there are so many events in my childhood that didn’t seem signifigant at the time but to which I’m continually drawn back to. those three weeks and the grand tetons, for one, and taco john’s and that one time the church youth group’s tent blew clear out of space; that one mountain filled almost completely with flowers. today I want to uproot myself and go back there, or, for that matter, to any national park.

“in the midst of such beauty; pierced with its rays, one’s body is all one tingling palate. who wouldn’t be a mountaineer! up here all the world’s prizes seem nothing.” —john muir, july 26th, 1869