Greetings from Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I lost my fiancé and my mother two weeks apart. Two years later, I drove West for a wedding, to help a friend, and to meet some new friends. I grew up in Illinois. I have always liked the mountains, but the Rockies seemed to swallow me up. I have always liked wooded areas, but I felt claustrophobic in the forests of western Oregon; there were too many trees, not enough space between them. There are many areas in Illinois that are flat and featureless, but they don’t compare to the Great Plains that dominate Montana. I didn’t expect to find the Theodore Roosevelt National Park smack in the middle of the road I was driving. I didn’t expect to find it at all, since I didn’t know it existed. I should have guessed that it would; the man who spent so much time and energy creating the National Park System would certainly have a bit of nature named after him somewhere. I didn’t expect the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but I couldn’t have picked a better place to spend my day. The cliffs overlooking the Little Missouri river, the susurrus of the wind through the dry grasses, Wind Canyon where the ever-present wind has carved away rock. I did not expect to have an experience so thrilling and calming simultaneously. Theodore Roosevelt National Park is a study in contradictions; a fitting tribute to the man who worked so hard to start the National Park system to keep wild places wild, and was himself both Rough Rider and Teddy Bear.

Sincerely,
Kendall