A Letter to Washington

Over the course of this most current government shutdown, I've had the great pleasure of "meeting" a handful of passionate people in my fellow YNP gateway community of Cody, WY as well as getting to know a few neighbors right here in Gardiner a little bit better. Some of us may have differing political views and lifestyle ideas, but I've learned this week that at the end of the day our end goal is often the same - we are Americans, want to be proud to be so, and are frustrated by the feeling that this inalienable right is being taken from us one piece at a time. One of these new friends, Rick Satterthwaite of Cody, has been instrumental in the Protest for Yellowstone movement that is gaining steam in our area and penned the below letter to the elected officials of the United States government. Not to The House, The Senate or the Executive Branch, but to ALL of them. Whether you are left, right, moderate or out in the stands, Rick's letter is likely to ring true in more ways than you might think.

October 2013

To the 537 leaders of the United States of America: The President, The Vice President, The House of Representatives, and The Senate:

We are tired; We the People….we are tired. The weariness that is overtaking us feels like an invisible force wrapped around each one of us individually, and yet all of us collectively at the same time. It is the feeling that something familiar…something we trust…has begun to weigh us down, tug at us and pull us apart, to look us in the eye with assurance, while wrestling with us at every turn. Wrestling, not as two playmates might; but as an adversary. That adversary is you, 537 men and women we look to as leaders, as familiar, trustworthy leaders.
We were a small group in the wilderness, just in front of the gates of Yellowstone National Park. What brought us there was the desire to gain access to our friend, our park. However, what became obvious as We The People began to look around was much greater than Yellowstone; if one could imagine that. No, what was obvious was our weariness over you and your inability to lead on behalf of us.

From where We The People stood that day, in the wilderness, what we saw were men and women, 547 of you, fighting for yourselves, for your own agendas, your own power, your own egos…never truly thinking of We the People. We hear talk of not wanting to give the Republicans too much…not wanting to give the Democrats too much, never thinking that We The People are Republicans and Democrats, independents and libertarians. What we hear is that our democrat leaders do not want to give half of We The People too much. Our republican leaders do not want to give half of We The People too much. We are so weary of that!

John Kennedy once said, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” What happened to ideas like that? What happened to you as servants of We The people that it has to be a democrat or republican answer. Do you 537 not realize that those answers exclude half of We the People? Do you not realize it is making We The People weary? You lead us from one crisis to another; one cliff to another. You have become experts at pitting We The People against ourselves in order to give some portion of the 537 a victory, all the while making We The People more tired…more weary.

No, as that small portion of We The People gathered at the gates of Yellowstone, what we realized is that it is your inability to lead that has made We The People weary. Please stop! We are tired of fighting among ourselves; fighting in the way you 537 do…how you 537 lead We The People. Stop looking for the republican answer. Stop looking for the democrat answer. Look for the right answer. Look for the answer that will relieve the weariness of We The People.

Many of us, We The People, echo the prayer of Admiral Black last week when he asked you 537 men and women to come to grips with the shame you have caused in this great nation. Your behavior is selfish and shameful to We The People and we simply ask you to stop, look inward, and examine yourselves. Find a way to get beyond your party affiliation and dogmatic policy stances and look at us, We The People. Look from a position of humility, not power. Look from a position of weakness, not strength. Join us at Yellowstone’s gates and see We The People, not a voting-block, or district, or constituency. No, try to see us, weary as we are and understand that we deserve better than what you 537 are giving us. Stop tugging at us, stop pulling us apart, stop doing all the things we try to teach our children not to do and lead.

As We The People gather at the gates of Yellowstone, we were denied entrance because you 537 men and women shut down the government, our government. We stood there as you were huddled in Washington DC. Here is a thought from We The People that just might help you understand just how We The People are feeling right now. Do your jobs and fund the government. Do what you have to do to get past this latest crisis. Then shut it down again! Shut down every office, every hall, and every meeting room and come to Yellowstone. Come to the farmland of the Midwest. Come to the sprawling cities of the eastern seaboard. Come to the oil patches of the west and southwest. Come to the great forests of the Pacific North West. Come to We The People and just sit with us.

But do not go to your own districts, your own constituencies. Go where you are not familiar and sit with someone you have never sat with. Don’t take cameras and media people, just put on your jeans and come alone. How can you lead all of We The People if you have only sat with half of We The People? Imagine that! None of you 537 being lobbied, arguing your point, pitting half of us against the other half. Just take the fall and early winter off to sit with We The People and get to know us. The reconvene after the holidays and lead us together in the right way; the American way. What do you say? Meet us at the gates of Yellowstone and let us just sit together as We The People.

Rick, you are a true credit to the people of the mountain West.

Just Another Day In Paradise...Or Several - Summer 2012 in Review

With the computer out of commission and my patience entirely too small to blog via iPhone, I hadn't realized how long it has been since I've written anything!

It was another interesting summer, as usual, with crazy things happening in the Park, in town and in general. But thankfully the priority to make sure there is time for fun has still been given it's proper space, in part due to the fact that I seem to have forgotten that I had not used a good majority of my vacation time, which resets for the year on the anniversary date of when I started working full time, which is the end of August. Thus, I ended up with many long weekends in July and August. In fact, I'm pretty sure I didn't work a full week from mid-July until Labor Day weekend, darn it!. I suggested that this had worked out very well and that I might just plan on using my vacation days this way next summer, but that idea was quickly shot down by everyone else in the office who have been answering my phone during my seemingly endless string of long weekends. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted!

Here's a quick photo summary so far, with a little commentary thrown in for good measure.......

It was ENTIRELY too hot last summer! While it definitely can get a little toasty in Gardiner and Mammoth during the summer, this picture can explain the difference this year as it was taken on June 23. On that same date last year, we were cheering because summer had finally shown up at all and the high was about 80......

 Sunset over central Yellowstone, near Gibbon Falls

 

Gibbon Falls sunset looking the other direction 

Bannack ghost town in SW Montana - it was the first territorial capitol of MT and has been preserved 

and restored as a State Park.

 

Ibex cabin in somewhat south central Montana - a great weekend with 4 people, 2 hyper dogs and a whole lot of board and lawn games, aka the "Ibex Olympics"

 

 

View towards Yankee Jim Canyon from Old Yellowstone Trail north of Gardiner, MT

 

Winter 2011/12 in a Nutshell

The Old Faithful Snow Lodge closed on Sunday, Mammoth yesterday, the exodus of snowcoaches coaches from Old Faithful was the sight of the morning...the signs that another long and unpredictable Yellowstone winter has come to an end.

We saw crazy road closures (boulders in the road, snow drifts as tall as me), no snow followed by touch followed again by none. We saw plenty of animals, heard plenty more stories, and complained just as much as usual when it wasn't snowing enough or when it was snowing too much, whichever that particular day called for. The snowcoaches got stuck, they broke down, people crashed snowmobiles and plenty of people hit the ground while learning to cross country ski. Most importantly, we made it through. All in all, another winter season to be thankful for!

Here is my winter in it's photographic nutshell...

America's Best Idea - The Tauck Winter in Yellowstone Event

No, of course Tauck's "Winter in Yellowstone" Event was not America's best idea, but it was set around the idea of what was.....America's National Parks, as showcased by the 2009 Ken Burns/Dayton Duncan documentary "The National Parks: America's Best Idea".

 As a Group Sales Rep for Xanterra, the lodging concessionaire for Yellowstone National Park, my job primarily revolves around a lot of data entry and answering questions - taking requests, building bookings, entering rooming lists and helping tour operators understand the complexities of working with not just a National Park, but a pretty large and varied one. While I definitely have the freedom to explore and expand within those confines, there are always exactly that: confines. It has been quite an experience in learning and growing up to be able to realize what is my job and when to do it, and what is not my job and when to shut up and leave it to those actually responsible for that task or area. Well, this winter I've had the opportunity to do something different...of course still within my realm of responsibility but with quite a bit more variety than I usually see.

 About 2 years ago, Tauck (one of the largest and best known tour companies in the US) partnered with Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan to launch a series of new tours based around some of their best known documentaries (The National Parks, The Civil War, Jazz etc..) and each new tour series was to include a "Hosted by Ken Burns" Event to kick of the series. Well, "Winter in Yellowstone" was a top priority for Mr Burns and Mr Duncan, so Winter in Yellowstone it was to be. While putting this together definitely included all of the normal aspects of my job, it also allowed me the opportunity to think outside the box, work with other departments, actually assist in the execution of the plans rather than just making them and hoping for the best. It was the perfect blend of event planning and group management, probably a taste of what would be my ideal job.

 That said, don't think that it was all work and no play! The cornerstone of the event, which took place Jan 7-14, was the series of tours in the park with both our guides and the Yellowstone Association as well as the presentations by various guests speakers on the parks geology, history, wildlife etc. The event also included a keynote address by Dayton Duncan (originally planned to be Ken Burns but he was unable to attend due to medical issues). Other speakers included wildlife cinematographer Bob Landis, animal behavior and tracking expert Jim Halfpenny, and Gerard Baker, the first Native American National Park Service Superintendent (Mt Rushmore). I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to visit Old Faithful for the keynote event and dinner. This special and private event filled the Old Faithful Snow Lodge for a night, as well as allowed for us to enjoy the keynote by Mr Duncan in the auditorium of the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center - something the National Park Service had not previously allowed for anyone else to do. While of course there was a hint of disappointment in the air over Mr Burns being unable to attend, I personally felt thrilled to have the opportunity to hear Mr Duncan speak. He was the driving force behind The National Parks having been the one to suggest the idea in the first place, as well as being a strong voice in the inclusion of Winter in Yellowstone into the new Ken Burns American Journey's programs with Tauck. He spoke so passionately about the motivation for both his love of the National Parks and his desire to create these films with Ken that it seemed as though he was truly the most fitting presenter for the evening. Through his sincere storytelling and raw emotion (he noted that Ken compares him to Yellowstone: waterworks), he brought tears to my eyes on several occasions as the realization set in and dug a bit deeper each time that he was speaking about not only the amazing idea that is the National Parks, but also of the location that begin it all and that I have the enormous pleasure of calling my home.

 Amazingly though, the evening did not end there. Following the presentation and a wonderful dinner filled with exceptional company and good spirit, Dayton invited us (the Tauck staff, myself and any guests wishing to make the venture) to join him and Gerard for a moonlit viewing of Old Faithful....if we were lucky enough with timing, that is! With the VC being closed for the evening, they had done the "rough math" of when we "may" expect the next eruption and we settled on a meeting time in the hotel lobby of 9:50pm. As went the rest of the evening, time was on our side. Our group of approximately 20-25 people was taking the last few steps along the stretch of boardwalk separating the VC from the geyser when Old Faithful began it's show. Granted, I lived at Old Faithful for 5 seasons and have seen it many times, but this was different. It was the night after a full moon, crystal clear and amazingly cold (about -10 when we left the hotel....I was in a full snowmobile suit plus a down coat!) and I was surrounded by a group who 90% of them had never had anything close to this experience before. That can make even a veteran feel renewed in their surroundings. After the eruption, we took a few minutes to do what Gerard spoke of so often - be quite and enjoy the silence. Once we had settled into our enjoyment of our surroundings, he graced us with the telling of the stories behind the constellations we could see, a Native American prayer and a song for those who not be with us that night. To top of an already beautiful experience, he then circled us up for the "friendship dance" - a bit of easier two step while holding hands and moving to the beat of his songs. This was not all seriousness though, he definitely had us in stitches with a few outlandishly funny verses here and there! And that set us up for our grand finale - some hilarious attempts at ice skating on the neon blue ringed "pond" that is the Old Faithful ice skating rink. We definitely ended the night with laughter, camaraderie, insight and an overwhelming awe and thankfulness for where we were and who we were with.

 Even after all of the years I have lived here, I am so thankful to know that I can still feel as though I am seeing it for the first time.

For 'Tis Life - Shiny Happy Photos

As happens in life, just by nature of it being the unpredictable, uncontrollable, baffling roller coaster that it is, I've been feeling a little funky lately. For the entirely self serving purpose of having to look at them and hopefully brighten my world for a fleeting moment, it's about time to impart some happy-thought inspiring photos out to the rest of the world....

March 2011 - Funny, I know. But my car's back door hasn't opened in over a year, and I fixed it myself the other day....quite a happy moment!

May 2007 - My best friend's dog, Arthur, making himself comfy in the back of my car during his very first Yellowstone visit. Other than a brief stop to try and lick some sticky gunk off the Gardiner bridge, he was very well behaved for a puppy on a road trip!

Winter 2010/11 - Photo courtesy of Beth Pratt - Mama Bison and a late-born baby(aka lil red dog...we don't usually see lil guys this red when the snow is around!)

September 2002 - Iris and Colonnade Falls in the Bechler region of the Yellowstone backcountry. My first backpacking trip, almost 10 years ago.

December 2010 - My best friend in world, Jayne Rockford Pond, with her husband Alex and their one year old daughter Reesa. Family ski day in Steamboat Springs! I miss that girl an awful lot....

July 2010 - One of my nearest and dearest, Laney, fishing on Yellowstone Lake on her wedding day

May 2007 - Me on the widow's walk of the Old Faithful Inn...one of my favorite places in the world

May 2004 - My mom and me at an overlook for the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. Mom's first trip to Yellowstone, back when I was 21 years old.

November 2008 - My little brother and me(yes, I'm happier than I look....Dad has such great timing for catching terrible faces with the camera!). This was my brother's first visit to Colorado, and the first time I'd seen him in almost 5 years. 

November 2010 - The epic snowstorm that hit Gardiner, MT. This is only a happy picture because it looks pretty, and I got to drive away and leave on vacation about 2 hours later.

November 2010 - Balanced Rock in Arches National Park. Not only is this just cool to look at, but Arches is also one of my favorite National Parks. I also get warm fuzzies because Edward Abbey's trailer house was near here during the time he wrote of in Desert Solitaire, one of my all time favorite books

November 2010 - The wonderful man I love, playing in slot canyons in Arches National Park

October 2008 - My Dad and me on the Fish Creek Falls bridge, Steamboat Springs, Colorado

May 2007 - Arthur and me at the South Entrance to Yellowstone. I have a thing for signs when I visit places, and this is by far my favorite and most photographed....I have no idea why :o)

Summer 2010 - Me, Laney and Tyrene, another of my nearest and dearest. I have known Ty almost my entire duration of time in Yellowstone, and she is a wonderful, kindred, native Oregonian, Portlandian and Oregon Ducks football fan to have around. Plus, she's the reason I even know Laney. I love these girls!

A Girl, a Boy, a Windy Day and No Fish!

Just to the bottom right of this is one of my favorite little fishing pockets...just have to get there!

Most of last week and this weekend, we were graced with sunny skies and temps in the 40s-low 50s(or cursed, considering it's just a tease before the next big, inevitable, snowstorm) and yesterday was the most exciting of all: first day of fishing for 2011. I must add the disclaimer, though, that first day doesn't mean the season started yesterday because you can fish in Montana year-round. I'm just enough of a wimp that I don't go stick my hands in rivers of mountain run off in the winter...my hands get cold enough as is, why on earth would I want to make it worse?

So, after a good sleep-in(daylight savings is wonderful...guilt free sleeping into the late morning because "honey, it's really only 10am...". Gotta love it.) and a bit too much lounging, we decided to head out fishing since it was such a beautiful day. Beautiful does not, however, mean dry. Or clean. Or not windy.

This is Vegas(I'm not one for naming cars, but my friend Sarah is....my car is Vegas because inside is where whatever we say can stay there!). She took us fishing yesterday.

Vegas got to play in the mud....

Section of the Old Yellowstone Trail, looking North

Terrible picture, I know(dirty-rotten-no good-good for nothing Blackberry....) but I imagine you get the idea. Lots and lots of mud. Yellowstone is still closed for fishing until Memorial Day weekend, so our adventure took us up a long, windy and sometimes treacherous road called Old Yellowstone Trail, which runs between Gardiner and Paradise Valley for about 20 or so miles, following the old stagecoach route into Gardiner. It's one of my favorite places to go fishing because of it's relative solitude(you can still see/hear the highway most of the time, but your across the river so it has a semblance of peace and quiet) and it's convenient access to home. Not the mention the incredibly fun puddles and mud bogs you can drive a 4WD through this time of year.

It also has a lot of very interesting history to be seen all along the route. There are several areas where you can distinctly see where the stage road went a slightly different course than the current road, a very fun area of hoodoos to explore, and even old "signs" from the stage days(they used flat rocks and paint to make the original roadside "billboards").

Part of the old "Yankee Jim" Stagecoach Toll Road....no, you don't have to drive on this anymore!

That said, it is also a pretty crummy place to be when it's muddy AND windy. Which it was. Which it OFTEN is. Because we may have a shortage of some things around here...fast internet, movie theaters, summer. But wind is definitely not one of them. I started out the day a bit behind, as I forgot to check my leader on my fly rod until we were there, and discovered way too late that I had about 8 inches of it left. Oops! Bryan on the other hand, was plenty stocked up with everything....including the knot after knot that ended up in his leader from the wind deciding it did not want to listen to wear he was telling it to send his line.


All in all, we caught about 4 sticks, a few snowbanks, slide down the muddy canyon hillside and fell in the river(well, that was just me....but it makes me feel much better to say we!), saw a group of bighorn sheep, including a beautifully full curled ram, and caught zero fish. Guess I have some catching up to do next weekend. Happy Spring in Montana!

Gunga-Ga-Lunga!!

Photo Courtesy of Scott Hanley

Enter, the Snow Lodge Winter Olympics(aka Yellowstone Olympics, Rainier Olympics, Beer Games, etc).

Living at Old Faithful in the winter is an experience, to say the very least. There is one hotel open, the Old Faithful Snow Lodge(SLodge), operated by 125-150 employees who are basically snowed in for the winter because all of the interior park roads are closed to wheeled vehicles(aka cars) from December-April. So, you park your car 50 miles north in Mammoth Hot Springs, hop on a snowcoach and head in for the winter. Kind of like The Shining, just a bit more fun. In short, the perfect recipe for cabin fever run amok.

Sometime in the history of Snow Lodge(opened for the winter in the early 70s) someone came up with the idea of breaking everyone out of the funk with the Snow Lodge Olympics. The games, once "sponsored" by Rainier beer, are 10 days of ridiculous contests and antics, ending with the closing ceremonies on Yellowstone's birthday, March 1(Today! Happy Birthday Yellowstone!). It starts with the Opening Ceremonies....a hilarious parade complete with the Yellowstone Birkebeiners(Birkenbeiner History), funky music, and the baby Bombardier(a miniature version of a classic snowcoach used in Yellowstone) carrying the queen, usually clad in an outfit completely unsuitable for the weather(example...Virgia's coconut bra of 2004!). This used to take place in front of the hotel, but unfortunately the idea of discretion in antics and public drinking led management and the National Park Service to move the ceremonies to the dorm parking lot, located in a Government area 1/2 mile from the hotel(and well out of guest sight...). There are various games each day, culminating in the Closing Ceremonies and Medal Presentation....did I mention that the medals for the winners of each game are Rainier beer cans, full ones, painted Gold, Silver and Bronze?

The Olympics at a glance. Click on an activity to see a description and pictures, courtesy of Scott Hanley - a wonderful past SLodge employee, co-worker and friend who made this amazing website full of memories!


Opening Ceremonies
Rainier Cup
100-yard Dash
Beverage Ball
Buffalo Chip Toss
Chair Pull
Dart Biathlon
Disc Golf
Drag Race
Fern Appreciation
Football
Kick'n'Glide Classic
Luge
No-Talent Show
Obstacle Course
Pub Games
Pub-Pizza-Pub
Pub-Ol'Pubtender-Pub
Ski Jump
Slalom / Giant Slalom
Snow Pole Toss
Snowshoe Long Jump
Snowshoe Race
Snowshoe/Ski Race
Tandumb Ski
Three-Legged Race
Tug-O-War
Piñata!

View full site at: Yellowstone Winter Olympics

My Snow Lodge days are a thing of the past, let slip away by the need to grow up and have a big kid job(pish posh, I say!), but that doesn't stop my annual trek to one of my favorite events of the season, the No-Talent show. It's about 4 hours and 50 miles each way on a very bumpy old coach called the Prinoth, that always ends up causing a sore neck after the round trip, but worth every second to enjoy the night. While the skits and characters change every season, there are few things you can have every bit of faith in occurring...there will be men in dresses, something on someone will get shaved, sarcasm will run wild, against both the concessionaire(our employer) and the National Park Service, often with the subject of the commentary in the audience. Regardless of the specifics, it's always a good time. This year had a different kind of highlight as well. A longtime park employee, area resident and well-known local photographer, Jeff Henry, was recently diagnosed with bone cancer, and friends have planned a benefit for him this coming Friday in West Yellowstone, MT. In honor of this, the SLodge crew put together a great auction, raising over $3000 in just under 3 hours(complete with auctioning off the opportunity to shave the head and beard of our friend Patty, a man who has not seen his chin in about 10 years!). A personification of the family that becomes SLodge every season. I love you guys!

And now that I think about it, it's been quite some time since I donned anything from the costume box for the Olympics....guess it's time to start planning for next year.

Who has more fun than we do?? NOBODY!!

PS - I have no idea why Gunga Ga Lunga is the motto of the SLodge Olympics...maybe the answer to my question of when the Olympics started is sometime around the time "Caddyshack" met the world??

The Two Minute Warning on Another Yellowstone Season

One of the things that comes with living in not just a small town, but a small town that is a gateway community to a National Park is learning to accept the concept of seasonal relationships. As another season in Yellowstone winds down, and Gardiner settles into a nice little mud season before the summer traffic arrives, thoughts go to this dynamic and how we all choose to deal with it.

With a year-round population of about 850(as of 2000 census, and including outer-laying areas), a large portion of those you interact with are seasonal staff from both the park and local business who pump up their hours and staff during the busy summer season. A significant portion of these jobs, however, disappear along with the throngs of summer visitors, so as a quickly as these people showed up they are gone again. This was a very tough thing for me my first summer working in Yellowstone...I left Old Faithful with a friend(love you Brent Simon!), bound for our common home state of Oregon, and were both a sobbing mess at the thought of leaving our new-found "family". As the years went by though, this seemed easier each time. Sometimes I attribute this to already having a group of close, established friends so I just didn't meet as many new people; other times I seem to know, deep down, that I probably didn't go out of my way to make new friends, in the name of saving the inevitable, heart wrenching goodbye that comes about more often than not. Surely a bit of each of these is true to a point but, regardless of which, it makes me a bit sad to think of both the countless good-byes and the missed opportunities at wonderful friendships that I may have passed by.

This winter marks my 10th season of working in Yellowstone(not to confuse "season" with "year"...I have worked in the park for about 5 1/2 years) and the passing into the world of double-digit seasons is somewhat bittersweet. Seasonal folks are making plans for their "break", a concept that us with regular day jobs and houses to take care of find a foreign one, at best. "Fun-employment" is a thing of the past; notebook pages filled with addresses of new friends are replaced with trips to the post office to retrieve the electric bill; the countdown begins to the summer days when the grocery store will stay open past 7pm(!) and we all anxiously await the sunshine. But with the sunshine comes the influx of raft guides, housekeepers, servers and of course, the visitors. But, best of all, the seasonal friends will return with pictures and tales of fun adventures....and us regular, full time town folks will start dreaming up ways to get two weeks of vacation at one time :o)

Today's Dilemma - Yellowstone Bison

Bison Dilemma

by Leslie James Quinn on Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at 7:22pm

OK, I'll line up and let everyone take pot-shots at me. Are the bison that are rounded up and shoved around and sent to slaughterhouses treated in the most humane manner possible? No. But what is the solution?

If we allow the bison to roam completely freely, they will not all return to Yellowstone each summer. They will populate Paradise Valley, then move downstream on the Yellowstone River and Missouri River, and ultimately repopulate the Great Plains. And as alluring as that sounds, there are rather a lot of people dependent upon the wheat that we grow there. This is not a workable solution.

If we provide feed for the bison that have been captured, they will survive. And they and more will require feed in subsequent winters, and it will finally be thousands being fed there, no end in sight, and no longer any semblance of wild bison roaming in Yellowstone (animals are not wild if they are dependent upon humans for food).

A compromise, setting aside a certain area of land north, is a stopgap. Give it a few years and bison will be leaving it and moving down valley. I see no workable solution here.

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Photo by Beth Pratt - Director of Environmental Affairs for Xanterra Parks & Resorts in Yellowstone National Park

The bison of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem are just the most recent subjects in the ever-evolving cycle of controversy that is bound to occur in a place like Yellowstone National Park - searching for the fine line between protection of the area and it's resources, and the protection of the economy and industry of the surrounding area.

Each of these debates to arise, from wolf reintroduction to brucellosis to bear management, has seemingly endless points of view. There are those who argue that the animals were here first and thus should be given free reign. There are those who argue that damage to the economy from loss of crops and livestock outweighs the who was here first argument. There are those just love the animals and want to help them without knowing the facts. There are those who just don't love the animals, and want them gone without knowing the facts. Somewhere in the middle there are always those of us who find ourselves in a quandary of understanding both sides and being at a loss in forming an opinion either way. Regardless of where you fall, it is a very real issue at hand when it comes to protecting the resources of our National Parks, and one well worth looking into a little deeper than most us already have.

Recent Articles and Updates

Buffalo Field Campaign



Yellowstone Insider - Bison Slaughter Debated in Court


Billings Gazette - Fort Peck Tribe Builds a Fence In Hopes of Getting Yellowstone Bison


Billings Gazette - Agency Representatives Outline Brucellosis Risks

Associated Press via MSNBC - Montana Governor Blocks Bison Slaughter


I can't, of course, attest to 100% accuracy of facts in listed articles, so read up, whet your interest, and check your facts before mounting an argument!

Winter in Yellowstone

Eclectic would be the only simple way to describe my life in Yellowstone. From the very beginning, 20 years old, in a minimum wage seasonal job, and away from home for the first time, to now, 28 years old, with a full time job and still not technically away from home(how can you be when your Dad follows you everywhere?), there have been many sights to behold. None, though, get to me as much as this area in the winter.

As the cold settles in(sometimes down to -40 degrees fahrenheit), the crowds disappear. The snow eventually sticks to the ground and the trees and it turns into a veritable winter wonderland. There is a real feeling of being in a different world.

This other-worldly feeling only increases as you visit different areas of the park. I have the pleasure of spending my days in the Mammoth Hot Springs area, in a 2nd floor office of a restored 1930s art-deco hotel. The windows look out the giant travertine terraces and the early 1900s Fort Yellowstone, a testiment to some of the rich human history of the park. And just a short drive away, is the Little Serengeti of of America, the Lamar Valley.

Aptly nicknamed, the Lamar valley is home to some of the best wildliife watching there is. Wolves were reintroduced here in 1995, and thrived in their natural habitat. THe lower elevations here bring the elk, bison, coyotes and moose as well, searching for food in the cold winter months.

My favorite of all winter locales within Yellowstone though, will always be the Old Faithful area. If you have ever visited this area in the summer, where 97% of the parks 3 million per year average visitors make a stop, the boarded up windows of the 105 year-old Old Faithful Inn remind you how drastically different it is in the winter. A ski up a trail that is used mostly by employees(due to its extreme close proximity to their rooms!) gives vistas of the geyser basin and great down hill to test your ski skills. A walk through the geyser basin brings peace, serenity and amazement.

I had the pleasure of taking a friend to this area for her first visit last weekend. On our late morning walk through the geyser basin, we passed only 2 skiers and 2 walkers(who also happened to be friends who were also down for a visit). It was a crystal clear, blue bird day with ne'er a cloud in sight. The sun twinkled perfectly through the frost covered trees, and the wind didn't dare to blow and disrupt our perfect morning.

A great thing to think about as you get even a bit older is the changes in your world-view as you age. Back to the beginning, 20 years old, this is in only a very small way I saw this place I lived. Winter was about shots at the pub, skiing afterwards, cursing yourself when the alarm went off for that 5:45am breakfast shift(that involved a 1/2 mile ski to work in -30 degree temps), coming up with the craziest costumes for the dances, and practicing your beer chugging for when the Snow Lodge Olympics rolled around. Now please don't get me wrong, these are still wonderful activities to enjoy....they are just fewer and farther between, allowing for much more time to appreciate what has always been there: a beautiful place that is far healthier for the mind and body than those things overindulged upon at a younger age.....