In 2007, Lee wrote a song about Yellowstone, America’s first national park. Indeed, the world’s first national park. He entered his song in a contest. Hundreds of other songwriters also entered. I thought he should have won; he did not. But his words describe the beauty, mystery, and majesty of Yellowstone—a place set aside to preserve the landscape as it was when explorers and surveyors first entered this vast ecosystem. 
First in America, first in the world;
Yellowstone, you’re number one….
Our national parks are our national pride,
The very best thought that America’s tried.
And you are the first of all parks in the world.
Proud to be Yellowstone, first in the world.
The Crow and the Blackfoot across you did roam,
Shoshone and Bannock, but none called you home.
John Colter’s descriptions made people want more,
And soon beaver trappers began to explore.
Proud to be Yellowstone, first in the world.
Grand Canyon, whose yellow walls give you your name,
Starts Yellowstone River to spreading your fame.
Your geysers and paint pots and falls are unique.
Your trademark Old Faithful draws crowds to their feet.
Proud to be Yellowstone, first in the world.
Before 2007, we had visited Yellowstone National Park at different times. But in 2014, we lived for the summer in West Yellowstone, Montana, the western entrance to the park. Yellowstone was our backyard—to explore and roam—soaking up the beauty of tranquil meadows with clear rivers flowing like silver ribbons through lush green grass. We watched the park’s bison herds making their way from the Madison Valley to the Hayden Valley before summer’s end. We looked with awe at rugged mountains enclosing the valleys, skinny lodge pole pines cresting their ridges and stretching their crooked limbs to scratch the sky. We listened to roaring rapids that dropped over ledges in towering waterfalls. We 
inhaled Yellowstone—a mixture of fir from the forests and sulphur from the bubbling paint pots and steaming fumaroles. We waited for geysers to erupt, spewing their scalding water in crystal droplets high against a blue sky while visitors spoke a collective “Ahhh….” We watched with fascination river otters at play, bear and elk mothers training their young, and an occasional moose feeding along a stream. And we silently thanked those who came before us for their vision and persistence to hold this land as a national treasure for future generations.
Traveling in their motorhome several months each year, Arline and her photographer husband, Lee Smith, make their permanent home in Heber Springs, Arkansas. She currently is a presenter for Workamper Rendezvous, sponsored by Workamper News. Arline has dozens of magazine articles published, as well as five books: “Road Work: The Ultimate RVing Adventure” (now available on Kindle); “Road Work II: The RVer’s Ultimate Income Resource Guide”; “Truly Zula; When Heads & Hearts Collide”; and “The Heart of Branson”, a history of the families who started the entertainment town and those who sustain it today. Visit Arline’s personal blog at ArlineChandler.Blogspot.com
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