she grasped something important that I did not fully understand at the time, which is that although this park, like all our nation’s parks, may initially look and feel like a place where the cares and the complexities of the larger world are held at bay, it is very much the opposite. She was suggesting, I think, that the true purpose of places such as this is to lay the groundwork for—and at times demand—a heightened confrontation that is more challenging, more unsettling, and infinitely more rewarding than a simple vacation.
