Jeff and I have been re-watching the Ken Burn’s special The National Parks America’s Best Idea. I love the episode Going Home. The essence of the human spirit in this episode speaks to my core. The whole documentary alone makes me want to give money to PBS, yet another sign that I am getting old.
Over the last few years our family has had this crazy love affair with national parks. Which ones will we visit next? How long will it be until we go again? Whenever our family gets any free time we dart up to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. But why have we started “collecting” parks, like Burns talks about in Going Home?
We do this because it is actually like going home. When I am inside the gates of a national park, I feel the truest sense of who I am and who I should be. It feels like the closest thing to glorification that I will ever experience this side of heaven. A little too John Muir for some of you? Sorry, I don’t completely understand it myself.
Jeff and I getting ready to snow hike at RMNP
I’m not even a major nature girl. To be honest I HATE camping. I have this thing where I really need to take a hot shower every day. Spoiled? You bet I am. But there is something in me that just must visit a national park every now and then to keep me going. I have especially been “homesick” the last few weeks.My time there provides me with perspective.
National parks remind me that while I have things to do in “the real world” for just a little while I can go to the mountains to regroup and rest.
What about you? Where other than home, do you feel the most at home? What place on earth sings to your soul and beckons you to go there every chance you get? I’m curious.
February 25, 2010 at 11:08 am
Right on Julie! I, too, find myself transported in nature. There is something that engages us at a soul level when surrounded by unadulterated nature.
Perhaps I’ll sound a bit mystical, but I think there is a “force,” if you will, that connects all of us “creations” to “creation.” It’s nothing to be worshipped, for sure, but I think anyone in tune with his on spirituality will notice how nature can transport him, at least psychologically, to a slightly different state of mind. It’s raw, it’s beauty, it’s wild – and I think all of us can use a little breathtaking raw wildness every now and again!
February 25, 2010 at 11:30 am
Great post, Julie! I totally here you. It’s sentiments like the ones you express in this post that compel me to study geography.
As for which national parks you should visit next, have you guys been to Glacier National Park? That place is AMAZING! If you need some pictures to whet your appetite, take a look at these, from a trip I took with my sister Jess back in 2007: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2135405&id=17021329&l=c34f68d8a8.
February 25, 2010 at 4:27 pm
I so agree with you Julie! My “home” park is Mt. Rainier National Park, but I am slowing working on visiting all of our National Parks as part of accomplishing my bucket list.
This was much easier when I worked for the airlines, but I will get it done. Rocky Mountain National Park does get a lot of my time now, since it is so close.
Thank you for this post, sharing how wonderful our National Parks are and inspiring others to get out there.
February 26, 2010 at 7:44 am
Great comments all of you. I love it that this post was inspiring. For the longest time I just didn’t get what the connection was for some people, but now it is central to who I am and who I have become. MJ- Absolutely Glacier is on the list. Next year it is either there or Alaska. Another area of the world I know you are so passionate about.
May 21, 2010 at 1:50 pm
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