Yellowstone: A Week of Sightseeing, Critters, and Milestones

Last week my family and I went on a week long camping trip to Yellowstone National Park. We had started planning the trip back in December, and after my relapse in January, there was some concern as to whether or not I’d be able to go. However, I was excited to go and I wasn’t going to let what happened to me stop me from going on a trip I’d been looking forward to going.

As it turns out, going to Yellowstone was a great and much needed experience for me and for my recovery. The way my family and I travel is to go flat out and see and do as much as possible because going on a vacation is a luxury for us; Yellowstone was no exception.

Dragonfly. Taken on our hike.

On our first day in the park, I went on my first hiking trip; a one mile trek to see a potentially interesting site. My husband and kids were great, letting me set the pace. Being a photographer has it’s advantages because I would stop to photograph something and also give myself an excuse to stop and rest. We made it to the lake, which wasn’t as interesting as I’d hoped, but I was proud of myself for making it on our hike.

We saw this guy on our way back.

The rest of the week was like our first day. We’d go around checking out the sites, hike, and try to see as much as we possibly could see. My body took the activity well, which I found surprising. I started to realize that some of the limitations I’ve had were self imposed; I was too scared to push myself, scared of how I would feel, scared of the pain. 

There is still pain, but I think a part of it was the normal aches and pains of someone out of shape and not used to physical activity. There were MS related limitations, a major one being heat. Yellowstone’s weather was cool, consistently in the 60’s or 70’s; however body temperatures rise with activity and in high altitudes the sun beats down intensely. There were a few times when I was overcome by heat, and a couple of times I pushed myself to potentially dangerous levels.

This was taken at Mammoth Hot Springs.
This site was off the beaten path, and required a significant hike to reach

Still, I think this trip has started some wheels in motion that I can’t stop. I know now that I can’t use MS as an excuse for not being physically active, that I can and should exercise, and while I have to take heat into consideration, I can (with some strategies) work with that as well.

Yes, there will be pain...

Yes, there will be fatigue...

My body still cannot take continual strain and activity, I have to listen to by body and know when to stop; I will have to give myself time to rest.

I’ve already accepted that pain will always be apart of my life, and I’ve made the conscious decision to live with it and not allow it to get in the way of what I want to do in life.

Yellowstone was a fun week. I did push my body hard, maybe too hard, but all in all the whole trip was successful, fun, and it marked a new chapter in my life with MS. 

This picture is my favorite. The Grand Prismatic Pool. I climbed up the side of a hill, no path at all, to get this shot.

Oh, and the critters? We saw quite a few of those as well, including a moose that was something I really wanted to find and whose search facilitated a lot of the hikes we went on...

We met with success on our 'moose hunt' on the last day.
This gal we saw with her calf having breakfast.