Heaven is a Place on Earth

     Expansive and wild, untamable, invincible, defender of the unrefined, buffalo and elk, mother of nature, father of survival, soul of tranquility, Yellowstone National Park is the sanctuary of character, the sanctuary of title, of knowledge, of mystery. It gives birth to Old Faithful Geyser and Yellowstone Lake, extending over 2,219,789 wildlife-inhabited acres, rocky as the mountains. Over two million and two hundred thousand acres of clawing, stampeding, grazing animals, of waterfalls and lakes and hot springs, of mountains and forest, of grass, meadow, pasture and vastness. Things get eaten here, things boil over, explode, graze, forage. The park is home to sixty-seven species of mammals, three hundred and twenty-two species of birds, sixteen species of fish, six species of reptiles, and four species of amphibians – all diversely equipped with beaks, claws, wings, fangs, antlers, hooves and fur – not to mention the pronghorns, moose, and black bears, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, and bighorn sheep, grey wolves and mountain lions that exist only to compound the beauty and perfection of life. There are lynx here, black bears, bobcats, and cattle, there are wolverines, bald eagles, and cutthroat trout. They feed on each other, in the prairie and plains they lay eggs, they scratch and sniff and peruse the enormous land, growling and howling through the long nights until the earth echoes a sweet lullaby.