Much of Yellowstone National Park is a super volcano worthy of end of the world sci-fi movies, but my favorite part was the previously-not-known-to-me Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and the wildlife watching. The snow is two feet deep in places and nonexistent in others. Rivers bulge at the seams, and some valleys flood entirely, calm waters mirroring the trees they swamp. Oh, yeah. And we're doing it all in the camper van.

So, I went antler hunting. Yes, that's a thing. Male elk, deer, and moose lose their antlers every spring, and people go looking for them. Like a giant Easter Egg hunt, except a lot more uncertain and a lot heavier load if you find some.

When every one else is getting ready for Pumpkin Spice lattes and scarves, my family welcomes fall in a different way. September is archery hunting season. Being part of a hunting family includes some oddities. For example, the first time I ate a steak at a restaurant when I was 10, I leaned over and told my mom the meat tasted funny. This is because I grew up eating elk steak and elk burger. One elk feeds my family for a whole year and it’s my family’s go-to protein. Additionally, I never went through the ‘where does meat come from?’ phase, nor the shock that beef comes from cows and…