the story

The Grand Prismatic is one of the things I was most looking forward to seeing on our trip to Yellowstone. It’s like I had to see it to believe it was real. This is not an uncommon sentiment when it comes to this magical place. The early explorers who came back with stories from Yellowstone were written off as crazy people. Surely a loose screw, an overindulgence on booze, or insanity caused by being alone for too long was easier to believe than the tall tales that returned. Upside down waterfalls? Boiling rivers? Bubbling mud? Twenty foot beasts? Please.

Well, if you’ve never seen a geyser, hydrothermal activity, or an angry grizzly bear reared up on its hind legs, you’d deem these reports as unbelievable, too. The place is filled with the unbelievable.

But of course, now it is believable. Because we’ve seen the pictures and millions of us have visited, having driven through it on roads that weren’t there 150 years ago. And so the amazement has dimmed. Just like it has with all the wonders of this world.

We are surrounded by the unbelievable — Food that grows out of ground! Oxygen created by an army of invisible sea creatures! Flying insects that turn flowers into honey! — but because it’s familiar, it becomes ho-hum.

Keep your eyes peeled. Don’t miss it. The unbelievable is everywhere.