A Single Moment in a National Park Can Last Forever

Sitting in a sleek, stealth dory, content with my thoughts, I watched golden strands of silk drift through the late afternoon sunlight in the Grand Canyon. These strands, actually tiny ballooning spiders, carried me into another world. One so entirely peaceful and relaxing, that nearly a year after the experience, my memory escapes back to that moment daily.

Have you descended into the bowels of the Grand Canyon to face Class 10 rapids or stood at the rim in awe of the canyon’s enormity? Have you experienced Yellowstone National Park’s geysers from the boardwalks or on a sea kayak away from the shuffling masses? Do you remember your first night spent under a blanket of stars? Was it in a national park?

Yosemite National Park Ranger, Shelton Johnson, in the Ken Burns “National Parks: America’s Best Idea” documentary, stated the obvious so eloquently – and the eloquent so obviously. His words, “A single moment in a national park can last forever” still resonate with me more than a month after I first heard them.

He also said, “Whenever someone enters a national park, it’s like going to another world.”

Flash back a year or so prior to my Grand Canyon episode where I experienced my first commercial whitewater rafting trip. The steep, red rock canyon walls of the Class II-III Green River through the Gates of Lodore literally glowed under a full moon. Crickets by the millions serenaded our entire party into dream-filled nights. To this day I picture the other-worldly moon shadows descend upon canyon walls.

From my first experience in a national park, albeit from the backseat of my parent’s car, I’ve been grateful for our national parks. How wonderful to spare the wilderness from development and provide special places in nature “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”

Can you imagine yourself standing on top of Half Dome for a bird’s eye view of Yosemite National Park or picture its valley hundreds of thousands of years ago under its glaciers. I’ve rafted the park’s nearby remote, world-class Wild and Scenic Tuolumne River and watched golden eagles and black bear share their canyon with us. What must it be like to introduce your son or daughter (or mother and father) to a shooting-star-filled night sky? Why not sip on a second cup of coffee as your inner Jeremiah Johnson awakens to the sound of a river’s cascading water.

Returning to the words of my new favorite poet and mystic, Shelton Johnson, “If Americans, in their lifetime do not visit a national park, they will not have in their experience something tangible that is America. It’s an America that you can see, hear, smell, that you can even taste and that you can touch. And those experiences that involve all of our senses are the most profound experiences of all.”

Time and again my national park memories provide solace when I need it most and quiet moments of contentment in my often-hectic days.

Let a national park vacation spark your imagination and create lifetime memories. Are you open to their magic?

Writer, Photographer, Waterblogged Editor