Footprints in the Snow

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Years ago I saw a documentary about Yellowstone National Park in the winter. I became fascinated with the idea of seeing the park in the snow. Ironically, an early snow in Yellowstone made us decide we had better not try to see the park during this trip.

We made our decision based on the Yellowstone National Park website, which indicated that the southern entrance, which was nearest to us, was closed. We decided that a 4 1/2 round trip drive to the western entrance–in perfect conditions, not snowy ones–would take up too much of our day. We decided to spend our whole day exploring the Tetons instead.

However, as we drove from south to north through Grand Tetons National Park, we came closer and closer to the Yellowstone entrance. Ray suggested that we drive all the way to Yellowstone so we could peek in and at least see the park in the snow, even though we couldn’t explore it.

To our surprise, the southern entrance was open by the time we arrived there late in the afternoon. We drove about six miles into the park. Though we turned around a long way from the geothermal features, during the whole drive we were in the midst of a snowy wonderland.

Here is my first picture in Yellowstone. I loved these little trees near the road.

And here’s my second picture in Yellowstone.

Our longest stop was at the overlook along the Lewis River, named for Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame.

We saw beauty in every direction.

A young man stood looking over the precipice with binoculars in hand. I asked him what he saw. He told me that he saw only tracks. They were beside the crest of the waterfall.

Here’s a closer look through a zoom lens. I hope you can see them. We were a long way away. The young man believed that a bear had walked over to the stream, turned back, and gone away.

After that encounter, I began to look for more tracks. Here are others I found across the road.

I want to show you one more little tree.

As we left Yellowstone, we stopped for pictures near the entrance.

Soon we were back in the Tetons.

Some fun-loving person left their own tracks while building this snowman beside a pulloff.

Earlier in the day, we had stopped at another Snake River pulloff, this one in the Tetons.

There we met a young man from Vancouver who was traveling cross-country with his dad who lived in Maryland. The young man took our picture and I took theirs.

In our travels, we see many families traveling together with Mom, Dad, the kids, and the grandparents. I love to see families who love to be together.

As we walked back to the parking lot from the overlook, this bird landed on the top of our rental car.

He flew off after I took a few pictures. However, before we began to back up, he landed there again. We didn’t see him come, but we could hear the strange sound of his feet flip-flopping across the roof of the car.

We all leave footprints as we travel through our lives. Praise God for the little feet who are flip-flopping through your house today and for your mama feet that are bustling about serving their owners.

Your word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.
Psalm 119:105

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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