In a Land of Awe by Chad Hanson

Author:Chad Hanson [Hanson, Chad]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: NAT011000 NATURE / Environmental Conservation & Protection, NAT016000 NATURE / Animals / Horses, TRV025120 TRAVEL / United States / West / Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY)
Publisher: Broadleaf Books

It’s our last day in the park, so we drive slow through the rest of the circle tour. We stop to look at another colony of prairie dogs. A stand of cottonwoods suggests itself as a spot for a picnic, so we hike into the grove. While we are nestled in the trees, a group of pronghorn wanders by at a distance shorter than usual. We eat sandwiches, drink sparkling water, and talk about the horses that we saw. After a meal in the shade, we decide to finish the drive and head to camp.

On the last stretch of the tour, I notice a silver horse, standing by himself near the top of a ridge. When I flipped through the guidebook to the wild horses in the park, the stallion named Arrowhead captured my attention. The horse ahead of us on the road has a coat that matches the silver tone of the animal that struck me in the gift shop. I nudge Lynn and tell her, “Look. It’s Arrowhead.” She catches a glimpse of the animal, but she only sees his hindquarters. As we approach, he slips over the horizon.

When we arrive at the top of the hill, we pull off the pavement to see if we can find him. We look along the length of the ridge, but he is gone. I notice a trail made by hooves leading down around a bend, so we start to follow the path. Eventually, the trail shifts to the north and leads us to another view. When we make it past the turn, we find the horse, along with a faraway look out into the landscape.

He appears thinner than the beast that struck me in the guidebook to the park. If this is Arrowhead—the band stallion—it is an older and more solitary version. He looks over his shoulder to examine us. He doesn’t leave. At least, not immediately. The animal takes a moment to think about who we are and what we represent. Then he turns and continues down the path in the unhurried way of old people who reach a phase where they become unflappable. Lynn and I exchange a glance, confirming that we shouldn’t follow him. We just stand and watch him go.

With the mustang out of sight, we turn our thoughts toward the land. The view from the horse path is better than the one on the circle tour. From our vantage point, we see farther than we could see from the road. The view is stunning, but it is marred by the sight of oil derricks and machinery. In the first decade of the 2000s, the state of North Dakota underwent a boom in energy development. The rigs are not in the park, but they were put in place along its boundary. Rapid drilling gave the region a temporary economic boost, but it’s easy to imagine how Theodore Roosevelt would have fought the placement of industrial equipment on the border of the park that bears his name.

As a native of New York, Roosevelt came of age in the city.

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