What’s True on the Trail is Often True in Life

Inside: My friend Natalie Ogbourne has been to Yellowstone 31 times, and now she’s written a book about it. In this Q&A interview, she talks about what she loves most about America’s first national park, why she chose to write a travel memoir and the role that bears play in her story. ~

To say that Natalie Ogbourne has a long history with Yellowstone National Park is a bit of an understatement. She started going there with her family when she was 12; in September, she logged trip No. 31.

“It’s a happy place for me, rich with memories,” she says.

I’ve only been to Yellowstone once, in the spring of 2022. Before I went, I reached out to Natalie—then a blogger acquaintance—for some help. “What should we know before wo go?” I asked.

I don’t remember what she said, but just having some input from an expert made me feel better about the adventure we were about to embark on.

Let’s Go to Yellowstone

Since then, Natalie has become a friend. We are in an online writing critique group together. We’ve met for coffee a few times in Pella, Iowa, where she reared her three children and lives with her husband Jaime. And this past spring, I had the wonderful pleasure of editing her first book—a travel memoir about Yellowstone.

Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey released on Oct. 21. I’m probably biased, but it’s one of my top two favorite books of 2024. (Incidentally, the other one also is a travel memoir.)

We emailed back and forth recently about Yellowstone, her book and the role that bears play in her story. I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

• • •

LOIS: This is not a fair question, but I’ll ask it anyway. What do you love most about Yellowstone? (Maybe top three?)

NATALIE: I am almost incapable of choosing a favorite so thank you for giving me the option of three!

The variety: Some of Yellowstone’s visitors, especially the regulars, are specialists: geyser gazers, wolf watchers, back-country campers. While my family and I are regulars, we are generalists, not specialists. We hike. We usually have a geyser day. We invest some time watching wildlife. We visit the Old Faithful Inn.

We engage in what we call “water therapy,” which is just going to one of our favorite water spots to sit and talk, sit and read, sit and do nothing. We drive down to the Tetons and do many of these same things.

Each day, each visit is different than the one before because we just choose what appeals to us for that day.

The quiet: Even with all the traffic created by the more than 4 million people who visit the park each year, Yellowstone is a quiet place—the sounds of civilization being softened by all those trees, I suppose. With all that exposure to the peaceful, healing powers of creation, the interior world quiets as well. The absence of phone notifications amplifies the quiet.

The water: Whether it’s a simmering pool, erupting geyser, thundering fall, placid lake, or meandering river, I am all about Yellowstone’s water.

LOIS: Why write a book about Yellowstone? 

NATALIE: When I write—or speak—about virtually any topic pertaining to faith, it almost always finds its way back to a Yellowstone story. I write because that’s how God created me. I wrote a book about Yellowstone because that’s where my creativity and faith intersect. 

LOIS: Why this particular book?

NATALIE: I didn’t make a decision to write this book or even a book about Yellowstone. This was my story, so this was the book. From the beginning, when I knew absolutely nothing about writing or how to write a book, I knew it was a story about Yellowstone and what God had taught me there about walking by faith.

What I didn’t know was that a story like that is memoir. I always just thought of it as a book about Yellowstone and I was simply the teller of the story so my experiences there would be part of the story.

I think I figured out this book was memoir the same day I heard someone say that memoir is the hardest genre to write in because it combines the story arc of fiction with the need to stick to the facts of nonfiction. I remember thinking “Of course. You would pick the hardest thing to write.” But that’s the thing. I didn’t pick it. It just was.

LOIS: What was the hardest part to write? 

NATALIE: Without the a question, it was the conclusion.  I didn’t start the book with the end in mind. I didn’t have a point to make that I was trying to build the narrative around. I didn’t have a predetermined destination I was taking myself and the reader to. That emerged with the writing.

I believe it was Robert Frost who said, or wrote, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.” There were certainly surprises along the way, and when the individual stories were written, I had to figure out how they would come together which, of course, was there from the beginning. I just had to find it.

LOIS: Without giving away any spoilers, what role do bears play in your book? 

NATALIE: I was only a few chapters into the original draft when I realized how big of a role fear played in what I was writing and how much of that fear had to do with the possibility of encountering a bear in the backcountry. Bears are in the narrative from the beginning to the end which, I suppose, is a good and healthy thing.

Yellowstone is bear country, and we do well to remember that.

LOIS: What do you hope people take away from your story—about Yellowstone and about life in general? 

NATALIE: That what’s true on the trail is often very true in life. Waking Up in the Wilderness often finds me struggling with feeling alone in perilous or high-pressure situations in the park. Facing danger in Yellowstone taught me that my feelings weren’t telling me the whole story.

We are never alone—not on the trail and not in life. Along with that, I hope people see that created places like Yellowstone were made on purpose and deserve our care. In the beginning, God did good work in creating the heavens and the earth.

Today, He’s working in us through places like Yellowstone to reveal His character, to help us understand more about walking by faith through the ups and downs of everyday life, and to restore our hearts, souls, minds, and bodies.

• • •

You can find more of Natalie’s tales about Yellowstone and connect with her at natalieogbourne.com. And please go to Amazon.com and check out her book, Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey. It’s a must-read if you’ve ever been to Yellowstone, if you hope to go someday or if you appreciate a good memoir.

If you enjoyed this Q&A, feel free to drop Natalie a line in the comments. And I can’t end this post without asking: Have you ever been to Yellowstone? And if so, what did you like most about it?

♥ Lois

P.S. I’m linking up this week with #tellhisstory, InstaEncouragements, Let’s Have Coffee and Grace & Truth.

Photos provided by Natalie Ogbourne.