Theodore Roosevelt: North Unit - Dinner With Teddy

     Well folks I'm back. I survived the last month in the wild Alaskan backcountry....alone. Three grizzlies, four black bear, three bald eagles, eight carribou, one fox, and a lone gray wolf (which may or may not have been my spirit animal incarnate)...well actually I'll save all this for later. For now I gotta get caught up on a months worth of posting.
    
     So where was I...

     Ah yes! Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Well it was day two at the park and instead of backpacking into the depths or kayaking into open water, it was time to "let the park come to me." I didn't NEED to go walking for miles and miles with a 60+ lbs pack to experience the park...yes, I truly believe you need to get off the road and the beaten path in many cases but Teddy Roosevelt National Park was one of the exceptions. Now I had plans to still go out and trek but today my plans were to spend my time along the park's scenic road and write in my journal for an hour or so at each overlook. That way I could "let the park come to me."

     That quote has become a bit of mantra to me over the last month or so. Chris, a new found friend from Teddy Roosevelt, comforted my dismay over not backpacking for miles into TR by suggesting that not all nature and wilderness needs to approached...sometimes if you just sit and wait, it will come to you. So thats what I did. And in the process I met new friends, saw amazingly unexpected views, and was able to have a more intimate encounter with areas of the park instead of simply walking past them. Not all parks will be best experienced this way but TR certainly was...to an extent.

     By the end of the day, I had written countless pages of tales from my journey so far and concluded my evening by sitting at road's end at the Oxbow Overlook. My rest here turned into dinner and eventually a 3-hour starring contest with views that I imagine were once shared with Theodore Roosevelt himself.

     See for yourself...

     Oh yeah...if many of these pictures look the same its because they do. The subtle differences meant enough to me that I wanted to capture some of the aspects that changed with every perspective...regardless of how minor in some cases.

Look at the pretty dying flower...

This is not just a rock...an ancient glacier (now long gone) brought this rock to this now grassland...

NERD!

Badass!

My view from my dinner "table"