Halfway Point
As the calendar has rolled from June
to July we have reached the halfway point in our summer. It’s hard to believe
that we have been on the road now for 4 months and been in Yellowstone for over
two months. June was a very busy month for us and very eventful one as well. Work
has been going well as Paula and I have settled in and both have been asked to
assist with booking activities for our guest. This is in addition to checking
our guest into the campground. This gives us a little more interaction with the
guest as we have had to learn about each available activity and then share with
the guest what they will be doing on each activity. These activities include
horseback rides, bus tours of the park, guided fishing tours, a scenic boat
cruise and a chuck wagon old west cookout.
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| Wagon Train |
On June 9th, I got to go on the old west cookout as a new
guest services agent which served as a “shakedown” for the old west cookout
crew before they had to serve real guest. Unfortunately, Paula was unable to go
because of her allergies to horses so I got put on the wagon with the extra
crew members since I was by myself. We were on the wagons for a 30-minute ride
into the back county being pulled by Belgian draft horses. Once we arrived at
the cookout location we were served a steak dinner with 5 sides and apple crisp
for desert all cooked cowboy style. Then
after some stories around the campfire we loaded back up and made the return
trip to the corral. Now don’t feel too bad for Paula cause she was out chasing
wolves in the Lamar Valley area on my truck. (yiks)
Xanterra hires roughly 3500 employees
each summer to work in the campgrounds, hotels, retail locations and food
services. Most of these are college age kids and a lot are foreign students who
come and work just so they can experience Yellowstone and have a place to live.
Most don’t have cars especially the foreign students. So, it is common practice
for those without cars to make a sign that says, “Harmless Park Employee need a
ride to Canyon Village” and they hitchhike around the park in this manner. It
is considered a fairly safe practice but is not condoned by Xanterra or the
National Parks Service. It is even such a common practice it was documented in
a recently written book called the People of Yellowstone. I had
been reading a few stories from this book and had just learned about the
hitchhiking practice from one of the stories. A night or two after reading
about the hitchhiking Paula and I had finished doing laundry and we decided to
ride out just before dark into the Haden Valley to see how high the Yellowstone
river had risen from the snow melt. As
we approached the road junction to turn right toward the Haden Valley we saw two
young girls standing on the side of the road with a sign “Harmless Employee
need ride to Canyon Village”. Now by this time it was almost dark and it was 16
miles to Canyon Village which would require you to travel through the Haden
Valley which has wolves, bison, grizzly bear, elk and coyote just mention a few
animals roaming freely. So, I decided to pull over and give these girls a ride.
My loving wife said we would take them halfway which would have meant dropping
them off in the middle of the valley in pitch dark. Then realizing what she had said she quickly
recanted and agreed with me that we would carry them all the way. The two
turned out to be Xanterra employees from a city near Bangkok Thailand. Come to
find out they had missed the employee shuttle bus to Cody and so they decided
with the help of another American employee to make a sign and hitchhike to Cody
WY so they could see cowboys. Which they did 80 miles there and back but they
did not see cowboys and were disappointed. They were very nice and asked a lot
of questions in broken English they were 18 and 20 years old and had not a clue
about how dangerous what they had done was.
When we dropped them safely off at Canyon Village where they both gave
Paula a hug and traditional Thailand bow.
During the month, we continued to
explore different parts of the park and find new areas and back roads that the
general public doesn’t usually travel. We have seen a total of 52 bears now
both black and grizzly, 7 wolves and bison jams galore.
Then in the last week of June we got
a pleasant surprise as Ashley came to visit for five days. She has been
struggling this summer with laryngitis so the doctor took her out of work for a
week as most of her job entails talking to people about wildlife. I think she
left the doctor, took her sick slip to work and booked a flight to Yellowstone
in about 3 hours’ time. It was great to see her and we spent almost all of her
time here covering the park from the geyser basins to wildlife watching we
covered every road in the park in two days. And she was able to limit her
talking which helped her voice come back. And she got to see 9 bears while in
Yellowstone.
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| Always looking for wildlife |
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| Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
The wildflowers are out in full bloom
and this place just gets more beautiful with each passing day. The landscape
has changed from snowy to lush green with flowers and animals everywhere. The Bison have shed their winter coats and
the Bull Elks antlers are growing an
inch a day making them quite a sight with their huge racks. It still amazes us
how many people do not heed the NPS warning to stay 25 yards from Elk and Bison
and 100 yards from Bear and Wolves. We are forever seeing people 10 feet away
from a big male Bison trying to get a selfie with him. We haven’t seen anybody
gored yet but fear we will before the summer is over.
With July 4th, we had a
steak dinner for our staff with pot luck sides which was very good food and a
good time to visit with our coworkers. We also had a pool on when a large bank
of snow that was across from our campsites would melt. We could pick up to five
days per person and put 1 dollars in the pool for each day you chose. The pot
was 48 dollars and the official date of melting was declared by our judge to be
July 4th. 3 other guys on our crew and I
had picked July 4th so we each took home a whopping 12 dollars.
As we celebrated July 4th
we are very thankful for our freedom in this county that has led to the
creation of places such as Yellowstone. Our freedom has also allowed to be able
to choose our new lifestyle and be able to work here in Yellowstone. I know
this country is far from perfect but even on a bad day it’s better to be an
American than anyone else in the world. You even see the excitement in the
faces of the foreigners we see on a daily basis as to how happy they are to be
in America to visit and how lucky we are to live here.
Til next time
Ramblin Ruis
Allen and Paula
