Poem for Tuesday

In the Microscope
By Miroslav Holub

Here too are dreaming landscapes,
lunar, derelict.
Here too are the masses
tillers of the soil.
And cells, fighters
who lay down their lives
for a song.

Here too are cemeteries,
fame and snow.
And I hear a muttering,
the revolt of immense estates.

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We are in Yellowstone at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge, having watched the aforementioned geyser erupt after dinner against a pink-orange evening sky. After leaving Devil's Tower in the morning, we drove through the Black Hills where we saw heavy pine forest interspersed with open fields where wild antelope alternated with occasional crowds of cows. Then to my surprise we entered the oil-and-coal part of Wyoming; I hadn't remembered the state being such a big producer of fossil fuels. This unsightliness was mitigated by the spectacular Bighorn Mountains, still covered partway with snow even as July approached. I loved that there were wildflowers and snow often on the same hills at different elevations!

After a brief stop in Cody for gas, we headed first into Shoshone National Forest and then Yellowstone National Park -- the former thick evergreens high above roaring water with occasional fields of horses, the latter still burned in large sections but utterly magnificent nonetheless. Within ten minutes of entering the park, we saw a grizzly bear! There was a ranger instructing people to stay in their vehicles, so we didn't get the world's greatest photos, but still! And ten minutes after that, we saw a coyote, and then mule deer, and a mouse peeking out of a hole at the side of the road, and eventually whitetail deer on a hillside above the Mud Volcano and a bison near the Old Faithful Inn! We also saw the aforementioned Mud Volcano and various thermal phenomena around it -- fumaroles, the Sour Lake and little mud pots -- and after dinner in the lodge, Old Faithful's 8 p.m. performance. Here are photos of many of the animals and sights:

















Tuesday we are going to see the Grand Prismatic Basin, Emerald Pool and various things in the Geyser Basin, then on to Boise and relatives!