Asians!!!

I love Asian people. I was very sad when my Filipino friends moved back to their country. But we got a new shipment of people in Mammoth recently. They mostly consisted of Europeans (who I also love) but even more recently the buses have brought in more Asians! Yippee! I am excited to get to know this next bunch of people, they look like a good group :)

Work Update

Work has gotten a lot better for those that were wondering. I am not one to keep things to myself so I did talk to my boss about my schedule. I just told her that it wasn't fair for her to expect my performance to stay up to standards if the majority of my shifts caused me to lose more and more sleep throughout the week. I also told her that I understood that she can't customize everyone's schedule to their desires so if she was unable to help me out by adjusting some things that I would just look into transferring to a different job. I didn't say it in a mean way, I just let her know that I couldn't handle the way my schedule was set up and basically told her I had to take care of myself. She said she understood, but that was basically about it.

 So I talked to the manager of housekeeping about working for him instead, and he called my boss to see if it was okay with her for me to switch. After that things started happening, other people were complaining a bit louder, people weren't showing up at all or were pretty late for breakfast shifts later in the week because they were oversleeping, and some people quit because of the insanity. So we have a new person making the schedules and she makes it so there is a lot less turnover from dinner to breakfast. There are still some back to back shifts but in a completely manageable way.

Now I still have plenty of hours but I also get decent amounts of sleep :)

Yay for mutiny!

Fun Weekend Part I

This weekend we decided to change it up from our usual day off activities. Normally we hike literally all day. But this weekend we changed it up a bit.

Saturday, we woke up and got breakfast as usual. We drove out to the Lake and tried to see if we could get on a scenic cruise for free. Xanterra employees can ride free on any tour vehicle on a space available basis. In the end, they only had one space open when the tour started so we did the Natural Bridge Trail. At the actual bridge, the information sign was kind of funny because they are usually talking about how incredible and special each thing in Yellowstone is, but this one just told us how the bridge was created and how much better the natural bridges are in Utah. Daniel found this particularly hilarious. 

One thing I enjoy about Yellowstone is how friendly some people are. At work I get people telling me to look them up if I am in their area or giving me advice on the good areas of Tacoma and Seattle. One lady has offered to let me borrow her cooler for our box lunches for long weekends. Saturday, there was a guy that told us about a baby raven nest and let us use his binoculars to have a closer look. I kind of regretted that though. Baby ravens are just as ugly (if not uglier) than their mothers. Anyway, natural bridge, though apparently puny, was very cool. 

The hike went faster than expected so we had a little time to kill before the next tour started so we had lunch. At lunch we decided to just get a rowboat instead. The plan was just to pay to reserve our spots if we thought it would be too much of a hassle to try to get open spaces, after all, even without our discount the cruises were very affordable. But rowboats are free for us with our employee IDs so we just decided to go with those. Dave Ramsey approved! 

Uhmm, rowing is hard. Neither of us is no longer confused as to why it is an Olympic sport. After realizing that our hour would be wasted if we were passed out from exhaustion 100 feet from the dock by rowing individually, we tag teamed the oars and made great progress. We tried to sync our oars by singing "Row Row Row Your Boat", failed miserably, and ended up singing "Rowwww...Rrrrowwww....Rooooooooww....Row" in funny voices. But by the time that we headed back to the dock we were basically expert rowers. We even got a really sweet compliment on our docking skills from the boat guy! Although he didn't hear Daniel yell "Brace for impact!" when we crashed into the dock...

Row boating was a wonderful new adventure. 

We were supposed to relax after our water experience but Daniel really really wanted to to Elephant Back Trail. It's a 3.6 mile hike near the lake. I don't have much to say about it except that it was a hard 2 miles uphill to an 8600 foot overlook, but worth it in the end coming down the 1000 foot descent and to see the lake in the distance with the beautiful mountains in the background. 

After the hike we lived out a fantasy we both had of being guests at the Lake Hotel, sitting in the Sun Room and sipping drinks while looking at the lake. It's a much cheaper fantasy to have when you don't have to pay for a room! We also put our names on the wait list for dinner. The wait was an hour and a half but we were having fun pretending to be guests so it was no problem. The highlight of my night was the string quartet playing in the Sun Room. We basically had front row seats to a free concert. They played all kinds of music and it made me miss playing my violin soo much! 

After dinner at the Lake Dining Room, we headed home. I think it will go in my Top 10 Best Days Ever :)

Grand Teton National Park

This weekend, Clarise and I headed out to see the Grand Tetons which lie about 100 miles south of where we live in Mammoth Hot Springs.  The Tetons are hands down the most amazingly beautiful things I have ever seen.  My grandma told me before heading to Yellowstone that I needed to check out the Tetons while I was in the area because they were her favorite place to ever visit and she was definitely not wrong.  There are numerous lakes and flower filled meadows surrounding the rugged, glaciated peaks which are the youngest range in the Rockies at only 9 million years old (compared to 70 million years old for most of the rest of the Rockies).

The first day we hiked around Jenny Lake and up to Hidden Falls which were very powerful with numerous twists and turns on the way down the 200 foot falls.  We then traveled south and explored the resort town of Jackson, WY.



One our second day we took a boat ride over picturesque Jenny Lake and hiked into Cascade Canyon which Clarise and I both agreed was the prettiest hike either of us had ever done.  Not to shabby considering between the two of us we've been to the Colorado Rockies, Appalachian Mountains, and Vancouver, Canada to name a few.










We watched a video in one of the visitor centers that talked about the park and what you can do to save it for future generations and when it ends the back wall slowly slides away, revealing a perfectly framed panorama of the real Tetons out of the bay windows.

It is a relatively modern park, founded in 1929 and expanded in 1950.  It was quite the controversy over land rights when they expanded it between the federal government and the ranchers of the area.  So a unique compromise was created stating that current ranchers could continue their business inside the park for as long as they lived but could not pass it down to future generations when they died.  There is a complete bicycle system separate from the road so we are excited to go back another weekend and bring our bikes as the old, narrow roads of Yellowstone do not encourage us to want to ride.

Yellowstone Lake

Was working at the Lake Lodge today getting it ready for opening and a couple interesting things happened. My partner and I were talking outside by the lake to the location manager about what we would be doing that night when I saw a bison walking through the woods about 200 yards away.  Except for bison don't usually keep moving that long as they are always stopping every couple feet to eat.  Oh crap! Its not a bison! Its a gigantic grizzly bear and he's heading right towards us!  So we went inside and the location manager called the rangers and about 5 minutes later the area was closed and they had to pick up a couple hikers who were walking towards the area to prevent a potential conflict.

Also there was no moon tonight and we were in almost complete darkness thanks to being by the lake so I got my first view of the milky way.  It kind of just looks like clouds but my partner is an astronomy buff and confirmed that it was in fact the milky way.  He also says that a full moon over the lake is equally impressive cause of the reflection.  I did not have my camera today but I am keeping my eye on the moon cycles to make a trip to the lake during the next full moon.

Elk calves

Its gotten to the time of year that the Elk are coming down into Mammoth Hot Springs and having their calves.  They defend their calves very aggressively and have already knocked a 6 year old boy unconscious.  Its getting to be a very interesting time here.  The males have grown their antlers back at this point to so they are very impressive looking.

Beartooth Highway

The Beartooth Highway is the scenic route from Red Lodge, MT to the Northeast Entrance by Cooke City, MT.  It opened at noon on Memorial Day and by 1 pm, Clarise and I were on our way to driving up the craziest road either of us had ever been on. Before leaving the park however, we ran into an all too common traffic jam which sometimes results in just another bison or elk sighting but this time we got the much harder to find big horn sheep. A whole flock of them!



It is about 2 hours one way if you drive straight through but we did not get to Red  Lodge for 5 hours due to frequent stops and even an impromptu waterfall hike in Custer National Forest.  Clarise said it her favorite thing we have seen or done in our time here so far.





The first hour we were amazed by the rugged, snowy peaks before us and when we stopped at a scenic overlook we read that they were not even the Beartooth Mountains yet!  They were an eastern extension of the Absaroka Mountains that paralleled the highway into the North Entrance on our first day.



After climbing a ridiculously windy road with snow pack over twice the height of my car on either side, we came over a ridge and found ourselves in the Beartooth Mountains.  The Beartooth Mountains are really great and our crowned and named after a distinctive mountain peak that is shaped like a bear tooth.



We descended into Red Lodge where we shared some Chinese food but found we were still hungry and on our way out of town we saw a parked tour bus with an open sign in the window.  It was a Mexican restaurant on wheels and we just had to stop by and see what it was all about.



Of all places to have the most delicious, authentic Mexican tacos of my life, who would have thought it would be on a bus in Montana?  We drove back the way we came, passing a bicyclist halfway through with only half an hour of daylight left.  I wonder what happened to him?  We got back home in the dark and found out the next day from co workers that they closed it back up that night when a blizzard hit the area and erased the road crews hard work.  Talk about good timing.  Even though it is named the Beartooth Highway I was more impressed by the Absaroka Mountains than the Beartooth as the Beartooth Mountains did not encompass a very big area while the Absaroka Mountains seem to keep popping back up everywhere.

Pictures of the winding road and some snow graffiti

What Working in Yellowstone is Like for Me

50 hour weeks (on the lower side of my average)

Closing shifts followed by opening shifts three days of the week (3 or 4 hours of sleep)

• I f I work a dinner shift I usually won't get home until midnight or so. After work my body is so pumped up from moving around so constantly, that it usually takes me an hour to finally settle down. I don't actually get to sleep until around 1:30 or 2:30 am if Daniel wants to talk. I, then, have to wake up around 5:20 am in order to open in the morning. Sometimes I am lucky enough to ONLY work a breakfast shift (after closing) so I get off work at 10:30 or 11 am. This when Daniel is just waking up since he works the night shift. Unfortunately for me, when Mr. Daniel wakes up from his full 8 hours and sees me awake he thinks its time for food and then a brisk hike. I try to explain to him that we are not remotely close to equally well rested but he still seems to forget everyday. 

2 days off (one of which is used to catch up on much needed sleep)

• Our days off are scheduled together. Or rather my two days off are scheduled during the same time as Daniel's three days off. By the time my weekend comes around, I am so exhausted I can barely think straight, so when I get off at midnight I tend to sleep as long as possible. Sometimes, I am just drifting in and out of consciousness on the first day even if I am awake. My second day off I usually try to hike with Daniel. But when I do that, the room tends not to get cleaned. And the laundry gets neglected a bit as well.

15 minutes to eat before a shift

• The Employee Dining Room or the EDR doesn't open until 15 minutes before my shifts start so I don't get to eat much and am therefore starving by the end of my shift. If I am even running 5 minutes late, I can probably just forget eating at all. 

When I am not tired to the bone, I do enjoy the park very much. It is very beautiful and changing everyday. It seems like there is always something new to see and we have had a lot of good times so far. But I am feeling very frustrated that it feels like work even on my days off sometimes. I keep getting woken up before I want to be and begrudged any naps I feel I need. I miss my friends in Manhattan more and more everyday. They were the bees knees and the people here are too weird even for me. Or they are just weird enough and have crazy anger problems. Or drink every single night. The people I like the most are probably around 60 and have a group of their own. So I am also feeling kinda lonely. I feel like all I do is work, sleep, look for apartments in Washington, hike a little, and clean. By myself. It sucks. I kind of want to leave.

Old Faithful Inn

One of the many perks of my job as a Floor Technician in Yellowstone is that I get paid to visit the entirety of the park rather than having to wait for the weekend to see anything other than Mammoth Hot Springs.  Last week I spent the night at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge hotel (an over $200 room for guests) while polishing up the floors for their big opening.  This week I'm back in Old Faithful and rather than just 2 days here we are spending all week prepping the Old Faithful Inn for opening.  The Old Faithful Inn is the largest wood structure on the planet and I get to clean every hardwood floor in the place.  I also get a room up on the 3rd floor and am a 10 foot walk down the hall to a balcony overlooking Old Faithful Geyser.  I saw Old Faithful erupt four times my first visit and it is certainly not something that gets old.  The first time I saw it was about 9 in the morning while it was 30 degrees and windy.  There were 6 other people.  The 2nd, 3rd, and 4th times that day were definitely more crowded and while it really didn't detract from the geyser much I'm still glad my first time was practically alone.  My current visit to Old Faithful involved a lot more exploring of additional geysers in the area.  There are quite a few more and though Old Faithful gets all the fame, other geysers are equally if not more impressive.  I sat on a log for 30 minutes waiting on Riverside Geyser which can be predicted accurately down to 90 to 120 minutes.  It shoots 70 feet high and is often accompanied by a rainbow (though not this time).  Its location definitely made it more beautiful than Old Faithful.  

As I walked back to Old Faithful Inn to work for the night I saw an unbelievably high cloud of steam shooting up about half a mile to my left.  I cannot be sure but based on my map and the short bursts of very high water coming from it I believe it was Grand Geyser, the tallest predictable geyser in the world, which erupts for 9-12 minutes and consists of 1-4 bursts reaching 200 feet high.  Morning Glory Pool was almost too pretty to be believed and there were many other lesser known thermal pools of stunning color such as Sapphire Pool and Chromatic Pool.  One nice thing about the Old Faithful area is you can walk the same boardwalk every day and have the chance to see something new and unique every time as only a few geysers erupt regularly or predictably. 

The snow is disappearing rapidly, other villages and roads are opening up, and some of the higher elevation trails are drying up and becoming accessible to hiking so there should be quite a bit more to see and post about shortly.

Beaver Ponds

Beaver Ponds is a 5 miles loop trail directly behind Mammoth Hot Springs.  It is the first hike we did when we arrived and I plan to make it the last hike we do when we leave to gauge how much better in shape we are after 5 months of hiking nearly every day at between 6200 and 11000 feet.  The first time we did it there was still significant patches of snow on it that if we were not able to follow previous hikers footsteps over we would have surely gotten lost.  Also the spots where the snow was melted were deep, wide patches of mud.  Sometimes we would be by a precarious cliff on snow, other times mud.  We never really could decide which was more frightening.  The ponds were partially melted but mostly still frozen when we got to them and they framed a very picturesque setting with tall, snow capped peaks in the background, and heavy forest that surrounded the ponds.  The trail was great and is very popular with employees due to its proximity, relative ease, and beauty but by the fourth mile, Clarise and I were both wanting it to end from exhaustion and being sick and tired of walking over either snow or mud.  

A couple of days after we did Beaver Ponds we heard that it was mostly dried out and that a couple of people had reported seeing a Cinnamon colored Black Bear around mile 3.  So we ventured back out on the trail with the goal being to find and take a picture of this adorable sounding bear.  Sure enough the trail was much easier to hike this time around as it was dry and we had 2 weeks to acclimate to being over 6000 feet up.  We saw an elk just off the trail by himself and when we got to the ponds they were completely thawed out and the pictures were even better than the first time.  We decided to turn around at the ponds because of needing to be back at work that night and on the way back we heard what we both believed to be a warning growl from the bear we were seeking.  We stopped in our tracks and looked around the forested area we were near for 10 minutes but never did see or hear anything else.  Before that time we saw an interesting bird that made a low, guttural sound we believe it adapted to sound like a bear so since we did not see anything move after hearing the growl we can't be sure what it was but I believe it was the bear running away as black bears are known to be skittish of humans.  I hope to return to find the bear when I get the time again but there is just so many things to see its hard to do too many repeats without missing out on other things in this huge park.

Leaving the Black Hills, Devils Tower, Arriving in Yellowstone

After grabbing a hotel for the night to avoid freezing to death, we knew climbing Harney Peak was out of the question.  So to fill the morning we decided to take Needles Highway to see the supposed crown jewel of the Black Hills, Sylvan Lake.  Alas, Needles Highway was closed and we suddenly found ourselves hours ahead of schedule.  So we headed north out of the Black Hills and discovered Pactola Reservoir. 

 Now I haven't seen Sylvan Lake so I can't be sure which is better but Pactola Reservoir would be hard to beat in beauty. 

As we drove to I-90, thick fog made visibility very low and we had 2000 feet of elevation to descend on winding mountain roads.  We made it to the interstate but there were portions of the road were the fog took visibility down to 0.  It is slightly disconcerting to be driving 70 miles an hour and suddenly cannot see anything at all.  Luckily it was short lived but fog and snow were a problem the whole day.  As we arrived at Devils Tower, with "Mars, Bringer of War" blasting on the stereo,  we discovered the top 1/3 of the tower was obscured by thick fog.

 There wasn't any snow in the area so we did the hike that circled the monument.  Unfortunately, about halfway through the bitterly cold hike, fog completely obscured the tower to the point that we could not even tell it was there.  We warmed up in the visitor center and got my souvenir shot glass and headed left down the road.  Oh, did I say left?  I meant right.  16 miles down the road we arrive in a town I didn't recognize from my directions and we realize we are going north, not south towards I-90.  34 miles later we again saw Devils Tower and to our pleasant surprise, the fog had cleared and the tower was perfectly visible.

 It was getting late at this point so while we didn't go all the way back to the base it was nice to get some clear pictures of it after all.

We got into Sheridan, WY right before a winter storm came through and dumped 6 inches of snow on the area.  I-90 was mostly clear the whole way to Gardiner but the storm closed the scenic byway through the Big Horn Mountains I had been looking forward to taking.  That had been the only thing on our itinerary for the day, so we slept in and headed straight for the North Entrance of Yellowstone.  Seeing the Rocky Mountains outside Livingston, MT was truly amazing.  I've seen the Rocky Mountains four times before but each time I see them I am blown away at their sheer size and presence.   Even though we had yet to do anything in them they definitely blew the Black Hills out of the water.  We arrived in Gardiner around dinner and got a discount and upgrade at the Super 8 for being there to work in the park.  Though we didn't get to do a lot of the things we had planned on the trip to Yellowstone due to an unusually cold April (even for South Dakota and Wyoming) it was an amazing journey and I'm glad we took the time to see some beautiful and interesting places along the way.

Black Hills

After passing Chamberlain River just before the Badlands I could finally, after hours and hours of flat, boring, grassland landscape, tell that we were moving higher and to more unique parts of the country.  As we arrived in the Black Hills we turned left towards Mount Rushmore, our first stop, and immediately started up a long, steep mountain road that left no doubt that these were definitely not just hills as the name suggests.  One of the first things that stood out to Clarise as she tried to get some pictures of the mountains was that every single shot was ruined by billboard after billboard.  Never in my life had I seen commercialization ruin such a beautiful place.  Keystone, South Dakota, a small town of about 300, was more billboard than town. (Though we did stop for Subway while we were there.) 

Mount Rushmore was honestly underwhelming.  Maybe I had just seen too many pictures of it before but when I was there it was really just a feeling of, "Is this it?"  We left after less than 30 minutes after saying hi to a friendly couple heading towards Tucson we had seen earlier that day in Badlands NP and wound our way down Iron Mountain Road.

Iron Mountain Road was the best part of our trip through the Black Hills.  It was very beautiful as we winded through the forest, through stone tunnels (Clarise's favorite), up and around pig tale bridges, and soared by open cliffs.



At the end of the road we turned down Wildlife Loop Road and saw an amazing assortment of wildlife native to the High Plains.  Buffalo grazed right next to the road, Pronghorns seemed to be everywhere you looked, and some Burros entertained us by coming right up to the car until we had to leave them because one started chewing on our bike tires.

From there we headed south to Wind Cave National Park to see what I thought was a scenic overlook.  It turned out to be a one mile hike to the top of a mountain where an old fire tower was stationed. We hadn't planned to hike at this point but we were unable to do any of the numerous hikes that we'd planned due to significant snow on the ground and the high temperatures being in the 30's the whole trip.  But one mile seemed doable so we went for it.  It took over an hour to complete and was not for the faint of heart. It was almost entirely uphill on a narrow, snow covered ledge with no footprints to follow.  Perhaps the lack of footprints should have been a clue but I was tired of driving and wanted to hike somewhere.  We made it up alive and found the downhill was actually a mostly snow free gravel road down the backside of the mountain.  It was certainly an experience but we were definitely done with hiking in the snow for a while.

Omaha and the Badlands

As you know, our first stop on the way to Yellowstone was my best friend Sarah's house so I got a chance to say goodbye to her in person. I also got to see her turn 21. It was great. The only thing I can say about  the two of us having a long distance best friendship, is that at least I'm getting used to having my bestie far away and I don't feel nervous about us keeping in touch at all. We have this distance thing on lock.

After our visit with Sarah Fae, Daniel and I got on the road and headed to the Badlands. Turns out we are both allergic to Nebraska and caught some kind of...something. I wouldn't say that we were sick, but there were definitely runny noses and sore throats involved. I also found out that I definitely did not have enough layers on if we were going to be back-country hiking, especially if we were going to be traveling more and more north. A quick run to Wal-Mart for another pair of pants solved that and then we were off!

Did you know that both Nebraska and South Dakota are both essentially the same scenery as western Kansas? Well it is. And it's kind of torture to realize this when you have been crazy excited to see horizons that Kansas can't offer. We did see approximately 3,000 signs for some place called Wal Drug, however, and after 6 hours of driving we truly came to hate this mysterious place and vowed never to visit it.

First pretty scenery 

There was some nice scenery on the border of South Dakota. It came out of nowhere :) But it reverted pretty quickly to stupid farmland. Luckily Badlands National Park was only a few hours away.

If I am being honest, the Badlands were the highlight of the trip for me. They honestly made me forget about the previous lack luster scenery we had before. I am actually not too much of a mountain girl. I definitely have a good appreciation for them and think they are beautiful to look at and play in, but I guess you could say they leave me cold ;-) The desert on the other hand really gets me excited though and the Badlands (though not desert) definitely hit the spot for me. When we were pulling up to the park I screamed a little with excitement and once we were in the park I literally could not stop saying wow. I was astonished...amazed...captivated...in complete  and total awe of the formations I was witnessing. There are really no words to explain how incredible I found the Badlands.

We intended to hike the Door, Shelf, and Notch Trails, but due to snow-melt from the storm the previous week we ended up only being able to hike the Door Trail and the Shelf Trail. We also did the Window Trail but it was so short I barely want to count it. The Door was my all time favorite. We got to hike on pretty much unaltered rock and take in the beauty from all angles plus it ended on the edge of a steep cliff. I don't know what is more epic than that!

The trail head :-)

After our hikes we drove along the scenic road to find out where we could camp. After exploring a little we decided it would be pretty difficult to set up anywhere in the back-country so we just used the regular camping area.

The night was COLD. I don't know if my side of the tent had a little extra ventilation or what but Daniel said he was fine and I was shivering most of the night. At one point I thought my toes were going to fall off. It was miserable. But it was still incredible to wake up in such a cool place. I would do it again anytime.

Anyway, after a pretty wretched night we warmed up at the Visitor's Center and looked through the mini museum they had and watched the award winning video they played for us in the theater  Daniel got a shot glass for his collection and we headed on out. All in all it was a delightful start to our adventure.

Learned Something Today

Daniel A. Truex has no concept at all of what its like for a congested asthmatic in high altitude to hike uphill for a mile. But I must say I'm glad he is not a slow learner or I would have passed out from lack of oxygen today...

Things I'll Miss About Working at the Zoo

I started working at Sunset Zoo last June on the weekends and for the first couple of weeks, I was unsure about whether or not I was allowed to leave the main building I was assigned to in order to explore the rest of the 26-acre zoo. After I got to know the main keeper, Kirk, and became more comfortable in my new job, I began to visit all the animals every day, multiple times a day.

I got to know the sleep patterns and what time of day I could expect to see certain animals active or hiding under a rock in the back of their enclosure. I learned the exact path the tiger took when he paced the edge of his cage and though it took a couple passes I finally discovered the Snow Leopard cage was not empty, he was just very good at hiding, and also, a little shy. My favorite animal undoubtedly became the baby chimp. She was 4 years old when I met her and the first thing she did when I saw her was put her hand on the glass against mine. Before long we would chase each other from one end of her cage to the other in a lively game of tag. It was also fun to watch her behave in typical child fashion by antagonizing the older chimps seemingly just for the fun of it.

I saw some newborns while I was there such as a baby bobcat, baby colobus monkey and another baby chimp who was only 6 weeks old when I left. I saw a tiger disappear after dying of cancer and a staff favorite ferret died of old age. We received 2 new wolves in my time there and some new Wallabies too.

Many exciting things happened to me during my time at the zoo. One memory is playing with the snow leopard. I would creep around the corner of his cage and see him crouch down but not move. If I hid my head back around the corner and suddenly looked back he would be in a slightly closer spot, but would stop moving when he saw my head again. If I did this long enough he would eventually get frustrated and jump at the chain link fence right at me. I guess he wasn't enjoying it as much as I was. :)

My personal favorite memory was assisting the keepers in giving a snake some medical care. The volunteer who was supposed to help out with the snake didn't show up so they enlisted me to help pin down the 400 lb python in order to give it it's shots. So myself and two keepers held the middle, the front, and the end of the huge reptile. When the needle went in, the entire snake seized up and writhed in my hands in an incredible display of it strength. I could tell it was made of pure muscle.

I did not expect to be so involved in the lives of the animals when the city hired me at the zoo and I could not have asked for a more exciting 10 months of experience. Hopefully I can use what I learned about animals in captivity towards wildlife viewing in the wilds of Yellowstone.

Our Itinerary

Day 1: Thursday, April 18

Leave Shawnee, KS for Omaha, NE (12pm)

Spend the night at Sarah's place

Day 2: Friday, April 19

Leave Omaha, NE for Badlands National Park (8am)

Take I-29 and I-90

Arrive in Badlands National Park (4pm)

Hike four short trails

Door, Window, Shelf, and Notch Trails

Set up camp and sleep at Cedar Pass Campground (Sunset)

Day 3: Saturday, April 20

Hike loop of the Castle Trail-Medicine Root-Saddle Pass Trail (7:30am)

Leave for Mount Rushmore (12:30pm)

Take Highway 240 and I-90

Arrive at Mount Rushmore (2pm)

Hike Presidential Trail to base of the monument (2:15pm)

Head to Custer State Park (3:15pm)

Take Iron Man Road

Arrive at Custer State Park (4:15pm)

Begin driving 18 mile loop on Wildlife Loop Road (4:15pm)

Detour to hike Prairie Trail (4:45pm)

Continue on Wildlife Loop Road (5:45pm)

Drive to Wind Cave National Park (6pm)

Enjoy the scenic overlook :)

Drive to Black Hills National Forest to sleep

Day 4: Sunday, April 21

Hike Harney Peak from Willow Creek Horse Camp (~8am)

Drive to Devils Tower in Wyoming (12:30pm)

Arrive at Devil's Tower in Wyoming (3:30pm)

Take Highway 385

Drive to Sheridan, WY (4:30pm)

Arrive in Sheridan, WY (7pm)

Stay in Roadway Inn near Bighorn National Forest

Day 5: Monday, April 22

Hike in Bighorn National Forest (8am)

Leave for Canyon Campground outside Gardiner, MT (3pm)

Arrive at Canyon Campground, sleep(7:30pm)

Day 6: Tuesday, April 23

Check in at Mammoth Hot Springs (7-9am)

Tent Setup

New Tent

Our Tarptent came in! Even though the website says its only supposed to weigh 2 lbs and 2 oz, it's a shock to realize what that actually feels like in your hands. It basically weighed nothing! And it was like two feet long and super narrow. I couldn't believe that the both of us were supposed to be able to fit in such a little thing when it packed down so small. We halfway set it up in the living room to see how big it was unpacked. From the outside it looks like PLENTY of space :) Yay! We have plans to go on a test camping trip as soon as the weather and our work schedules cooperate.

 

Quitting My Old Job

Yesterday, I put in my official notice to my job that I would be leaving next month for the job in Yellowstone.  They seemed reluctant to lose me but they are also being supportive in my decision to move on to other things.  The Human Resources guy that hired me has even jokingly taken to calling me "Mr. Short-Timer".

Putting in the notice and having all my papers signed and sent in to Yellowstone makes it all feel very official and very close to coming up.  We are currently finalizing plans at home and slowly whittling down our possessions to be able to fit in my car for the long trip up.

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Hi there! First we would just like to take a moment to make sure that everyone knows how happy we are that you are reading this right now! It's our first blog and hope that it is as fun to read as we anticipate it will be to write it.

Daniel should be doing a little project he calls his Fave Five during the duration of our stay in Yellowstone National Park. Obviously YNP is one of the most beautiful places in the world so many a picture will be taken. Daniel periodically will be posting his five favorite pictures he has taken during our random adventures. I'm excited to see what makes the cut! :)