​The Last First Day – Yosemite National Park, NatureBridge

Tonight I’m sitting here in Yosemite, thinking about how this was our very last “first day” of STEAM in the PARK for 2025. What a place to close the circle.

The NatureBridge campus here is stunning—tucked into the forest, wrapped in quiet beauty. It’s still in stage one of development, so things are just beginning to take shape. Soon there will be more buildings and spaces, but for now it felt kind of magical to all pile into one big cabin together for the night. It was a little crowded, a little chaotic, but full of laughter and togetherness—the way camp should feel.

Then came the storm. By 3:00 in the afternoon the power blinked out, and it stayed out until 9:00. Six hours of darkness, thunder, and rain echoing across the valley. We leaned on lanterns and flashlights, but mostly on each other. When the lights finally came back on, we realized we hadn’t really missed them—we already had everything we needed.

The best part of the evening was sharing our campfire with 13 high school students from Stockton who are part of a program called WildLink. It’s designed to connect young people—many visiting Yosemite for the first time—to this park and to the idea that they, too, are stewards of these lands. Around the fire, stories and laughter passed easily between us, a reminder that the parks belong to everyone, and that connections like this matter.

And tomorrow… well, tomorrow we get to spend the day with none other than Shelton Johnson. I can’t think of a better way to honor this last camp than by learning from someone who has given his life to telling Yosemite’s story.

Here’s to the storm, the stories, the cabin, the firelight—and to all the “first days” that led us here.