America by Highway

Artist Point, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

I felt like I could walk all day. During the weekend’s hike, I was kissed by my second wind, and today I was still infused with that energy.

This Challenge is gumption to go further and liberate myself from the safety net of my starting point.

In the past, distance made me apprehensive. What if I got tired or needed a restroom or ran out of water? Well there is only so much country that I can see from a highway.

Artist Point in Yellowstone National Park is one of America’s best views. It permeates beauty from the immense waterfall to the misty plume of spilling river to the carved oranges and whites and greens along the deep canyon. The reason for its name is obvious, and any photographer would love to focus in on such magnificence. I certainly did, but I almost lost my camera when I held it up—I bumped elbows with a fellow visitor with the same plan.

Needless to say, Artist Point is not a well-kept secret. Finding a parking spot was the hardest part about seeing the view. Once we did, it was just a matter of steps to the edge of the large, concrete platform that overlooks the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. But getting to that platform edge takes either patience or the skill of a person built tiny like a chickadee to fit through the crowd of tourists. Every Yellowstone visitor has this photo. My shot is one of…millions? I don’t wish to discredit the Point’s beauty, however, only Ansel Adams and early photographers will be able to call that shot original.

That concrete platform is a wonderful opportunity for people physically impaired to still see that beauty with their own eyes. National parks make these places available besides preserving their wildness. However, how would the view have improved after a detour away from the crowd?

I imagine the mist would have cooled my cheeks and dampened my hair long before I would have felt the course canyon dirt on my legs and cold water over my feet. And had I some sense of adventure, had I not settled for America by highway, I might have known the closeness of the falls.

Today, while I was not wilderness hiking, distance did not hinder me. In fact, I took the longer way. I didn’t resign to a direct route home or accept the daily minimum. Going “a little further” hardly seemed far at all.