The visitors make the job  more than tolerable  (a low-wage, no responsibility, “peon-type” job)  They make it interesting, fascinating and enjoyable.

Yesteday Bob Ballard checked out. (yes, THE Bob Ballard–from the Jason Project and  the Titanic and all sorts of other fascinating projects!).  What a nice man, and a nice family; so unassuming and sincere–we just talked briefly about the park–and it wasn’t until we were minutes into the conversation that I realized who he was.  Jenna Bush Hager was here with the Today Show today—and, while I didn’t check her out, the GSA right next to me did; again a very normal person, and she looks in person  just like she does on TV. The Today Show did a broadcast from Black Sands basin today.  I miss the Today show.  It’s really weird to know they were shooting and also know that there was no way I would be able to watch it  (No TV in the park).

Celebrities and famous people are the exception in the park however.  The vast majority of our guests are just “normal” folks.  I love it as they rediscover “sitting and talking”  The Inn is the perfect place for that, will lots of lounge chairs, a fabulous fireplace for chilly evenings and great architecture.  They are experimenting with adding Internet Access to the park; I just hope we won’t end up with lots of chairs full of laptops instead of chairs full of people playing card games and laughing and talking.

Each guest has their own story and reason for coming to the park.  Some are “addicted” to the park and return year after year;  for some this is their first visit–and the thing that most folks don’t realize until they get here is how big the park is  (2.2 million acres!)

Some of my favorite stories include “Ms. B”–at 80+ years old she and her husband were regular visitors to the park.  Now that he’s gone, she’s revisiting all of their favorite places–and Yellowstone was a frequent stop for them.  She’s lucid and “tough”…one night of their journey she fell…the next day when I saw her she was battered and bruised–but did that stop her?  Not in the least!  She even took one of the special tours up all of the steps to the top of the inn.  I want to be like her when I’m 85;  alive, vibrant and unstoppable.

Last week we had a wedding at the Inn.  This was not an official planned wedding.  The couple decided to get married someplace hot, and Yellowstone is the hottest spot around–since it actually sits in an active volcano (last explosion 640,000 years ago).  So they checked in, she asked for an iron so she could touch up her dress, they brought a minister and a photographer with them and walked out to the geyser and got married–no hoopla–just doing it “their way”…..

The park also attracts it’s fair share of groups–this week it seems to be a “Morgan owners” group meeting…not a big affair, just a few folks who own morgans who get together at different cool places.  Later in August we know that we will get lots of visitors who are riding Harleys as they pass by the park on their way to the Sturgis SD motorcycle event.

As always, additional pictures are at my flickr site (these pix are not on the flickr site as they were taken with my Droid, not my “real camera”)

I now understand why so many “summer in Yellowstone” blogs have so few entries. The park calls each and every day…you get off work at 2 or 3 and it seems criminal to spend any part of the daylight (and the light doesn’t fade until 10 pm) not out in the park…or, if you’ve been out in the park you collapse into bed..especially if your next shift starts at 6;15 am.
When your choice is writing about moose or seeing moose there is no choice.

It’s as if writing about things interferes with experiencing them. The same thing can happen with the camera. Old Faithful is much more impressive when you just sit and watch it then when you look at it through a viewfinder. The viewfinder really inhibits the view.
With all that said, I shipped 30+ dvds home this weekend as a backup of all the raw, unedited images…so we start again tomorrow with a “spring shoot” on the Beartooth Highway
http://www.gorp.com/weekend-guide/travel-ta-scenic-drives-red-lodge-cooke-city-montana-sidwcmdev_052607.html

Tim says I whine about not seeing enough bears–at least enough to get good pix…and that typically, right after I whine, we see bears  (how’s that for reinforcing the whining!)…well, this morning changed all that  🙂  I couldn’t sleep in…so around 8 I abandoned Tim and went off on my own.  Needless to say, bison are making me a little skittish, but I stopped to take a few bison pix.  I went up as far as Madison–and then turned around–less than 12 miles from the Inn, what do I spy at a convenient turnoff, even–but this wonderful subadult grizzly….clambering on the hillside and even stopping to munch on a few flowers.  I had to shoot fast, didn’t even have time to turn the car off….but this is the result.

As always, if I forget to hyperlink the images–the full size images are always on my flickr site.

Sunday is Tim’s birthday–but we both have to work–so we’ll be doing something calm tomorrow evening–a quick trip to West Yellowstone and a really good pizza or some barbq.

Ok, I admit it. I cry at Hallmark commercials; I cry at that Folgers commercial..the one where the parents realize their son has returned because they smell the coffee he’s brewing; I cry when Kate Smith sings “God Bless America” and apparently I cry when I watch baby elk finally succeed in standing on four very wobbly legs.  How on earth do they ever manage it….and how do they know?

The park never fails to provide and amaze…we went out at the crack of dawn to check out an elk carcass is hopes of seeing bears or wolves…nope, no luck. Instead we got to see Mammoth become a maternity ward as not one but two elk gave birth out among the buildings within an hour of each other. Apparently it’s not an unusual occurrence there….as the elk have learned that it’s a “wolf and bear-free zone.” Out in the rest of the park you will not see it happen as it’s just too dangerous for the calf to be exposed…they are a favorite bear food.  50% of elk calves do not survive—I’m certainly hoping for these two.

On Wednesday we watched a bison…thankfully on the opposite side of the road.
Five baby bison, four mommy bison traveling leisurely down the middle of the road..followed by 51 (at last count) cars moving very slowly.
Bison are amazing…snow doesn’t melt on them, they give birth wherever they want (including in the middle of the road), cause visitors to panic when they roam the parking lots and have the most astounding and serene self-confidence. They have a life assumption that they may do as please; other beings are irrelevant with the exception of an occasional wolf or grizzly. In addition, Tim does an excellent bison imitation complete with snorting, head swaying and grass chomping.

To give you an idea–here’s a sampling of local police reports from West Yellowstone:

• May 25:  A large bull bison was disturbing traffic in front of a local hotel
• May 26: A crowd of people were gathered to watch a large bull bison in the town park
• May 28: A large bull bison was in the school parking lot.
• May 29:  A large bull bison was seen in the city park
• May 30:  ispatch received a report of a driver slapping a bison on the rear as he drove past  (This personis CRAZY!)
• May 31: A caller requested to speak with the Chief of Police concerning a bull bison in town
• June 1:  An individual expressed their concern to the WYPD that tourists standing too close to a bison would be hurt.

On another note, we had our own run-in with a bison late last night.  We were coming back from Bozeman at about 11 pm…and suddenly there was a bison in the middle of the road  (it’s amazing how hard they are to see in the dark.  Tim did was we have always done, slowed down and gently passed him  (he was on the opposite side of the side–but heading in our direction.  Apparently there was something he didn’t like about us–do he decided to head butt the car—we now have a nice bison-sized head dent in the left rear quarter-panel…and yet another trip to Bozeman–but at least this time is will be for the card and not for me.

All in all, the entire event was somewhat scarey….but I’m hoping the bison was OK.  One of Tim’s co-workers last year apparently killed a bison in a head-on collision….she walked away from it…..but the bison was no match for her truck.

I can’t believe I’m writing that–but my attitude towards visitors has changed a little.  I still love meeting them…I love helping them..but they are just an inconvenience  out in the park;  they talk while I’m shooting video, they drive with their eyes at right angles to the steering wheel and they stop in the middle of the road for bison.  BISON?!?…..I know baby bison are cute–but there are about 1,000 of them around.  As the ranger said the other day “folks seem to lose all of their good driving habits when they cross the border into the park”.

Before Memorial Day, if we wanted to travel at a leisurely 25 MPH through the park it was not a problem; if someone was behind us who wanted to do 45 mph we would just pull over and they would wave as they passed us.  Now we are stuck between the folks who want to do 60  (the speed limit in the park is 45mph) and the ones who stop in the middle of the road….don’t they know it’s a FEDERAL crime to stop in the middle of the road! (We were also informed, during our first week of work, that a “critter jam” is not an accepted excuse for being late…unless critters are blocking both the front and the back doors of your dorm–which has been know to happen.)

OK–enough with the rant..this is the time of year when employees start to share all the off-road places to go…and the visitors seem to think they need to stick to the roads to experience the park…so we will let them have the road–but we will reclaim it starting in mid-August!  The park continues to be a source of amazement, wonder and renewal..even with all the guests.

(on another note….much more positive discussion with the docs…and, after 3 MRIs, looks like we get to stay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Happy Friday! (it’s raining here–but June rain means fewer forest fires in September!)