Navajo Nation Bound

Caroline Wise, Dion Terry, John Wise in Arizona

By this time, Caroline and I had known Dion Terry for a solid five years and helped encourage his push into art as a profession. We’d just returned from our long trip across America, and the next day, Dion called asking if we’d join him and his family for Thanksgiving; after our encounter with this country, it seemed incredibly fitting to have this celebration feast with a Native American family. Tragically, Dion’s father passed away just a few days later.

Northern Arizona

This is our journey up to Window Rock, Arizona, where Wilson Terry is being laid to rest.

Los Angeles – Day 1

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

We left Friday night in order for us to get an early start this morning as we are meeting up with our friend Mark Shimer again, this time for a visit to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. This is our first visit to this aquarium after our long infatuation with the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

There are some beautiful exhibits here, and I can imagine that if I were a kid on a field trip, I’d fall in love with all things ocean.

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

I guess this finally answers the question once and for all if anyone else was wondering if fish had lips.

Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach, California

Jellies must be a universal display item in aquariums due to the weightless otherworldly floating tranquility they embody. Add some ambient music and mute the sounds from the rest of the aquarium, and the visitor nearly mind-melds with these gelatinous Medusozoas.

Mark Shimer and Caroline Wise on the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California

Before those jellyfish were allowed to get their tentacles into our brains, we managed to escape for a visit across the water at the Queen Mary. From here, we parted company with Mark and started making our way back across Los Angeles.

Mission San Gabriel in California

Our first stop was at the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, where we focused on visiting the gardens.

Caroline Wise at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas, California

From there, it was off to Puddingstone Lake at the Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas. When I was a kid, and my primary means of transportation was a bicycle my friends and I would pedal the 8 miles up this way to go fishing. This was a lot closer than the 15 miles each way when we’d push our bikes up into Los Angeles Crest Mountains north of Azusa or the 31 miles down Hacienda Blvd to Beach Blvd and Huntington Beach when we were feeling seriously adventurous. During our visits to L.A., I try to share with Caroline some of the sights I grew up with at the same time, trying to discover the places I never saw.

John Wise Sr. at Loma Linda University Medical Center in California

My father, who is now shorter, just had his left leg amputated though it was taken off below the knee, so it is longer than the right. He’s been on the “chipping away” plan with doctors starting by taking toes when gangrene set in years ago and then a bit more foot, the whole foot, the leg up to the knee, and then over the knee. At this point, you might wonder why he doesn’t start dealing with his diabetes in some sensible way. Well, first, he would have had to stop smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Once he finally accomplished that feat ten years after having his first and second heart attacks, he felt that his diabetes could be kept at bay with a strong will. Now considerably shorter than the six-foot frame he once had, he’s still not ready to deal with the ravages of diabetes and would rather live in denial. Visiting my father is difficult.

Disneyland With Friends

Caroline Wise at Anime Expo 2000 in Anaheim, California

Caroline and I, along with Ruby and Axel Rieke, left yesterday for a trip to Los Angeles, well Anaheim in particular, so we could attend Anime Expo 2000.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at Disneyland in California

After loading up with anime swag, we headed over to Disneyland. Does Caroline look a bit pensive to you, too?

Ruby Rieke and Axel Rieke at Disneyland in California

Axel had a bit of a breakdown in Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, finding it all a bit too real…Ruby had to steal control of their car and get them out of that house of psychedelia as quickly as she could.

Yellowstone – Day 6

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

When you wake in Mammoth Hot Springs you go out and explore Mammoth Hot Springs because that’s the way we do things.

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We were travel noobs when we made this trip, no warm weather clothes, no rain gear, just enthusiasm, and these cheap orange plastic rain ponchos from the gift store that, while they worked, also sucked.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

And then it had to go and start snowing.

Axel Rieke and Ruby Rieke in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It’s love.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

And mud.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It’s grass, water, and algae.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

It’s unidentifiable weird stuff that feels like half-cooked chicken.

Caroline Wise and John Wise in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

And then it’s almost over.

Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming

We had to drive back down south through the Tetons once more and through Jackson to make our way to Idaho Falls, Idaho, where we flew in nearly a week ago. The impact this trip had on me cannot be understated, as it was enormous and will continue to affect me well into the future.

Yellowstone – Day 5

Bison at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

On our second full day in Yellowstone, we were greeted by this bison next to the trail on the Old Faithful Basin. So far, we’ve not seen any sign of a large herd of these woolly brown beasts, just a random individual or two wandering around.

Geyser in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Geysers, mud pots, hot springs, fumaroles, and streams are joined by the smell of sulfur and the sounds of escaping steam, boiling mud, rumbling cauldrons, birds, and occasionally falling rain. This is certainly the place to be when one wants their senses fully assaulted by nature.

Hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Impenetrable windows into our earth, these hot springs come with plenty of warnings that to enter one is nearly certain death. To look from the safety of the boardwalk is the preferred way of observing them, but still, the imagination begs to see just below the surface and explore the plumbing that is out of sight.

Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Yesterday we turned right to circumnavigate the park, but today we went straight ahead at the fork in the road and ended up in Mammoth Hot Springs.

The Roosevelt Arch in Yellowstone National Park, Montana

Landed in Idaho, drove to Wyoming, and now we are dipping into Montana at the Roosevelt Arch. President Theodore Roosevelt personally laid down the cornerstone of this entryway back in 1903

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Around every corner, there is a sight to see. Nowhere in Yellowstone is one going to encounter disappointment.

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

In Lamar Valley, we spotted a giant herd of elk on a mountainside, but they were too distant to photograph with this particular camera. No matter because we are enchanted all the same.

Sunset in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Staying up north in Mammoth Hot Springs tonight, where everything is perfect for those willing to see the perfection in all there is.

Yellowstone – Day 4

Yesterday we entered Yellowstone National Park for the first and certainly not last time. This was the beginning of something monumental that was going to have repercussions for the rest of our lives. When we drove into the south entrance towards West Thumb, we stopped to pick up a new National Park Pass. While we were driving up from the Tetons, I was busy bragging about how Caroline and I had likely been to the majority of America’s National Parks and Monuments: all 50. As the new annual pass was handed over to us, we opened it to find a map folded around the card this particular year. On that map was emblazoned in a 60-point font: “389 Ways To Enjoy Your Parks and Monuments.” Uh oh, some quick math suggested that we’d need to live to approximately 130 years old to visit them all.

Ruby Rieke and John Wise at Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

With that realization and humbled by the magnitude of the endeavor, should we take the idea of seeing the entirety of the park system seriously, the only thing I really knew was that I had to stop bragging about how much we’d already seen. Our morning today started at Old Faithful Inn in a room that we would stay in a couple more times as the years went by. In the picture above, Ruby Rieke and I are under the gable in the center guest room of the Inn’s main house. The magic of staying in that room time and again was that any chance we had to see something about Yellowstone, we were nearly certain to spot the room we’d stayed in.

Bacterial mat at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Enchantment would have been an understatement as to where our hearts and imaginations were leading us. Nature was in a kind of bloom and rawness that once again was taking us deeper into the magic that is found in natural areas. While the quality of these photos will always leave something to be desired, they represent our first impressions of this spectacular place. Of the many photos we took subsequently around America, it would be some of these first shots of Yellowstone we returned to again and again over the following months, as we couldn’t believe we’d been that lucky to visit the world’s first National Park.

Hot spring at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

While the color of the various hot springs elicited oohs and aahs over these days here, as did so many other things, it was during the months following that I couldn’t get Yellowstone out of my dreams which would draw us back up here during the fall.

Bacterial mat at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

There are so many up close and personal encounters that can be had here at Yellowstone that don’t require the visitor to try to capture something of the breadth of the Grand Canyon or as vast as the Pacific Ocean. There are millions of dynamic moments occurring every second that ensure that no matter where one looks, one will see something slightly different than anyone else has ever seen in the same spot.

Yellowstone Falls at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Our visit is going to be too short, and our desire to see it all will likely never be satisfied. With an uncertainty that we should ever be able to return, we must make every moment in this park the kind of quality time we can never forget. This view is of the Upper Yellowstone Falls.

Vista in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

The expanse of this place is not only large but incredibly diverse. No corner we are exploring gets boring, so we keep going looking for the perfect location to just stop and stay in awe.

Hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Geology and hydrology are hard at work, with the evidence of the caldera we are driving through visible everywhere. How will we ever see everything this park has to offer in a single visit?

Black bear at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Upon seeing a bear, we are complete, as we didn’t think we’d actually spot one. Nor did we believe we’d see wolves, and on that account, we did not. By the way, nobody was disappointed that it was a black bear and not a grizzly because we were having a legitimate nature experience that was just delivering non-stop astonishment.

Sunset near Yellowstone Lake at Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We’ve circled the park to emerge for our second visit to West Thumb. Probably because this was the first encounter with hot springs, bacterial mats, and fumaroles and then the first place to visit a second time, West Thumb forever holds dear to us as the most romantic corner in the park.

Bacterial mat at West Thumb in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Like petrifying flesh and bone, the bacterial mats are extraordinary to see firsthand. Those you might encounter on one visit may very well be long gone on a subsequent journey into Yellowstone. The environment here is forever changing. Take, for example, the massive fire here in the park back in 1988: evidence of its destruction is nearly everywhere, so vast was the blaze. But just 12 years later, the green is returning in 4 and 5-foot tall trees. A ranger pointed out how lucky we were to see the park with the major loss of trees, as many of the views we enjoyed from the roads had never been seen before: they had been hidden behind a thick layer of trees since the park was founded back on March 1, 1872.

Evening starts to descend on Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We didn’t waste a minute of available light, and though tired from the intense travel, we just kept going.

Ruby Rieke at Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

We fell in love with this rustic room in Old Faithful Inn, and after sitting in the lobby by the fireplace, we reluctantly headed to it, but still, we weren’t ready to call it quits.

Caroline Wise at Old Faithful Inn in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

This photo remains one of the strangest images I’ve ever taken of Caroline. While not the most flattering, it is special in that I remember asking her to “Just try to look natural.”  This is her idea of looking natural.

About that earlier statement on finding the perfect location, the entirety of Yellowstone is that place. From morning till night, we remained in constant awe.