It’s Sunday evening and once again there’s a gently swirling snow falling outside our window. It’s been an absolutely crazy 3 days here at YNP. The snow forecasts, after two weeks of sunny late spring weather, have thrown all the guests into a quite unusual tizzy. The front desk has been absolutely crazy—most of the desk staff is new so they are just really learning things. Then you throw at them folks who want to leave early because they are afraid of the snow; folks who want to stay over because they are afraid of the snow; folks who want to know, every 30 minutes, which roads are open/closed and, to top it off, the folks who want you to tell them what to do when mother nature is at her most unpredictable.

Saturday there was 7 inches of fresh new snow on the ground, most of which was gone by 6pm. This morning there was another 2-3; this time gone by noon. Two of the 4 major routes out of the park were closed until  noon—and there was panic in the streets. Yesterday, when I told one guest that Craig Pass was open you could almost hear a cheer go up from the entire lobby.

It never ceases to amaze me how little people prepare themselves to come to YNP. They arrive with nothing but t-shirts and shorts and then end up spending a lot of money on sweatshirts, pants and socks because they didn’t read about the average temperature. They don’t realize how big the park is and how long it takes to navigate and then get irritated when you tell them that, basically, you can’t see the entire park in one afternoon.

Of course there are also the guests who ask crazy questions. My favorite one last week was “At what altitude do deer turn into elk?” There are days when I think half the American population needs to repeat 3rd Grade. They want to know what time we turn Old Faithful on, where to go to pet the bears and even “Where are the elephants?” That place is called Gibbon Falls, so of course we must have gibbons. They stand with an infant in their arms less than 30 feet from a grizzly bear and let total strangers watch their children. They want to pet bison and want to know what time we let the wolves out.

The crazies are all made up for by all the wonderful folks you meet along the way. There was one guest I spoke with 3 times yesterday—she kept coming back to me because she knew my recommendations would probably involve a comfortable chair and a beverage of her choice (hot or alcoholic or both). There was the look of total relief on the face of the gentleman from Europe when we managed to locate the bag with his passports. There’s the little girl racing to see Old Faithful and telling her daddy “We have to get it on video!”; another guest who, every time you see her, has a great big grin on their face and  says “I’m in Yellowstone!” There are the guests who are totally patient and understanding when rooms aren’t ready (because the linen truck was 4 hours late getting here due to impassable roads) and, of course, there are the absolutely crazy fisherman who were out in full force today, even though the outside temp was hovering around 35-40 degrees.

Happy Memorial Day!

….do I love this place, you ask?

Where else can you go from this:

to this:

with a few bears and pelicans inbetween.

A marvelous critter car ride today…back to work tomorrow.

Bison so own the park.  They are the meat and potatoes, the plain vanilla pudding, the cake without the frosting.   Bears and wolves are the Chateaubriand, the Crepe Suzette, the fine red wine.   Bison are part of your life everyday.  Yesterday we hit our first true bison jam….the jam was all coming towards us, so we just pulled off to the side of the road, watched the poor ranger trying to manage the traffic and sat back and laughed.

Then, of course, you find yourself next to this guy….he was huge—with freshly dried mud all over  him…and a real reminder that bison OWN the park…and though they “Go placidly amid the noise and haste…” they can also move at 35 MPH.

It was another great day in Lamar; 6 bears, cubs and moms, more baby bison and lots of pronghorns.  I’m off to see if I can go a few miles up the road and get some pix in today’s snow  (the sun was shining 2 hours ago)

Have a wonderful weekend

On Sunday we took our first major critter  trek through the park.   We saw LOTS of critters—but I thought I’d share with you the hidden reality of the trip. (the highlights are, of course, posted to flickr…these, for obvious reasons, didn’t make the cut)

Bears…well, yes, we saw a black bear–he looked like this for most of the 60 minutes we watched him….he occasionally rolled over and showed us that he, most assuredly, was a male black bear.

And then, of course, we saw a cinnamon black bear…Tim dropped me at the side of the road, as we typically do, but clearly we need more practice…my knitting tangled around me foot and I had about 50 feet of Cascade Heritage Silk running down the road. The Australians thought it was hysterical.

And then, of course, there was the grizz w/ 2 cubs….well, we’re fairly sure that’s what they are.  Sometimes these are great moments though.  You put your camera down, grab the binoculars and just watch the cubs roll, bounce, spring, pounce–do anything except walk.  We’re heading out again tomorrow–maybe they’ll be a little closer to the road–one thing’s for sure–we weren’t violating any park rules about getting to close to the animals. (Click on picture for larger view)

The big  horn sheep were no challenge at all….they were right on the road–the hardest part is getting them to show you something other than their butt….and getting the people out of the camera view.

We always eagerly await the first of the baby bison (red dogs) to be born.  We’d heard of a few–can you find them in this pic–it’s about as close as we came…but “we saw red dogs!” was the report when we got home.

There’s been bits and pieces of snow almost every day this week.  Usually it’s a dusting, just like powdered sugar on a brownie–that melts away into a gorgeous day…and we’ll see what the next week brings.  The Snow Lodge (Tim’s job) opens tomorrow and I finally start my training on Sunday.