National Park Bum: S7E1: A new location with no one around

If this blog were a T.V. show this would be Season 7 Episode 1. I have officially returned to the park for work and am enjoying the quiet. For the preseason this contract I am a supervisor for the employee dining room at Snowlodge in Old Faithful. I pretty much make sure food gets cooked, served and stored properly while making sure the staff use their time wisely.

This will be my fourth summer or seventh season and for the first time in my Yellowstone career I will not be returning to Mammoth. I’m not 100% sure if I will be returning for the 2016 summer season or not in order to work in a different national park. I’m just keeping the options open for the time being and hope for a great summer season to take place. As far as traveling in October, I have a wedding to attend to in Wisconsin, so I might make a road trip out of that and go from there to somewhere, once again, leaving options open for the time being. Who really knows what will happen after the season…

I just had my first weekend in the Old Faithful area and couldn’t be more content with it. I tend to avoid the area in the summer due to all the tourists. I’ve learned from a ranger that 98% of the guests that come to the park go to Old Faithful and watch erupt and then leave…Roughly 91 thousand tourists a week. That’s way too many people for me. But now here I am in preseason with no tourists….It magical. I went down to Mammoth on my first day off to pick some things up but came back early the next day and just really enjoyed it all.

I went to Biscuit Basin where I had a problem finding a parking spot. What I really mean, is finding the right parking spot with so many open spaces. The sky was blue with white fluffy clouds with a temperature just shy of 60 with an intermittent fierce wind. I got out of my car and grabbed my camera, 500mm lens and made my way over the unoccupied bridge that crossed over the Firehole River. There were two old friends in the water; Fred and Ethel. For those who don’t know of them, they were two Mallards who would visit our pool every spring and one year built a nest and laid an egg right next to it. In kindergarten I took the egg for show-and-tell and accidently broke it. L But any way, it just the common name my family gives for two Mallards, one male and the other female, that are just enjoying themselves.

After trying to snap a couple pictures of them I made my way up the empty boardwalk and continued to look in a 360 degree view for any bears looking for a hunt; no luck for them. I saw a lot of hot springs and geysers that I have driven by numerous times but never ventured due to the lack of serenity they can give off but blocked by the tourists in the summer. Now, I’m not saying that this should detract you from seeing them, I’m just gloating that I have it better, sorry. Upon making my way back to Matilda, a Mountain Blue Bird flew right in front of my truck and rested on top of a bicycle rack. While attempting to capture the beauty I realized that my autofocus was off and that all my pictures that I just took were a smidge blurry. To be honest, if you have seen one small hot spring, you have seen them all. Sure they are all different, but the photos will, in my opinion, look somewhat the same.

I headed back to my dorm but thought it would be fun to Skype while walking another boardwalk. So I decided to Skype my parents and after five attempts of getting the video to work, they were now part of my virtual tour of Black Sand Basin. I was more thrilled that I could share the experience with my parents that even walking the boardwalk by myself. According to them, the video was clear but the sound was blocked due to the wind. For the rest of the day, while exploring the thermal areas of the South end of the park, I continued to Skype them periodically while finding new and strange areas before my data plan expired. While at Black Sand Basin, I had a coworker join me in my travels, PJ, (Pattie Jo).

Right when the Skype became successful, Cliff Geyser was going off and that had me going. Old Faithful is popular and the whole boardwalk will fill up with more than 100 tourists watching the geyser go off during the peak season, and here I was enjoying SCIENCE by myself on the boardwalk with my parents via Skype. I really couldn’t get over on how tremendous of an experience it is to have the privilege of working a pre/post season job, having a car and being able to enjoy the park by myself. It really is just phenomenal and I couldn’t be happier. Unfortunately the weather was a little too warm and the wind wasn’t strong enough. I say this because the hot springs give off a lot, A LOT, of steam and it’s harder to see the springs with all that said steam in a cooler air. So if a person were to come in “peak” season when the temperature is much higher and the winds could die down, you could far into the hot springs and really enjoy it with 20+ people next to you…I’ll take the weather, no offense.

I asked PJ if she wanted to go see Morning Glory and she agreed. We drove our cars over to the Inn where we were greeted by a four or five bison and parked our cars far away from them. We hiked on the paved pathway for some time and saw Castle Geyser going off. Not knowing anything about it, I picked up the pace and started Skype and continued to watch the Geyser go off for about 20 minutes. According to the board in front of the Geyser, it goes off twice a day and can last 50 minutes to 24 hours…I think that is the right information for that Geyser. Any who, while trying to Skype with my left hand and taking pictures with my right hand, I think my parents may have got a little motion sickness while doing so but they didn’t say anything about it. PJ and I continued to walk up the pathway while water continued to erupt wrathfully from Castle Geyser we walked onto the boardwalk when a huge gust of wind and a mighty blow from the Geyser caused a temporary rain of rather cold silica water covered us in a small downpour. After watching this geyser for a good amount of time I hung my parents up and called my Uncle who was just as thrilled to see it. The sata plan was getting smaller so I hung up on him and we made our way down the pathway.

The path went from pavement to about a foot of snow on and off for about 200 feet while we continued to trek through the large thermal area. We passed by the “Grotto Geyser” which was unique. Instead of a cone shaped exit for the water, it had a backboard with two horizontal caves/holes through it. See picture below… It was a very odd but cool looking attraction. Another was “Spa Geyser” which was a rectangular/”U” shaped pool that resembled a hot tub look. Neither of these two went off.

Morning Glory

My first summer I met a girl who was in Mammoth for a little while and mentioned Morning Glory to me and it went in one ear and out the other. My second season, again, a girl mentioned it to me and it went in and out the same ear. I sat down in the Personal office to checkout this winter, maybe a different season and saw a picture of it. Ken, Personal manager for Mammoth had remarked that it was his favorite picture or something along those lines and he’s been in the park since 1991…I think. Either way, it was the photo that made me interested in it and brought back memories from my first two seasons.

PJ and I walked through a little snow and the boardwalk was there. A “U/V” shaped boardwalk was in front of us and PJ said that we were here. I had been the, “Are we there yet?” guy for about 20 minutes or so. I really only said it twice maybe three times but we were there. PJ said that the boardwalk surrounding Morning Glory usually has 20 or more people on it, and the fact that we were the only two there, without a bear, was just so AMAZING. Once again, I really do love this part of the season where I get the park all to myself and get to share the joy through this writing.

Sadly, generations before me and possibly you, have decided that it would be awesome and great to throw garbage and coins and other foreign objects into this colorful, beautiful, serene and just plain awesome feature that it has lost color. When you scroll down and say, “HOLY BANANAS!” or some other outlandish words, you can only imagine, or search Google for older pictures, and see what it really looked like. Smoking isn’t even allowed on thermal boardwalks in beliefs that the ash may harm the bacteria. I just find it hard to believe that people can be so stupid and ignorant to put objects in these pools and not save it for the next generation. Yet here we are in 2015 and we have a park that is known for its bison that are being reduced in population for some reason but they can’t have a web cam on this spot to capture images or videos of people doing these horrible acts. The park has webcams on Old Faithful and Mammoth and maybe others to view the attractions away from the park, but to have a webcam to capture vandalism is out of question? They have a sign next to Morning Glory that shows a cartoon of NPS putting a hose down the spring and sucking up garbage. I’m not sure of the fine for throwing garbage into the hot spring, but if being caught with drugs or getting a DUI in the park has a ban on the offense; I feel the fine for vandalism should be 20 times worse. I’m not saying a DUI isn’t bad, I just feel that vandalism to these springs and geysers should be a lifetime ban with $X.xx . END RANT.

Morning Glory was just an amazing experience. The colors of red to orange to yellow to green to blue could have continued to follow the spectrum if I were here 100 years earlier but none the less, it was still amazing. The wind had a slight ripple effect on the water, the steam had a slight visibility problem and the clouds covered the sun which caused a slight lighting problem. I did manage to capture some great images but not the ones I feel that can really capture an amazing thermal feature of the park. I will return with bear spray. Don’t leave your dorm/hotel/car without it!

We made our way back to the Inn but followed different trails back that lead us through a different part of the thermal area. We passed a bathroom that I thought I might need but decided to hold it thinking it was locked anyway. Upon looking at all these cool geysers and thinking I had time to take some photo ops, I was wrong. The BM’s decided to move and there was no time to slow down and I continued to walk my way to the Inn. After a while things decided to simmer down and I took my time towards the end. We passed by Castle Geyser and it had just finished going off and there was a lot of white dust/powder on the boardwalk and all I could think about is what was going to happen to my skin, clothes and camera after being rained down with the same water that landed on the boardwalk. Nothing happened...

The Inn was in the distance and Old Faithful was going off. I was really hoping to catch the moon, Castle Geyser, Old Faithful, the Inn and Bison all in one picture to “capture Yellowstone” since 98% come to see that one thing. If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I’m not really old fashion when it comes to taking pictures of the park. I like new things and I like to create my own “trend” if you will.

The day ended with giving a small and quick tour of Old Faithful to my parents via Skype. The whole day was fun and I was truly happy to be able to share it with them and my Uncle through crazy technology. I can’t wait for another time where I get to Skype, explore and share with family who are 1400 miles away and still have the same experience that I have but through a screen. I’m not looking forward to the part where I might be running from a bear and have to throw the phone at the bear and they get eaten alive and try to explain that to others, but then reading back on the last sentence, it will be humorous on why I need a new phone.

Thank you for reading this blog. I do appreciate all the folks who share my blog and converse about it. I do have bumper stickers on the way. As soon as they arrive I will post a photo what they look like. They will be available for $5.00, $6.00 with shipping. If you would like to bargain, I’m down. These stickers are to help promote the blog and the idea that I have created. If you are a fellow “National Park Bum/Employee” and have thought, “Wow. This is a great idea! I would love to write for this blog or maybe be a competitor….” No need to be competition…

National Park Bum was created in December of 2013 based on writing letters to my family about my experiences. If you would care to join NPB and be part of this wonderful idea of giving people the ups and downs of what it’s like to work in a NP, please submit your writings and or photos of your experience and if your work is published on the site, receive a complimentary bumper sticker. “Really? That’s all?”…If there are enough submissions from you, I hope to publish a book/journal titled, NATIONAL PARK BUMS: ISSUE ONE, and hope to sell them inside of the park whether it is Xanterra or DNC who sells it. All profits from the bumper stickers will go back into NPB and the prosperity into NPB.

IF you are interested in being a blogger or a buyer of a bumper sticker, please contact me through: nationalparkbum@gmail.com for more information.

Once again, thank you for being a loyal reader and I hope to have a new journal entry soon, whether it is from me or a new blogger!

I can't recall at this moment in time, but this green "grass" you see, can only be seen in Yellowstone and tropical areas. The spring run off mixed with the hot spring water create this tropical vegetation. For more info, look back to my second winter season where I took my first snow coach ride to learn and forget about this fascinating SCIENCE!