An Ode to Our Parks

An ode to our parks by Tony Ferlisi, Guide, Trip Designer, outdoor enthusiast and friend.

Thoreau and Muir spoke of cathedrals, refuges, sanctuaries and temples;
Home to bison, bighorn, grizzly bear and salmon;

We walk in the footsteps of Eastern Cherokee, Piegan, Blackfeet, Southern Paiute and Eastern Shoshone;
While the springtime scent of basin sagebrush, blue spruce, flowering lupines and rhododendron paint the breeze;

Our hands reach out to grasp texture: Wingate sandstone, polished granite, Madison limestone, tholeiitic basalt;
Socks removed, toes dig into Appalachian clay, plunge into glacial run-off, wriggle in the desert sun;

Read names: Grand Prismatic, Going to the Sun, Weeping Wall, Wizard Island;
These places are gifted by our ancestors and borrowed from our grandchildren;

These places are a legacy, a home, a story;
These places are cherished and celebrated;

These places: our National Parks.