Adventure in Yellowstone
This summer I had the opportunity to work in Yellowstone National Park. I was a retail associate at the Roosevelt Lodge. Roosevelt is one of the smaller locations in the park, south of Mammoth on the loop and 2 miles north of Tower Falls. If you look at a map the two are together on a location but they are not the same!! haha I got that a bunch at work.
"Is this Tower/Roosevelt??"
"Umm no, this is just Roosevelt. Tower Falls is five minutes down the road!!" :)
I learned a bunch because of Roosevelt. Some good and some that I have yet to decide if it is good to know now!! There is a bunch I know about Yellowstone, especially the Roosevelt area. Naturally I thought that President Roosevelt stayed in the Roosevelt Lodge, he never did. The Lodge was built in 1919 and finished in 1920. However 1919 was the year the Theodore died. The reason the area was called Roosevelt was because it was his favorite part of the park. He would camp close to the location where the Lodge is now.
The Roosevelt area is also a very common spot to see bison, black bears, and mule deer. The best spot in the park to see a variety of animals is Lamar Valley. Early in the summer bison from all over the park make their way to the northwest corner of the park, Lamar Valley. Some one reported that they saw wolves, bison, a moose, grizzly bear and some elk all in one morning! I never had such luck. However, I did see three wolves laying in the sun on the side of a hill, a mile or more away. Yeah, real close!!! haha not. The area surrounded in red is Lamar Valley.
Well enough with the facts and locations of Roosevelt. Time for the fun I had :)
The day I was supposed to show up I woke up at 4:30am and left home by 5:00. I was told I had to be at a building in Gardiner, Montana to check-in at anytime between 7am - 10am. I only woke up that early to be sure I got there between that time. My car is a 1991 Toyota Tercel very reliable for what it is but it has never been to Yellowstone. So to be sure I could take all the time I need to get there or to call for help if needed I left that early in the morning. It was great, haha. I will never do it again! The morning hours do not reflect my forte! Once I was out of radio reception I was jamming to Disney and Raffi! Yeah I'm weird but it got my energy up! I got to the park, about halfway to Norris and came up to a herd of Bison just walking down the middle of the road. It was a great start to the summer! The herd was the only delay getting to Gardiner.
Sorry my windshield was a bit dirty! There they are though! The slow moving, openly mocking herd of Bison. I'm serious, they were mocking all the cars in the line. At one point the whole herd would span the whole road. Then they would slowly move to one side and give enough time for one car to pass. They would do it over and over. There were about 6 cars in line. It took about an hour for all the cars to get through from the time I got there. Anyways, enough with the Bison!
I had two days of training in Mammoth and then headed to Roosevelt. Part of my checking in process included a whole bunch of keys and my cabin assignment. Despite my cabin being small, having holes all over, and always dripping water on my face during a storm at night, I still loved living there.
"Is this Tower/Roosevelt??"
"Umm no, this is just Roosevelt. Tower Falls is five minutes down the road!!" :)
I learned a bunch because of Roosevelt. Some good and some that I have yet to decide if it is good to know now!! There is a bunch I know about Yellowstone, especially the Roosevelt area. Naturally I thought that President Roosevelt stayed in the Roosevelt Lodge, he never did. The Lodge was built in 1919 and finished in 1920. However 1919 was the year the Theodore died. The reason the area was called Roosevelt was because it was his favorite part of the park. He would camp close to the location where the Lodge is now.
The Roosevelt area is also a very common spot to see bison, black bears, and mule deer. The best spot in the park to see a variety of animals is Lamar Valley. Early in the summer bison from all over the park make their way to the northwest corner of the park, Lamar Valley. Some one reported that they saw wolves, bison, a moose, grizzly bear and some elk all in one morning! I never had such luck. However, I did see three wolves laying in the sun on the side of a hill, a mile or more away. Yeah, real close!!! haha not. The area surrounded in red is Lamar Valley.
Well enough with the facts and locations of Roosevelt. Time for the fun I had :)
The day I was supposed to show up I woke up at 4:30am and left home by 5:00. I was told I had to be at a building in Gardiner, Montana to check-in at anytime between 7am - 10am. I only woke up that early to be sure I got there between that time. My car is a 1991 Toyota Tercel very reliable for what it is but it has never been to Yellowstone. So to be sure I could take all the time I need to get there or to call for help if needed I left that early in the morning. It was great, haha. I will never do it again! The morning hours do not reflect my forte! Once I was out of radio reception I was jamming to Disney and Raffi! Yeah I'm weird but it got my energy up! I got to the park, about halfway to Norris and came up to a herd of Bison just walking down the middle of the road. It was a great start to the summer! The herd was the only delay getting to Gardiner.
Sorry my windshield was a bit dirty! There they are though! The slow moving, openly mocking herd of Bison. I'm serious, they were mocking all the cars in the line. At one point the whole herd would span the whole road. Then they would slowly move to one side and give enough time for one car to pass. They would do it over and over. There were about 6 cars in line. It took about an hour for all the cars to get through from the time I got there. Anyways, enough with the Bison!
I had two days of training in Mammoth and then headed to Roosevelt. Part of my checking in process included a whole bunch of keys and my cabin assignment. Despite my cabin being small, having holes all over, and always dripping water on my face during a storm at night, I still loved living there.
Oh, we also had a small wood stove for heat. For some reason the stove didn't like me much, because I could never get the fire to keep burning. I could get it started but it wouldn't last more than 45 minutes, even with all the wood I would throw in there!
I was stupid and didn't get a picture of the gift shop or my co-workers, Vince and Hugo! They were great people to work with. The mighty gift shop crew of 3!! haha. The gift shop is right next to the front desk, because of that I had an extra bunch of co-workers and friends. Deborah, Krista, Addison, and Ashley are the front desk gals I got closest to. There was also Mariah, Becky, and Vincent. Every memory from Yellowstone includes at least one of them!
The pictures above are from a bbq for the Front Desk, Gift Shop, and House Keeping employees. Had grilled pineapple for the first time... not sure if I loved it, but it didn't. We had the bbq towards the end of the summer. At the bbq we all received Paper Plate Awards. They are what they sound like... paper plates. The manager writes a silly "award" on the plate, like "Mouse-a-phobe Award" for being afraid of a mouse behind the front desk, or "Giggly Redhead Award" for knowing who is coming because you hear giggling down the hallway. Every award matched the person that got it. Well I don't see why the awards wouldn't match the person it's given to! Haha Anyways, that was a great afternoon! :)
Vincent, Addison, Krista, and I spent one day going out to Lamar Valley to try and spot wolves. Note the "try" because we never saw any. Anyways, after sometime we left for the Boiling River. The Boiling River is a spot in the Gardiner River that has a hot spring spilling hot water into the cool water, which makes a nice replacement for a hot tub! Then we went into Gardiner for breakfast. Later that day we went to Fire Hole River, in my opinion, the best place in the whole park. However, next time I go I will be swimming in my suit... not my t-shirt and capri's! Everything I did that day was so much fun. I highly recommend doing all of those to anyone.
I have no idea what else to report! My summer of 2012 will always be treasured!
