Spring 2021 Contest Finalist

The Spring’s Boundaries

Three days in a minivan with five other people. Five thousand and two hundred miles covering eight states and three time zones including the Bad Lands of South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, and less excitingly, through Gary, Indiana. The song from the Music Man musical had been stuck in my head ever since I saw the exit sign for Gary.

Towards the end of the trip, my sibling’s requests to play another movie on the car’s mini tv were declined because Mom wanted us to look out the windows and take in the view. The road we were on was cut into the side of a valley, with a sloping mountain to our right and a steep drop-off leading to a sprawling vista of lush green trees to the left.

With no movie to distract them, my younger brothers were chattering incessantly. Annoyed, I plugged my earbuds into my iPod Nano and selected my carefully curated middle school playlist while gazing out the window. I wanted out of the car.

The playlist was halfway through its second play-through when we saw the sign for Yellowstone National Park. We got out and took a family picture in front of the iconic wooden sign that marked the entrance of every national park. But the journey wasn’t over yet- the campsite check-in was still thirty minutes away. Despite how exhausted and road-weary the rest of us were, the closer we got, the more my mom energy radiated. She had taken this same trip with her parents when she was 14, and was excited to share the same experience with us.

We all piled out of the van when we finally reached the check-in center. Unlike the desolate road we had come from, this parking lot was crawling with people. Young families, old couples, and school tour groups were also getting out of cars, RVs, or busses and wandering around the area. I pulled my arms over my head and stretched out my back, enjoying the sensation of feeling returning to my legs.

We entered the Old Faithful Educational Visitors Center and walked through the exhibits about the history of the park. Yellowstone was the first American National Park and gained its status as such in 1872 from President Grant. The Yellowstone Caldera is also an active volcano, meaning that it will most likely explode someday. There are nearly four hundred types of animals that live in the park, including bison and two types of bears. Along with this information was guidance to stay at least a hundred feet away from any animals, especially bison, wolves, and bears. Dozens of people are injured by getting too close to the wildlife every year. Only a few minutes after arriving, and I already felt that my life was in danger.

***

I was given a horse named DJ. He was a warm brown color with white markings running down his long nose. My family and the rest of our tour group mounted our horses, sitting in the uncomfortable saddles, ready to begin the tour. Our guide gave us a rundown of how to use the reins but assured us that the horse knew how to follow the leader and we would just need to ride along.

“Oh, and just so you know,” he continued, “it is bear season. Last week a group saw a bear passing by. If that happens, just stay calm and don’t move. Bear attacks are extremely rare.”

Rare, but they still happen, I thought.

After the frightening lecture, we took off, our horses in a single file line, trotting slowly along. We began in a calm meadow spotted with wildflowers. Before long we were on the mountain hidden by the cover of trees. It was peaceful. I enjoyed the sound of the horses’ hooves clomping on the packed dirt. The light found tiny holes in the pine trees that rose far above us, causing speckles of light to appear on the forest floor. I heard the sound of rushing water up ahead. Looking forward, I saw the path veer to the left to avoid the drop-off that was carved out by the river I heard rushing hundreds of feet below us.

Behind me I heard one of the horses neighing before I saw the horse with my sister on its back come galloping up from the back, rearing its front legs, just ten feet from the turn in the path.

Before the horse could get any further or unseat my sister, one of the guides lassoed the horse in and tied it to his saddle. My sister road by the guide’s side for the rest of the journey.

***

We walked on a man-made boardwalk that made the network of hydrothermal features easily accessible to visitors. Because of the heat caused by the active volcano, the rainwater seeps through the bedrock before heating up, and rising back to the surface- creating hot springs on the surface. I heard from one of the Rangers that a few years ago, someone went off the boardwalk and fell into one of the springs, and completely dissolved in the magma-heated water. I didn’t understand why they didn’t put up guard rails along the wooden path to prevent people from getting too close to the springs.

Each spring was a series of different colors, always starting with a rim of red on the outside before getting lighter and lighter towards the center where the water was deeper until the water became a brilliant light blue. The Ranger explained that the different colors were caused by tiny organisms that thrived in the incredibly hot temperatures. Each type of organism not only has differing thresholds of heat but also a distinct color, defining the temperatures of the spring. They looked like geode rocks I had seen in museums back home.

Each of the microorganisms knew their limits and stayed within the temperature in which they could thrive. The blue ones didn’t crowd out the red ones- each teeny tiny organism stayed within its boundaries. Unlike the person who went off the path and was dissolved. Or the people that got too close to the bears. Nature has a way of telling us we’ve gone too far, we just need to listen.