Do you remember when you first discovered your backyard? One’s excitement overflows as he follows inch worms, finds four leaf clovers, and climbs maple trees. Before long, one might begin to look over the fence at a neighbor’s backyard. By the age of eight, I was allowed to roam the entire neighborhood as long as I remained mindful of my dad’s whistling distance. (Like a cell phone, I knew my coverage area.)
Author Tim Cahill lives 50 miles north of Yellowstone National Park and considers this his backyard. And what a backyard! One can spend a lifetime discovering the 2.22 million acres of mountains and valleys filled with geysers, mud pots, and thermal springs. In the past 25 years, Cahill has done just that.
Cahill’s book, Lost In My Own Backyard, isn’t a guide book, but rather an answer to frequent Yellowstone questions. For instance, “How close is too close to a bison?” Um, silly question, but Cahill claims common sense lacking in some tourist. He has a special name for those who edge closer and closer to a bison for that amazing, once-in-a-lifetime shot, “instamatic injury.” He adds, “If the tail goes up it means either charge or discharge.”
I feel in love with Cahill’s style of writing. He talks to the reader such as an actor, who faces the camera, might tell a plot twist. In the first section of the book titled, “Trails,” he employs his mini-me as a discussion partner on the trail. On the Mt. Washburn trail we overhear older Cahill telling younger, know-it-all self, how not to be a “dumb butt” as they view the “embarrassment of wonders” which is the park.
In the second section titled, “In the Backcountry,” the reader visits the park few have ever seen. Cahill says out of a billion visitors a year, 99.2% never venture into the backcountry for an overnight stay. Could it be all those “Beware of Bear” signs? Cahill is one of the few who have seen rare moonbows, petrified forests and odd faces in the hoodoo formations while walking the outback.
To my librarian’s delight, his last section is titled, “A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf.” His shelves contain guidebooks, trail maps, and educational books associated with the park, such as biology, history, and geology. The first book mentioned, Lonely Planet Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, just happens to include his written forward.
I highly recommend this humorous book to anyone about to explore America’s first backyard, Yellowstone National Park.
Author Tim Cahill lives 50 miles north of Yellowstone National Park and considers this his backyard. And what a backyard! One can spend a lifetime discovering the 2.22 million acres of mountains and valleys filled with geysers, mud pots, and thermal springs. In the past 25 years, Cahill has done just that.
Cahill’s book, Lost In My Own Backyard, isn’t a guide book, but rather an answer to frequent Yellowstone questions. For instance, “How close is too close to a bison?” Um, silly question, but Cahill claims common sense lacking in some tourist. He has a special name for those who edge closer and closer to a bison for that amazing, once-in-a-lifetime shot, “instamatic injury.” He adds, “If the tail goes up it means either charge or discharge.”I feel in love with Cahill’s style of writing. He talks to the reader such as an actor, who faces the camera, might tell a plot twist. In the first section of the book titled, “Trails,” he employs his mini-me as a discussion partner on the trail. On the Mt. Washburn trail we overhear older Cahill telling younger, know-it-all self, how not to be a “dumb butt” as they view the “embarrassment of wonders” which is the park.
In the second section titled, “In the Backcountry,” the reader visits the park few have ever seen. Cahill says out of a billion visitors a year, 99.2% never venture into the backcountry for an overnight stay. Could it be all those “Beware of Bear” signs? Cahill is one of the few who have seen rare moonbows, petrified forests and odd faces in the hoodoo formations while walking the outback.
To my librarian’s delight, his last section is titled, “A Selected Yellowstone Bookshelf.” His shelves contain guidebooks, trail maps, and educational books associated with the park, such as biology, history, and geology. The first book mentioned, Lonely Planet Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks, just happens to include his written forward.
I highly recommend this humorous book to anyone about to explore America’s first backyard, Yellowstone National Park.
15 comments:
I have a friend that has a 2nd home in Jackson Hole, WY. If you stand on her backyard (upstairs)porch - her back yard is the Grand Tetons! It does not get much better than that!!
Kelly, that is so cool! I believe I read in Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods how one lucky man built his house near the Appalachians and his backyard had a path which led to the Appalachian Trail. Retirement would be sweet!
Terrific review. I have not read this book, but have read others by Cahill, and find him an absolutely awesome read.
I had no idea he lived so close to the geysers!
Whoops.
I am thinking of THOMAS Cahill.
Please disregard almost all of my above drivel.
I was dropped as a baby!
Cipriano, I did the same thing! While telling my husband about some of the funny bison stuff, I mentioned he was the author of How the Irish Saved Civilization! Thank God I figured it out before I published it. ;)
Oh, thank you! I hadn't heard of this book...but my hubby will now be getting it for Father's Day! He's read other of his books and definitely enjoyed them.
Your welcome, Debi! I hope he likes it!
Just dropping by from Amy's Scavenger Hunt to say howdy doody *grins*
yellowstone is nice, but just north of yellowstone, in the wildersness areas of the Beartooth Mts of Montana, is some of the most incredible country I've seen
As for life in that area, I'd also recommend Mark Spragg's "Where River Change Directions"
Wow, that would be a heck of a backyard. My uncle has a view of Pikes Peak from his backyard in Colorado Springs. It's so pretty. And, no bugs - they leave their doors wide open!!!
I have a view of my neighbor's backyard. LOL
Maggie read Thoreau's book "The Maine Woods". That is a great book !
Oh, thanks for the book suggestions, y'all!
I'm going to look into this one. It's right up my alley.
No, AQ, its in your backyard! ;D
I went wolf watching in Yellowstone this past February, and one of our guides grew up in the Park (his parents were park rangers). This book sounds wonderful
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