Wolves; Waterfalls; and the Wilderness Myth : National Parks of the Northwest

Step into a vast, wind-carved landscape where geysers huff like old engines, glaciers whisper their slow retreat, and redwoods stand like stone columns holding fog in their branches. In Episode 3, hosts Renee and Dan lead you from Yellowstone’s boiling, bison-strewn plains through Glacier’s alpine drama and Olympic’s dripping rainforests to the cathedral hush of the redwoods, tracing each park’s breathtaking sights and the human stories tangled around them. Beyond the postcard views are layered histories of displacement and resilience: the Tukadika and Blackfeet whose lives were erased, the cavalry who once policed Yellowstone, and the railway and logging interests that shaped Glacier and Olympic. Hear how the return of wolves rewove whole ecosystems, how climate change is carving away glaciers before our eyes, and how tribes, scientists, and visitors are insisting these places tell truer stories. Listen for the textures of place — the snap of a glacier, the long shadow of a beeched fir, the distant howl that altered an ecosystem — and discover why wilderness is never just a backdrop but a living, contested, and evolving story of people and land.