I wrote and forgot to post!

Here is a post a few days late. It seems that I wrote my blog post and never published :(

My most memorable and captivating experiences in nature have been through hiking, backpacking, and mountain climbing. Every summer growing up I traveled to Colorado where I spent five weeks at camp in the middle of the Rocky Mountains. We went out on five to seven day trips, hiking into the National Forests, doing trail work, sleeping in tents. We traveled above tree-line to summit 14,000 foot peaks. We watched the changing terrain as we ventured from swamps, to meadows, to alpine tundra. Bright green rock algae, electric blue sky pilots, and squeaking marmots welcomed us to the thin air and rock fields.

Each summit reminded us of our small size to the breath and expanse of nature. However, each descent back to telephone poles and toilets equally reminded us of our impact around the mountains we love.

Conservation, despite the drawbacks as presented by End of the Wild, still feels worthwhile to me in some aspects. Of course the greater issues of environment that cross ecosystems, boundaries, and space must be addressed. Yet, I find the National Parks in the US to be an extremely important program. We cannot save nature truly with part and parcel splits of conservation and reserves, but those nature spaces can inspire us to reformat our policies and educate us about the importance of nature to our health, hearts, and minds.