tangentier

Mt. Capulin is a strange place. My father and I went there on a road trip when I was between high school and college. My best friend had committed suicide, and my dad took me out of town.

New Mexico in the summer is hot. Melt the soles of your shoes hot. This made Capulin memorable for two reasons: the relative coolness achieved by gaining elevation, and the cacophony of insects.

The view from the top is nice. You can see Colorado, Kansas, and Oklahoma. The cool breeze is nicer.

As you walk the rim of the volcano, hordes of brightly-colored yet harmless insects teem beneath your feet and buzz around your body. The chirping and clicking is almost deafening! I’ve been to other places with denser growth, but I’ve never heard the insect world like this.

The thing I remember most about Yellowstone is the car trouble we encountered. Fortunately, my family went with another family we’re close to.

We’d recently gotten the car serviced, so we couldn’t believe we were having trouble with it. Turned out it was coincidental that the battery gave out on that trip. Once we ascertained it was the battery, it was a “simple” matter of getting the car to Jackson, buying a new battery, and installing it.

I say simple because the car would die if it idled too long, and there was heavy construction along the route. I stayed at the lodge with the kids while my wife and our friend did the deed. They told us stories about how the ranger was very kind to them and helped them navigate the construction.

It wasn’t hard to keep the kids entertained. We walked the trails, enjoyed the scenery, and bonded some. And isn’t that the point of a family vacation?

I was eight years old the first time I climbed Longs Peak. My brother took me along the walking path through the Keyhole. It was very hard. I still see the narrow paths and long expanse of the Boulder Field in my dreams sometimes.

I was discouraged at the top, but a hiker on his way down told me that he thought I’d be the youngest person on the summit that day. That was enough for me to finish the climb.

The view was magnificent! On the way down, it began to hail, and a few dozen of us trapped on the mountain waited it out in a small rock shelter.