Noted naturalist John Muir dragged his roughened hand across the unearthly surface, across one of the serrated edges left behind when the Yellowstone River sliced through the soft rock eons ago. Later, those same fingers flew over the keys of his typewriter, and his brain nearly blew to pieces as he struggled to convey to others what he had seen.
"The walls of the cañon from top to bottom burn in a perfect glory of color, confounding and dazzling when the sun is shining,--white, yellow, green, blue, vermilion, and various other shades of red indefinitely blending. All the earth hereabouts seems to be paint..."
87 years later Yellowstone showed radically different colors. Reds and yellows - now more fierce than glorious - raced through its forests as the worst fire in recorded history threatened to ruin the park, particularly devastating a 660 acre section that has since gained the nickname "The Blowdown". Roy Renkin, a vegetation specialist for the National Park Service, put it this way. "It was just nuked. It looked like the bottom of a barbecue grill. The predictions were that it would be a meadow for centuries. People talked about how the soil was sterilized.”
GALVESTON RUINED
The Flagship hotel, perched on battered pylons off the Galveston shoreline, nowadays looks more like the victim of a wartime offensive than the swank vacation destination it once was. Mortar shells have apparently done their job on the ramps that once allowed patrons to drive off the seawall, over the beach, and into the hotel's parking lot. Looking up, you can see portions of the outer shell of the hotel have also been shattered. What was once an expensive suite now lies gaping open, its front wall obliterated. Graffiti covers what's left of the room's interior. A chain link fence surrounds the structure, warning most passersby away from what has become a dangerous area.
Later in the day, a barista in a downtown coffee shop answers a simple question.
"Are the meters outside free?"
"For now. Because of the hurricane."
JESUS DESPISED
"But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail..."
YELLOWSTONE REBORN
The blowdown area, during the first winter after the fire, had the feel of an ancient ruin. Charred matchsticks that once were lodgepole pines stood like ruined columns in the cold snow. The place felt empty, the objects left behind suggesting that life had once existed here, but only in some distant past.
But this void didn't last long. The very next spring, as the earth began to warm, specialist Renkin saw a stunning change, what he called "the greatest wildflower show ever.”
“Boom! The purple lupine came out. Then the daisies would come on."
And so did the lodgepole pine. As it turns out, the tree produces what are called "seritonous" cones, whose seeds are buried deep within the cone's structure, and can only be released in the presence of severe heat, like that created at the center of a forest fire. Just after the fire it was noticed that seeds had scattered over the area, covering the devestation with something between 15,000 to 2 million seeds per acre.
GALVESTON NOURISHED
Some forms of seafood gumbo are based on an edible slurry known as a "roux", a mixture of oil and flour that is carefully heated until the flour toasts brown or red or black, depending on the skill and patience of the cook (it's not easy to sit idly by as the dish you've carefully nurtured gets darker and darker, hoping you haven't yet crossed the fine line from toasted to burnt...) The waiter at the Gumbo Bar, located in the middle of a ghostly section of downtown Galveston, sets a bowl in front of me that's full of shrimp, rice and sausage surrounded by a roux as black as any I've seen. I pick up a spoon, take a sip, and find my mouth filled with flavors that seem, at least today, to be living well together - the bitterness of the salty sea and the overpowering darkness of strong courage.
JESUS RESTORED
"Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things... Day and night they do not cease to say, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come...'"
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