How fortunate are we to be here today, a day of a Yellowstone winter

While so many men and women are working so hard to secure their fortunes here on Earth.

Give me not a brick mansion here on Earth

for they are always in need of repair – and an owner to repair them.

Give me instead a large beautiful field such as this one, bounded by mountains and pines.

Give me a river long and clear with rising trout.

Give me a hot spring with its rainbows of steam and a geyser of fireworks so grand!

Give me, if possible, a river otter sliding with abandon on a frozen windswept riverbank.

Give me these things, and my fortune I have.

Because Yellowstone is my mansion on Earth.

This poem was recited to Caroline and me towards the end of our time at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Tyrene is the author and was our guide for the Wake Up To Wildlife tour, our Norris Geyser Basin tour, and our ride north to the Upper Geyser Basin and Old Faithful. After returning to Phoenix we contacted Tyrene to ask her to send us the poem and if we could have permission to print it as it struck a chord with the two of us. This wonderful guide was also with us the previous year for two legs of our first winter adventure in Yellowstone. Thanks, Tyrene.