I have never seen such a crystal clear Milky Way. The dunes already made me feel like I was on a different planet, just Michael and me alone in the world. But now I felt close to systems thousands of light years away.

This whole place was way up on a mountainside and the valley we were overlooking below was the size of New Hampshire. You could see the Great Sand Dunes National Park from there, and it looked tiny. I remember thinking, That’s it?

In these times, it’s okay to feel sad about missing out on experiences you should have had. That doesn’t take away from the experiences you’ll have instead, or in spite of.

If you’re like me, you prefer not to treat a natural wonder of the wilderness like a theme-park spectacle. Let’s be real here, Old Faithful’s eruption is BIG. So you really don’t need to be that close to still appreciate the majesty.