Working in Yellowstone

June 19th was an exciting day.  After work, 5 of us were sitting on a log outside the campground registration office.  We had clocked out and were just visiting and bemoaning our general lack of skills with the computer system.  We stood up and were getting ready to head back our vehicles when down the road, through the campground, came a grizzly.  He sauntered down the road about 30' from where we were standing.  It goes without saying that not one of us had a camera.  It was surreal, I don't think it even registered that it was a real live bear until he started to speed up and head away from us.  I still can't quite believe it.   Then we drove down to the post office to pick up our mail and .... there he was again.  We called the park rangers and they came and chased him away.  So in one day we have had 2 grizzly sightings....even if we think it was the same bear.

Grizzlies are very common here.  I, also, understand that the grizzly bears of Yellowstone can be smaller than the brown or black bears.  Yikes....  The one we saw was on the smaller side but I sure wouldn't want to see anything bigger.

Well, we survived the June 21st opening at Grant campground.  We totally filled the campground.  It was an exhausting day.  Bill started at 10AM and the line of cars stretched a 1/4 mile down the road.  When I arrived at 2:00 the line was over a 1/2 mile long.  We had to drive down the left hand side of the road just to get to the building so we could go to work.  It was crazy.  That day we checked in 427 campers, setting a Yellowstone record.  The previous record was set in 2009, at the Grant campground, and it was 299 campers.  We have been full everyday since, with about 250 campers leaving and new ones coming in daily.  This job has kept us much more busy than we, or any other of the Guest Service Agents (GSA) thought possible.  There is always a line of folks waiting to check in or something......

One morning the grizzly watched a camper fix fried fish for his family's breakfast.  It unnerved the camper completely, but the bear just watched and moved on to the lake to do his own fishing.  Because our grizzly has not yet given up his residence near our campground and likes to give the guests a fright, all the trails from the campground have been closed.  One evening 3 kids showed up at the window about 8:30 pm asking how they could find the trail to the amphitheater, the oldest was about 12 and the younger ones were about 7 and 8.   They wanted to go to the ranger talk that started at 9 o'clock.  There was about 6 of us working at the time and we all said the trail was closed and they needed to get their parents to drive them to the amphitheater.  They said their folks were watching their campfire, so they headed back toward the campground.  There are no lights up here at night, the road shoulders are narrow and with our grizzly still roaming about none of us felt it was safe for them to be walking the roads (its over a mile) to the amphitheater.  Anyway, we closed up at about 10:30 pm and headed home.  On the way back there were quite a few cars coming back from the ranger talk and then on the side of the road, we saw those 3 kids, with one weak flashlight, and NO PARENT, walking home.  We couldn't believe it.  We all wanted to go back and shake their parents.

On Tuesday, June 29 we took the Can Am down to through the Grand Teton National Park and had lunch in Jackson Hole.  I remember when Jackson Hole was a small town and the town square only had one antelope antler arch.  It now as 4 arches and lots of town.  We came back through Teton Village, which is a skiing area in the winter.  It is only about 10 miles from town.  We thought that was a much better place to stay and explore the park.  On the way home we got to see our first moose and a deer.  There was a black storm cloud that followed us home but we made it before the storm hit.

The storm hit about 10 pm here.  It broke our flag pole and pole light.  It knocked the power out for a time and then our surge protector kept turning off our power.  We were cursing the $400 surge protector all night, because we had to unplug and go without power.  Bill was trying to figure out how we were going return the dang thing.  In the morning, he went out with his voltage meter and discovered we had 140 volts coming through the power pole.  YIKES!!!!  Everyone up here in the workers resident camping area unplugged their electricity and we called the managers.  Evidently the storm knocked down a bunch of trees and the electric folks were working on it all ready.  The whole park was affected.  It was our day off so we went to W Yellowstone for groceries and by 7 PM we were back up and running here.   The campground had to use a generator to get the computers going... and were very limited in what they could do.  Thank heavens we weren't working that day.

We now have one more wild creature that has invaded our part of the park.....MOSQUITOES.  Large, hungry and swarms of mosquitoes.  Bill has bought lots of repellent that the mosquitoes seem to enjoy.   He is armed with two swatters, one for each hand, and is ready for battle.  The veteran GSA's tell us this mosquito invasion is temporary and should only last about 4 weeks.  I am not questioning that estimation, I am just hoping they are right. 

Today, July 1st, it is back to work for us.  We hope everyone is enjoying some wonderful summer weather.  The forecast here is for temps in the 90s through Friday but Saturday only getting as high as 45 with the nighttime temp in the low 30s.  The temperatures are always in the low 40s here at night but the swings during the days are amazing.  Love to you all.....