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but would subside in stages, in the same manner it had arrived.

Our intrigue at this phenomenon caused my son to pose all sorts of questions. Enter, National Geographic. We read about hurricanes, tornadoes, the Nino and Nina weather patterns and, because of all the wonderful pictures on the covers, he started asking about volcanoes, earthquakes, rainforests and deserts.

We finally got that dog, too; a beautiful mutt, (a Heinz 57 variety), who, in spite of her young age, had been left to fend for herself in the wild. Thus, she was intuitive when it came to bears and cougarsand never wrong when she barked her "bear bark." Once the alarm had been sounded, my son and I would scurry off to inform campers that they should take extra precautions because a bear was among us. Interestingly, many campers took the opportunity to "zoom in" with their cameras, as the retreating bear made his way downstream and away from our little "village."

Another component of our "Nature Adventure" that I find thrilling is the human component. Not only did my son learn to communicate well with adults while performing his "duties" as Campground Host, he also made friends quickly with the many children who were visiting. Although he had never attended pre-school, his ability to interact, share toys, ideas and adapt to their differing approaches to life has always served him well. Today he is an honor roll student who excels at science. I attribute that fact to his early childhood when exploring, observing and asking questions was at the root of our existence.

And, he is creative, as well. When observing that humans have either built campgrounds or homes on any mountain ground that was already flat, he began to understand that one of the drawing points for bears was the plant life that occurred naturally on these "meadowlands." Choke cherries, elderberries, dandelions (that only bloom once a season because the soil is acid in nature and will not support additional seeding), milkweed and other greens we don't even know they eat. "Why," he reasoned, "can't we take our giant earth movers high up into the mountains and create more meadowlands?" He suggests that the natural fauna would quickly fill in these "manufactured meadows," and that, by providing more indigenous food sources, bears might be less likely to encroach on human communities. I think he's got a good idea there.

So, I am casting my vote for the Natural Adventure. After all, are any of these experiences available at an amusement park?

Learn more about this author, N. O. Tate.
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