2 Backpacks, 2 Bikes, a Van and a plan..: Introduction to Yellowstone

Hello Friends! I am typing this from a hotel in Red Lodge, Montana after an amazing day and a half off work and away from our jobs in the Grant General Store. It's hard to believe we have been in Wyoming/Montana for three weeks now, and have completed 3 weeks of work.

We take turns posing in front of "Old Faithful" during an eruption

It has gone by fast, but also slow in some ways. We are in an odd sort of pattern. The actual work we are doing in the Grant General Store is very much "physical" work - much more so than we have done in the recent past. Especially for Andre who is working in the grocery area of the store and spends a great deal of his work day stocking grocery shelves, unloading deliveries, and basically running around in between ringing up customers.

We are working split shifts, which basically means we work half of our shift (4 hours), then clock out for 2 1/2 hours and come back to work the second half of our shift later in the day. This is not optimum (and was not disclosed to us when we were hired) but apparently is the way all of the jobs with this company work here in the park at the Yellowstone General Stores. Because we want to take advantage of every opportunity to see the park, we generally do something during the long middle of the day break. Either a short hike, or some touring of a new part of the park that is reachable in the short time span we have, before suiting up to go to work for the second half of our day. We work 5 days on and 2 days off and our days off are Friday and Saturday.

This odd pattern of work/living makes for long days on our feet for a series of days, followed by two days off during which we take off in the van for two days of exploring the nearby towns and recreations spots, going as far abroad as quickly as we can and jamming in as much recreation as we can! Our first couple of days off we went whitewater rafting and horseback riding in Big Sky, MT. Last weekend we went to Bozeman, MT for the weekend.

This fantastic brewery was one of four we sampled
on our weekend in Bozeman

This current weekend we are in Red Lodge, MT after an incredible journey through the Lamar Valley area of the park and then a leisurely ride over and across the Beartooth Highway, a stunning scenic route from the northeast corner of the park outward into Montana.

At the highest elevations, we are once more in an Alpine climate
with the last vestiges of winter still present.

Of course, Andre wants to walk on the snow
(and then throw a snowball at me!)

To give you a taste of our weekends off - we left Grant Village after our work shifts were over on Thursday night at about 6:30. We had used our mid-day break to pack up the van so we were ready to go right away. We drove north through the park slowly, stopping at scenic views, including waterfalls, canyons, historical sites, etc. Just as we pulled into the Tower Falls General Store/Visitor center, we caught site of our first "park bears". Two large black bears were visible moving across a ridge clearly visible from the parking lot. We watched them until they had turned the corner and started moving away and down into a thickly wooded slope on the other side.

Two adult Black bears move slowly across the grassy ridge

We were thrilled to have seen bears for the first time in Yellowstone and went on to visit the store and do the short hike out to view Tower Falls, a narrow waterfall that drops dramatically 132 feet before joining the Lamar River. On impulse, we decided to continue onto a small hiking trail that went down to the river. It was 8:30 by now and the sun was starting to drop. Andre and I were both secretly hoping we would see the bears again, maybe feeding at the river. We stayed about 10 minutes and were just starting back up when the reward came. Andre noticed the bears moving slowly from the woods to the river bed. Then we were shocked to see them walk right into the river and swim slowly across the fast moving river to exit on the other side, shake off the water, and head on their way, up the slope on the other side, presumably to their dens for the night.

Tower Falls rushes over the rocky spire formations

The first bear becomes visible entering the river a half hour later!

They swim steadily across the river

Up onto the other side and shaking off the water...

After our amazing encounter with the bears we continued on to spend the night in the van further north in the park to position ourselves near the Lamar Valley to have the best shot of seeing wildlife early in the morning as we passed through the valley toward the park's northeast entrance. After an amazing ride through the valley, stopping frequently to observe multiple herds of bison and Pronghorn sheep, we exited the park for our ride across the Beartooth Highway and on to Red Lodge for some R&R, a hotel with a Jacuzzi. After a visit to the Red Lodge Brewing Company and a few hours out at a local sports bar to watch the Women's USA soccer team beat China in the quarter finals of the world cup, we headed to the hotel for the night. This morning we will head back toward the park and be back in our room by 9PM or so, ready to start another work week tomorrow.

It's not a bad life....

Here are some more random photos from the past week in the park.