Mountain Ash Creek

by Jenny Golding

For my soul walk, I spent three days in the backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, backpacking to a basecamp near Union Falls, a large waterfall, and Scout Pool, a thermally heated pool below a small waterfall. Because it’s very dangerous to hike alone in Yellowstone because of grizzly bears, I needed to take a hiking partner. We each spent hours on our own, but in the vicinity of each other for safety.

The trip was a sensory extravaganza, and a very creative time for me. I spent hours sitting by Mountain Ash Creek watching the colors reflected from the understory into the water, and wandering and mindfully photographing the infinite variations of colors in the leaves, and even spending time with an incredible orange dragonfly that repeatedly perched near me. It felt as though we were staring into each other’s eyes. Photography is my primary creative outlet, and I strive to not just take snapshots, but to spend mindful time with my subjects watching the play of the light, and the individual features. I’ve included some images below.

I wrote my very first tin whistle song, which I call “Mountain Ash Creek” (tin whistle is not my natural instrument, so I was very pleased to “catch” a song).

I also painted Scout Pool after spending hours there and wrote in my journal:

“The north fork of Mountain Ash Creek plunges over a lovely cascade into a frothy deep green pool. This branch of the creek is fed by thermal waters, so the pool (while not hot) is warmer than your average swimming pool. We've been here for hours and hours. I didn't really know this existed before researching this trip, and mentions online and in guidebooks are a few. After a group of ladies working at Old Faithful left, we had the pool to ourselves for the rest of the day, with nothing to do but soak and watch the light play through the trees with the white spray of the falls and the deep dappled green of the pool. It feels like Heaven. After hanging our wet things in the lingering sun we sat on a grassy spot along the bank the late afternoon light dabbled on the water and reflecting up into my eyes, I feel relaxed and deeply at peace.”

Mountain Ash Creek is the Soul Walk Project of Jenny Golding, FTS Certified Forest Therapy Guide, July 2024 cohort. You can follow Jenny at A Yellowstone Life.