Yellowstone was established as the first national park in 1872. The word beautiful seems too weak to describe the natural landscape in Yellowstone. The park includes nearly 3,500 square miles situated on top of the continent’s largest super-volcano (thankfully dormant). The park was very busy on this day, which is consistent with observations of increased national park use in 2021, perhaps a human response to being ‘penned-up’ with COVID for more than a year. Glacier National Park instituted a reservation system this year to manage the number of people accessing the park on any given day. As humanity pushes well beyond the 50% of its population that currently lives in cities, the need for access, contact and experience in nature will continue to grow, so that we might sustain our humanity.
