Our family recently returned from an 8-day camping trip to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Taking a camping trip of this magnitude is something I never thought we’d be able to do with Shep. Camping with kids is hard. Camping with a child with disabilities is insane. But by the grace of God, we did it and lived to tell the tale. As you might imagine, I had a few resonating take-aways from our adventure.
First off, Grand Teton and Yellowstone are stunning. If you get the chance to go explore them, you should. God’s handiwork and creativity is on full display everywhere you look. During our travels, we saw license plates from all over the United States and met people who’d traveled from SO many different countries to come take in the natural splendor. It was a very unifying human experience to be surrounded by every tribe, tongue, and nation, all gathered together for the same reason—to stand in awe of God’s creation.
Secondly, accessibility is a gift that I will never again take for granted. I never thought about accessibility in my pre-Shep life, but now it dictates literally every outing we take as a family. There were moments of every single day on our trip that I stopped to thank God for the access He had granted our family during this adventure. For one thing, the National Parks Service makes a concerted effort to make the parks accessible to all people. Many sections of trails and lookout points are paved and offer ramps or boardwalk access. People with permanent disabilities even qualify for a free lifetime parks pass! The thought and care that has been poured into creating accessible places in the national parks makes me feel like families like mine are seen and my son matters too. Who knew a ramp could bring me to tears?
Also, having a handicap parking permit because of Shep’s disability was an actual God-send on this trip. While so many others had to be on the road by 5:00 a.m. to find parking spots at highly trafficked locations, we pulled up on Miller time (usually after 10:00 a.m.) and snagged front row parking with Shep’s V.I.P. access—allowing us to unload all of his equipment so much nearer to our final destination. Praise. God.
Although effort goes into making the parks accessible, there are many parts that are still not accessible by wheelchair. The parks are huge, so this will always be the case. When we encountered trails that weren’t going to work for Shep’s wheelchair, we busted out his Huckleberry Hiking Cart. Shameless plug here: this cart is incredible! It was designed by a dad whose daughter has special needs. His family loves getting outdoors and he didn’t want to leave his daughter behind, so he designed and created this cart that can tackle single-track trails, rocks, sand, stairs, you name it. He now sells and distributes them all over the world so families like ours can have access to places we never would otherwise. We were fortunate enough to get Shep’s cart paid for by funding he receives for special equipment. To say that I’m grateful would be an understatement. We hiked up stairs for a mile to view Jenny Lake from Inspiration Point. We took a rocky trail with switchbacks to admire the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. We were able to do what should have been impossible with our whole family in tow. Our trip would have been a much more limited experience without our cart, but thankfully, we were able to tackle just about anything we were willing to take on.
Which brings me to the next item on my gratitude list—my husband. Like an absolute rockstar, Daniel was the sherpa to Shep’s sweet ride on every single hike we took. He didn’t complain a single time as he hiked steep inclines, carrying our son along the whole time. I’m so thankful to have a husband who goes above and beyond to care for all the members of our family. I watched as Daniel earned the admiration and respect of every winded, exhausted person on those trails.
Most of my life, I’ve been more of a “how can I blend in?” rather than a “how can I stand out?” kind-of-person, but being out on physically demanding hikes with our noticeably disabled son definitely drew attention—and honestly, it felt like a badge of honor. It was a uniquely humbling privilege to have total strangers stop to cheer us on and offer words of encouragement. We received SO many comments from people who admired us for being out there doing a hard thing when we had every reason not to. I could see the look in people’s eyes change as they registered what it must have taken for us to do something that most people do without even thinking about it. It made me feel hopeful that our Shep-schlepping might have inspired someone else to do the “hard thing” in their life.
Not to mention, we got stopped by at least three families who wanted to ask us about our Huckleberry Hiking Cart because they have a disabled loved one who wasn’t on the trail with them that day. They had no idea something like this cart existed and they were excited about the possibilities that it could open up for their families. What a gift to be able to share a life-changing find with other families like ours!
We came home from our week-long adventure absolutely exhausted, but so full of gratitude. “We can do hard things” is something of a family motto in the Miller household. We say it to our kids all the time and we are doing our best to live by example and put it into practice ourselves. Hard things are, well, hard. But they are almost always worth it. Taking this trip reminded me that pushing myself is worthwhile–for myself, my family, and for all the other people we get to encounter and encourage along the way in life. This trip also showed me just how much God has changed my heart over the last 5 years. Early on, I would have wallowed in the fact that “normal things” like camping trips are infinitely harder for families like ours. My bitterness and resentment would have spoiled opportunities like this completely. But on this trip, I just felt thankful. Yes, it was hard. But God made it possible for us to do this. He made a way for us to rent a trailer, own a vehicle that could tow it, park where we needed to, hike trails we shouldn’t have been able to, and soak in the glory of His creation. How could I not feel thankful for all that? He has been so good to us.
Good Shepherd 