With Pioneer Day/ Days of 47 being celebrated throughout
the intermountain area this week, many travel to Island Park to enjoy the extended
weekend. It isn’t difficult to understand why. Island Park’s environment
harkens back to the days of the pioneers. The Lodgepole pine forest and the
volcanic formations are unaltered from the days of the earliest trappers.
The forest environment is ideal for extended families to
gather together in a reunion of shared love and heritage. The serenity allows
for sincere conversations and reminiscing. Many find that a one-time reunion
morphs into an annual event. The smell of a pine log campfire and the
unobstructed night-time view of the heavens is calming, adding prospective to
life in these complicated times.
Moose graze between small clusters of rustic log cabins.
A night heron dives into the Henry’s Fork and ascends clutching a cutthroat
trout. A glimpse of an elk standing behind the forest tree line or a herd of
pronghorn grazing on the meadows of the Flat are all reminders of the country
in an earlier time. Even the necessary precautions of bear spray and running a
clean camp to avoid grizzly encounters are concerns shared by our ancestors.
With all the emphasis on electronics and twenty-four
hour news cycles, Island Park allows us to reconnect with ourselves and
contemplate life’s priorities. For all but a few hardy souls, Yellowstone
Country is a short vacation from life’s grind. For our ancestors, this WAS
their life. Take a few minutes this week to give thanks for those who came
before us. They lived difficult lives so that our lives could be better.
