy life, and noisy world. The tug from our home in Ohio was always west to the mountains after our first trip to sample them. That included several trips to Yellowstone and the Tetons next door. This book brought back fond memories and a tug to revisit those places.
Natalie has something awaken in her beyond what her natural eyes and ears discovered.
“We’re learning to read not only the rivers, but a little more of creation itself. We’re learning to notice glimpses of goodness as expansive as the western sky. And we’re learning to acknowledge the grace in it all, grace that shapes and sustains us.”
Natalie also learned the value of a guide in her journey that taught her much about trust.
“Walking with a guide has a great deal to do with trust, and I was no better at it in the terrain of my everyday life than out here in the wilderness.”
The wilderness is spoken about in many places including biblical stories and though it may seem daunting, it also draws us there to help us see what we cannot see anywhere else.
“The frontier of our life is built on the straight edges of the manmade world with its buildings and schedules, its lines to stay inside and molds to fill. Here, in the spacious light of wilderness masterpiece shaped by a more gracious hand, we were at home.” Natalie Ogbourne
This book is a marvelous journey led by a skilled guide.
Photo by Pam Ecrement of a special place in Yellowstone for us