Playing tourist
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brenda_ea
I realized recently that even though I’ve been living at Yellowstone for two months, I’ve hardly seen any of it – just a whirlwind tour during training and some sightseeing when my family visited. I’d only done one real expedition on my own – my drive to Lamar Valley. I think it’s partly because it takes an hour to drive to West Yellowstone for groceries, so that feels like an expedition in itself – and until recently I was spending half my days off working like crazy to get all my programs ready.

Well, my programs are all written. I’m still working on polishing them, but the hard part is done. I’ll write more about that later. So the only thing keeping me from going out and seeing Yellowstone is me. I’ve got less than a month and a half left here, and I’m already looking for jobs for the fall.

With me, it all comes down to planning ahead. I have to really have it figured out ahead of time, and firmly in my mind that I will be going out there. And getting up. That’s my other main obstacle – I have to not stay up late on Tuesday, which is my Friday, if I want to get an early start in the morning. And I have to actually get up in the morning and not keep getting up, resetting the alarm, and getting back in bed for just a few more minutes while I try to slip back into that dream.

I’m working on a list of things I want to see and do, but I did get a couple of smaller ones in this “weekend”...

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Weather in Wyoming
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brenda_ea

I was supposed to be working on programs, but needed a break, so I was working at the front desk. Outside, the clouds were getting kind of dark. A few minutes later we thought it was raining, then saw it was sleeting - then it was sleeting so hard it was practically a whiteout, and I couldn't see the top of the ridge behind Old Faithful! It went to rain for a minute, and then it was snowing... I looked up a few minutes later and it was sunny with a blue sky and white clouds. One of my coworkers who'd been upstairs said it was sunny out one window and stormy out the other.

Now, still sunny and windy - but I'm sure if I wait a minute, it will change!


Increasing my wildlife count...
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brenda_ea
I was supposed to have Wednesday and Thursday off this week. Those will be my usual days off – my “weekend”. However, this week there is a training session on Thursday that I have to attend; I asked Rita about it and she told me to take today (Tuesday) and Wednesday off. So all of a sudden I had my day off early! I had planned to go for a drive on Wednesday and work on my programs Thursday, so I moved it back. I wanted to drive out to the Lamar Valley, where there is a good chance of seeing wildlife, including a lot of the bison herds this time of year.

It was a long drive – over seventy miles one way – so I didn’t make a lot of stops along the first section, until after Mammoth Springs. I wanted to save my time for the furthest section – I won’t be able to get there as often, and seeing bison calves is a limited-time opportunity!


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First day!
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brenda_ea
Yesterday was my first day on duty, wearing the uniform. Luckily, the rest of the uniform had arrived in time! Of my original order, only one shirt and two jackets fit; the pants, belt, and long-sleeved shirts had to be sent back and reordered. (I had ordered several sizes in hopes that at least one would fit, but that didn’t work with the pants.) Even, sadly, the “flat hat” – the iconic Park Ranger hat – did not fit. That was very disappointing.

But the replacements arrived just in time! Pants which fit – as well as could be expected, anyway – and a belt that wasn’t eight inches too long – and best of all, the hat! It felt strange putting it on, because it is so stiff, but at least it wasn’t teetering on top of my head!

I had a lot of time scheduled to just work on writing programs and learning my way around, but I did go on duty at the front desk for a while. It’s tricky because I’m still learning a lot of the information people want to know about! But while I can’t give details on the trails at the other end of the park, I can explain what the different boardwalks around Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin are like, and what other thermal areas are along the park road. So sometimes I would have to say “Just a moment, I’m not sure – let me ask one of the other rangers,” and sometimes I would go for five or ten minutes and have all the answers!

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Placeholder
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brenda_ea
I'm planning to write about the rest of my trip out here, moving in, and the training so far, but I also want to write about what happens next! So I will post those catch-up entries when I can, and back-date them, but I will also be posting new stuff.

Venturing forth in search of supplies and wildlife...
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brenda_ea
(Note: I will be posting more about the rest of the trip here, and the training so far, but I wanted to get this down while it was still fresh in my mind!)

Today I drove out to West Yellowstone. I have the weekend off – we had training all last week, and will be training again this week. I needed to get some groceries, I wanted to see how long it took to get to West Yellowstone, and I wanted to see something of the park on the way there. I really haven’t done much sightseeing on my own yet.


I decided to stop at Midway Geyser Basin on the way. I still don’t even know which basin is which, but I recognized when I got there that this is the basin that has Grand Prismatic Spring. It’s right along the river. I got out of my car and started to get my camera out to take a picture of the river – then suddenly noticed there was a Great Blue Heron standing at the water’s edge right in front of me! I got a couple of pictures before it got nervous and flew off. I was excited and pointed it out to a couple of different people passing by, and they all seemed surprised that I was even interested. “Yeah, that’s a heron.” “Yeah, Great Blue Heron.” Go figure!

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Independence Rock
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brenda_ea

There is a reason everyone who went west on the Oregon/Mormon trail talked about Independence Rock. It is really big! It really stands out against the mountains behind it and the utter flatness of the sagebrush plains all around it. We didn't climb up on top like we did in 2000, but we walked around it - and even that took a while! It was really, really windy - my cap blew off several times, and would have been lost except some of my hair had gotten caught in the velcro. (OUCH!) There is a reason everyone who went west on the Oregon/Mormon trail talked about Independence Rock. It is really big! It really stands out against the mountains behind it and the utter flatness of the sagebrush plains all around it. We didn't climb up on top like we did in 2000, but we walked around it - and even that took a while! It was really, really windy - my cap blew off several times, and would have been lost except some of my hair had gotten caught in the velcro. (OUCH!)

The highlight of that spot was that when we were at the far end, while my dad was climbing up to get pictures of some of the 1800s graffiti, I spotted a bald eagle flying. We both got a good look – big black bird with a white head and tail, flying along the Sweetwater River. At Independence Rock.

Driving on along the Sweetwater, we continued to follow the trail – there were signs for Devil’s Gate, Split Rock, and Sixth Crossing. We got into Riverton in midafternoon, having decided to skip a side trip we’d been considering.

I got a voice mail from Yellowstone – my background check has gone through! That means I can actually move in when I get there! I would have been in limbo if it hadn’t finished processing!

No turkeys today, but we saw another eagle flying as we drove, a lot of pronghorns, horses, and two very cute ground squirrels at a rest stop. They sat up just like little prairie dogs when Dad started squeaking at them! They had a burrow right outside the building!


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brenda_ea
We hit the Oregon Trail today. Scotts Bluff, Chimney Rock (from a distance), Fort Laramie... Saw a turkey, a few prairie dogs and a bunch of pronghorns (antelope). A LOT of horses - and cattle, but horses are more exciting! Also saw a lot of tumbleweeds. Actually tumbling. And caught up against fences. Lots of sagebrush and yuccas, and we ended up at the edge of the mountains - snow on the tops! On to Jackson tomorrow!

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brenda_ea
Halfway there! We've driven through Missouri, Kansas, and most of Nebraska - tomorrow we'll be going past Chimney Rock, Scotts Bluff, and Independence Rock as we head into Wyoming. It's been a long drive, but we've been listening to NPR and counting the hawks, turkeys, and vultures we see along the way!

On the move again...
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brenda_ea

So, a month and a half ago, I got a phone call from someone named Rita, at Yellowstone National Park, asking if I was still available for a Park Guide position there. Why, yes, I said! I had some time, so we had a preliminary interview, talking about my experience at the Arch and what the position at Yellowstone would be like - at Old Faithful, the busiest part of the park! This was just an availability check, not a formal job offer, but a few days later I got a voice mail asking if I would be interested in accepting the position.

I called back and said that I had gotten this message and I wanted to make sure I understood it correctly. "Brenda, would you like to work at Yellowstone National Park?"

Yes. I would. Very much.

It's going to be a seasonal job, May 12 through Labor Day. I'll be working at the Old Faithful complex - information desk in the visitor center, creating and presenting a variety of interpretive programs (guided walks, short talks, evening slide shows), and conducting roving interpretation - walking around answering questions, providing information, giving two-minute talks, etc. It's going to be very, very busy - scrambling to get programs ready, then interacting with a LOT of people. I know I'm going to enjoy it - and also be glad for the downtime at the end of the day!

This being a federal job, there were a lot of forms to fill out, fingerprints for a background check... It didn't help that I suddenly had to fill out forms to get my student loan payments figured out, just when I was supposed to start packing!

I finally did get things together, over the last few days. My dad is going to drive out there with me so I don't have to drive all that way by myself. We were going to leave today, but for several reasons - the rain, the expense of an extra night in a motel, and the fact that I was Not At All Ready - we waited one more day. Now, I am ready. I think. We are going to try putting everything in the car, like a giant game of 3-D Tetris. We're leaving early tomorrow.

So I will be checking in at Old Faithful on May 10, assuming my background check has gone through; I'll have a day or two to unpack and get acclimated to the 7000+ foot altitude, then I'll be going off for training! So I have no idea when I'll be able to write again. I am posting this so that my talk of bison and geysers and mountains and snow and lack of oxygen will not come as a total surprise!


Edited to add: Not only did everything fit in the car, but it looks neat! I think we set a record for getting everything in quickly! One thing that helped was that I remembered to pack a lot of smaller bags and boxes, and only a few big ones - so we could fit things in between more easily. Looks like we're ready to roll!


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