Autumn cottonwoods along Hat Creek, Lassen Volcanic National Park (NPS photo)

How old do you suppose the earth is? Science suggests over 4.5 billion years. The Bible seems less concerned about the answer to that question than some of its strongest adherents who infer it is only 5,000 years “young.” Science and faith may not concur, but they may not be the polar opposites some suggest. The Bible speaks of strange and ancient creatures inhabiting the earth. The Nephilim, Leviathan, and Behemoth, occupy a time and space well before the narratives that fill the Bible’s books. While those mysterious beings of the ancient past may elude tangible evidence, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument contain traces of beings that inhabited what is now central Oregon over 50 million years ago, providing a glimpse into our world long, long before we recently arriving humans began recording our own history.

Bald cypress and their trademark "knees" poking up out of the surrounding swamp, Congaree National Park (photo by Brad Lyons)

To wander and ponder along these sixty acres is to see the sights that inspired one of America’s most famous artists, J Alden Weir. Weir was an impressionist painter, whose interpretive style was along the line of French impressionist Claude Monet. Rather than trying to capture as life-like an image as possible, the impressionists sought to capture the play of light upon their subjects and to give the viewer of the painting permission to see and imagine their true form and nature between the brush strokes and accents. It is your mind that gives its own expression to the window thrown open by the artist on canvas. A visit to Weir Farm National Historical Park today may give you a chance encounter with one of 35 painters in residence of the Weir Studio on property that was purchased for a painting and $10.

A crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci), National Park of American Samoa (NPS photo)