For the duration of this winter vacation in Yellowstone National Park, we will rise before dawn, eat breakfast before daybreak, and use every moment of available light to explore, learn, and have fun. Our first scheduled activity for the day didn’t get underway until 9:00, so we used the time to return to the terraces here at Mammoth Hot Springs. In the center of the photo is the Liberty Cap.

Finding these shrouds rising off the hot waters of the springs is to witness a dance in which clouds of steam wrap and unfold parts of the landscape, showing us a part of the park only few will ever see with their own eyes.

With nearly four million visitors in the summer months and only about 100,000 during the winter, the contrast is stark and recognizable right away. Are we here all by ourselves this morning? It seems that way.

Sit still and try to remain quiet while the earth all around you offers you its sound. Look deep into the travertine with its mineralized waters patiently waiting to spill over the edge and try to comprehend the passage of time the planet knows, as some things move at speeds that require great patience to witness.

Behind teeth of ice, something is hidden under snow, temporarily remaining out of sight. What was here just a few months ago? Do those who stood here remember what they’d seen?

This morning, it was Chris from the Ski Shop next to the hotel who would take us out. Today, we have our first cross-country ski lessons. Neither Caroline nor I had tried this form of skiing before, and I was quite apprehensive about trying it, although eleven months ago, when booking this lesson, it sounded like a really great idea.

Bundled up and shaky, all of my attention was aimed at Chris and his confidence that he could teach us how to do this. The lessons began with baby steps; his aim was to get us accustomed to our body’s relationship with the terrain and the equipment before guiding us through the various motions of cross-country skiing. Within the first fifteen minutes, I was the first to spill; a valuable lesson to be had here: do not step on the ski you are trying to lift. The next important lesson is how to get up from the snow: grab the skis, pull them towards you, roll onto your knees, leverage your weight by pulling against the skis, and rise up on one leg – easy. Before the lesson was finished, we had made our first glides down the tiniest of hills and were supposedly ready for the bigger world. Chris recommended that we spend time later in the day at Indian Creek.

After lunch, Laney from Florida took us fifteen miles to our drop-off location at the Indian Creek trailhead.

Up through Golden Gate, we drove over the snowy roads in the bumpiest vehicle we have yet ridden in.

Alone in the woods for the next two hours, we practiced going back and forth and trying to maneuver the small hillside without gaining too much speed – our snowplow abilities were still underdeveloped.

It’s extraordinary how quickly we warmed up with half a dozen layers of clothes on as we worked hard to move with at least some grace over the snow.

We are still not very good at this, but for our first steps in a sport that is new to us, we are happy with the results Chris helped us achieve.

We may not have looked very good out here on this first try, but the thrill of it all left us happy as clams that we’d tried.

Our time has run out as we depart the warming hut for the snowcat that has returned to bring us back to the Mammoth Hot Springs area.

Like our encounter with cross-country skiing, these also are our first rides aboard a tracked vehicle able to drive deftly over the snow and ice.

The nine hours of daylight we are afforded seem to go by quickly.

It’s not a great shot of bison, but they are the first we’re seeing today.

Back through Golden Gate, and while the park service has years of experience bringing visitors here in winter, we are just a bit nervous heading downhill, knowing what the view normally looks like as we essentially head for the edge of the road at the edge of early evening.

Dinner is had in a dining room that is mostly ours, followed by some writing and hanging out in the hotel lobby, rounding out another perfect day for us: best friends spending moments from a lifetime together.