Otero Junior College Chinook

underused muscles after you ski. Some people are afraid to try this supposedly dangerous sport. Even I used to have nightmares of being strangled and drowned by seaweed. I dreamt of loosing my poise on skies, falling deep below air level, being gulped down and diminishing into the treacherous void. Following the mention of my fears, my older brother Ryan said, “If you don’t fall down, you won’t learn anything!” Now I actually enjoy biffing it hard and flying dead first into the frigid waves. Ryan’s words also gave me motivation to apply this philosophy to life circumstances.

Another mystifying attraction of Yellowstone is its unbelievable huckleberry stash. It lies deep within the woods. Taking in the sweet aroma of wild huckleberries combined with the pine tree scent, invigorates the soul. Huckleberry picking is one of the hopefully never-ending traditions we enjoy. It’s essential that huckleberries be in season. There is a magnitude of uses found for them. My family picks bucketfuls to satisfy our cravings for huckleberry pancakes, pie, ice cream and shakes. It takes hours to fill a medium sized bucket of scrumptious huckleberries, but this sweet purple berry is honestly worth every second of painstaking effort.

Nothing can compare to the beauty of the wilderness and wildlife in the summer months. Yellowstone’s terrain includes: toads, grizzly bears, black bears, moose, deer, badgers, pot guts, foxes, horses, and is very abundant in cows. Cow tipping is a popular pastime of adventurous teens on vacation. Once my fearless cousins and I attempted to cow tip on the neighbors “no trespassing” land. Climbing through barbed wire fences and stepping over cow pies was the very least of the problems we encountered. As we lurked in silence through the cow field, someone screamed “Bear!” I saw a sizable dark figure heading our way. Snorting and some form of growling were heard from this mysterious mass that was moving closer and closer. We all dashed quickly over the barbed wire fence; some, were even soaring over like superman. Everyone raced toward the car like a herd of petrified sheep. We were surprised to find that the alleged bear was a mad bull protecting his territory, but still found ourselves grateful for our haste. After these kinds of adventures we would retreat home, sneaking into our beds through a snoozing cabin.