Last post of Yellowstone

Over the whole stretch of summer I had many experiences of interest with animals. The scariest and most notable being a close-up meeting with a Grizzly bear after I took a lone hike to the Upper Falls of Canyon. I was walking back on the road to Canyon at sunset and joined a trail leading to the cabins where I recognised two friends from afar and called out to them. I joined them and we continued into the woods, talking loudly as a pack. With no prior warning a Grizzly with a mountainous humped back and striking stature sprinted across and cut the trail just yards ahead. We all did the opposite actions of official advice, turning and walking away very fast, you are supposed to be slow and walk backwards but our hearts pounded in a profuse spur, leaving no room for rationality. It disappeared over the hilly bumps or behind the cabins, we were not sure but we walked cautiously and loudly home. I think it was more frightful of us than us of it, I am just thankful I found friends to be loud with at the right time, or who knows I could have been a bears meal! This was the closest I got to a Grizzly, and definitely the closest I ever want to get.

During the time I worked in Canyon’s P area cabins most of us kept a constant watchful eye, you never knew when a squirrel or raven would smoothly make its way down to our carts and unleash terror in great disarray on our garbage bags and linen. A sharp clap would usually draw the ravens away but the squirrels were fearless, I never knew them as such cheeky creatures before. I often found myself chasing a squirrel around my cart in circles as it jumped sneakily from tyre to tyre. I eventually got a talent for spotting them in trees; they would sit on long branches staring with conniving eyes in waiting for my disappearance to a room. Fortunately I did not have to worry about this working at the Old Faithful Inn.

Finally, the smallest creature I had an encounter with was a mouse that managed to make its way into my room. As I swung open the door and switched the light I noticed little pink feet dashing along the carpet from corner to wardrobe or under a pile of random junk from my roommate. It paced so quickly that it seemed nothing but a ball of travelling brown hair. I propped the door in hopes it would want to make its own way out – the mouse did not go for this. I noticed it had been hiding under the dresser a while so reached for my torch and found in the flash of light its legs stretched to climb and it disappeared up the back. It was untraceable after this, I had moved everything except a jacket and some shoes next to the dresser so began to wearily remove the items until only my single hiking boot was left. I plucked it up by the heel and peeked into the dim foot hole where I found the mouse curled up tight and staring with black orbed eyes into mine, it had made a new home. I ran outside, through the porch filled with smokers, and placed the boot to the ground waiting for the mouse to leave. It must have just been too comfy in there (I understand, they are nice to hike in) so someone came over and did the cruel act of kicking the boot after I informed them of the situation. At which it darted to a little patch of grass in terror. I felt bad later because it had snowed overnight...

My pay cheques for the whole season have been quite poor looking for the amount of work I did. Although, I spent very little, for there was only things to use it on if you really tried. On my pay cheques I noticed something amusing. Printed on the bottom, below all the various numbers, is a small funny comment that differs each time. They always made me laugh for they are irrelevant to anything. Some examples are:

· ‘Don’t mow the grass when the ground is wet’

· ‘One safe act can lead to another’

· ‘Helmets save lives

I had no clue what these were supposed to be for or who even has the job of thinking these up, but they added some entertainment to the sad looking numbers on the pay cheque.

I also heard many funny guest or ‘touron’ comments on comment cards or spoken out to friends of mine, here’s some good examples –

· ‘I was just wondering where do they put all the animals at night?’

· ‘This is such a nice place but it would be much better if you got rid of all the trees’

· ‘The service here was both inadequate and appalling, I was given only two packets of coffee creamer in my room!’

· ‘Do they turn Old Faithful off at night?’

· ‘At what time of year do the deer turn into elk?’

One thing I forgot to mention in my last update was the Old Faithful Inn sleepover, on the night before our final work day we all got to sleep in a room of our choice in the inn. People were picking the most interesting rooms first, ones that were apparently haunted or Robert Reimer’s office (the architect of the inn). One girl stayed in the room where a man had decided to murder his wife by decapitating her over the bathtub, then holding the head he ran up the crow’s nest (a jungle of stairs leading to the top o the inn) and got to the high roof outside and thrust it to the sky. I simply picked out a random one on the night which had a faint view of Old Faithful geyser and sunrise through the branches. Some friends and I set up games prior, like chemical bottle bowling and bison toss, a game of throwing a soft toy at a target from the balconies. The name made me chuckle; there is a double meaning to the word in England. At the end we watched The Shining, a perfectly timed film because it is set in a hotel that had just been closed down for the winter which is just what we had done to the inn. It was actually supposed to be filmed in Yellowstone at the Lake hotel but the park service would not allow them to do so, it would have been perfect. The lights were all switched off at the end; slightly creepy walking the narrow wooden halls after watching a horror film.

There have been so many experiences I have surely missed out from this blog, there are too many to remember. I have met so many great people from all over the world; I feel I never have to worry when I travel because I have friends now from almost every imaginable place. I discovered that I love to hike, something I would complain and whine about doing as a child. It was a shame I didn’t get to see more of Yellowstone due to having to work 6 days a week for the majority, I would like to visit again (I plan to stop off in wintertime on my way back West) but I do not think I would want to work for Xanterra again! Overall, it was a fun experience.

Days Off - Old Faithful

So I am gone and Yellowstone is over for the season. I have been travelling, via Greyhound, across America to the east coast, stopping to visit friends and interesting places on the way. I am sorry for my lateness in writing, but have had little free time between working, planning and travelling. I’ll inform you of the happenings towards the end of Yellowstone to begin with.

All of my days off at Old Faithful had been visits to waterfalls or cascades – there are so many of them here. The first, the day after getting to Old Faithful, was one titled Moose Falls, I don’t know how they named this since it didn’t seem like a good habitat for Moose. It was a very short walk from the car and we managed to stay for hours in the high heat, it seemed to never fully become fall or winter in Yellowstone but drifted in summer’s warm ends. I went with my Malaysian friends, who we began to call ‘Team Malaysia’, and Angela; a new American friend from Canyon who I only met on the bus in transfer. We brought along our swimming attire, for me it was to bathe beneath the falls, for others it was to jump into them. The latter did not appeal to me after we tested how deep the water was – enough for small Malaysians but I did not think for a tall western kid. The first to jump, CCY, decided to leave his glasses on for he was scared he would jump in the wrong place without them. As soon as he popped up from the water he shouted, ‘My glasses! My glasses!’, so spent the rest of the time searching for them but without luck. They repeated to drop themselves besides the falls many times, some with hesitation, and I photographed them mid-air. A nice day which ended by going to Grant Village, another Xanterra hotel location, to meet our friends Tien and Ting Ting for dinner. They worked in Housekeeping at Canyon but had to transfer to Grant to close it down before coming to Old Faithful at the end. An annoyance I thankfully managed to avoid through negotiation of my work extension.

The next week no friends had a day off which coincided so I decided to rent out a bike from the Old Faithful Snow Lodge gift shop, another one of the hotels in the huge parking lot area, which stays open for winter. The rental was fairly cheap because of employee discount, so I had the bike for half a day. Because it was a rental I was also forced to wear a helmet, something I never do at home, but if a ranger spots you a fine can be given – although it made me feel safer around the speeding R.V’s with incapable drivers at helm. After investigating some local maps, found in a great book that a guest left behind in their room (one of the perks), I chose to ride on a bike trail leading to Biscuit Basin that passed many geothermal areas on the way. I stopped off at Morning Glory Pool, the colours are supposed to be spectacular but unfortunately people throw coins and miscellaneous objects inside – they drained it out one year and found things like teddy bears, coins and underwear. Also, as the weather gets cooler the colours get more brownish and dulled. Yet it was still quite beautiful to see the unusual rock walls inside. The trail to the basin was bike friendly, of which there are few, and was fairly easy with the big tyres aiding on the rocks. I was slightly nervous about random animals being on the trail since I was alone and could obviously not clap to scare them away. I am sure it would not be fun to ride straight into a grizzly. I kept pondering on the mathematic possibility of being able to ride faster than a bear or bison, I concluded that the adrenaline could give me a chance. I locked my bike up to a rack and wandered around the basin on the boardwalks. I do not generally appreciate the boardwalks for I feel they somewhat falsify the experience; it makes me feel as if I am more on the property of Disneyland than a national park. However, I got to see Sapphire Pool, one mystifying example of a hot spring with its so very very blue waters – the deepest I ever witnessed in any. It used to have knobbly rock formations around the edge, which apparently looked like biscuits, until the powerful earthquake of ’59 caused it to explode and destroy the surroundings. I saw an opening through the bushes which led to a trail, I followed while not having a clue where I was going, looking for adventure. A sign indicated ‘Mystic Falls 0.7 Miles’ and ‘Overlook 0.7 Miles’ so I went in the arrows direction. First finding the overlook, at the top of the steep hill, it opened up the land far and wide around Old Faithful, up to the hills which circled it. Steam rose from all over, sporadic locations that I had not known existed before, and at the same time I saw a geyser erupt from the Upper Basin which the inn overlooks. There was a snaking river below, which I presumed was connected to the falls that I had not yet found. I continued and continued and continued on the trail, never finding anything resembling a waterfall. After hiking for what felt like hours in the heat, and just finding the landscape to be forests with no differentiation from each other, I turned back. I also worried of bears, so clapped anxiously alone. I finally reached a divide in the trail and went down, I turned back and saw there was a sign which I had clearly missed on the way, it indicated that I had been walking on the 9.2 mile Fairy Creek trail, I am glad I turned around! I found the falls eventually, after that lengthy blunder, watched and ate some sandwiches. I had planned to reach Grand Prismatic Spring, the biggest hot spring in the world, later in the day but my mistake left me no time. On my way back I also found some friends, who had just finished work, on the same trail up – a funny coincidence.

In my final week, the majority of my friends had left already so I borrowed a bike from a friend in Personnel. It was a nice bright red colour and unfortunately was not made for my body type or height, so gave me aches for days. The back wheel also wobbled and squeaked, not giving me the most confidence, but at least it let me be free to explore. I headed for Lone Star Geyser while stopping at Kepler Cascades on the way. The trail to Lone Star was off from the main road and a short journey away from Old Faithful but over an endless hill. It was an old disused road running along the Firehole River, a nice ride with little tourists. However, not without wildlife, as I rode in the peaceful quiet I turned my head to the river and what sprung into my vision was the biggest bison I have seen with its Viking horns and beard, stood still feet away on the side of the road. It seemed contented but stared and followed my movement, people warned me on the way back of its presence which I was already aware – I was just glad to not be on foot. There were no predictions for Lone Star because it has gone off every 3 hours in its recorded history. A notebook lay in a pedestal and inside a wooden box, visitors are supposed to write down the time of the eruption for the next people to be able to predict the next display. No one had wrote recently so I guessed with the visual indications my book told me to lookout for (minor eruptions). I thought I would miss it because I had to be back to work as a Server Assistant in the dining room, an extra shift I picked up. I picked up only two of these shifts towards the end because I wanted experience in a kitchen, making it easier to become a waiter later in the year. I was happy it was only two shifts, on the last night 550 people had made reservations, leading me to screw up from the pressure and drop an entire tray of glasses. Anyway, as I strolled slowly back to the bike racks Lone Star Geyser began to shoot just in time, water spurting high up angled and all around the sides to quickly bounce up and float as steam from its oversized beehive cone.

After deep cleaning on the 20^th for the second time now, which was exhausting because the rooms were much dirtier than Canyon, I was not supposed to have another day off. I could not get a ride until the 22^nd so managed to scrape another free day in Yellowstone. My ride was actually from my manager and assistant manager because they were going to Bozeman to celebrate a birthday; I did not get the bus because it wouldn’t have got there in time to get the Greyhound. They also couldn’t tell me its departure time until the day before which made matters more stressful. On my free day I borrowed another bike, one from my other Personnel friend, simply out of the level of comfort of the bike. Since I did not get to go to Grand Prismatic Spring in the previous weeks I tried again, I had visited it once before on the Fairy Falls trail but only seeing it from a hill; I wanted to get closer to this natural wonder. Something again stopped me from reaching it, around half way there on the road my tyre squeaked for a second then succinctly and ferociously popped, meaning a completely flat tyre. It seemed I was not permitted to Grand Prismatic so headed back walking, sticking out my thumb when I heard the whizz of a car. Many passed including many trucks, 4x4’s and R.V’s which could blatantly accommodate me and the bruised bike only a little way back to Old Faithful. A truck slowed and u-turned eventually, with waving hands to display their wants to help. It was a friendly young married couple who worked in the snow lodge and had recognised me from the canteen. So I rode in the back of the truck with the bike, an interesting and windy experience! My friend was not mad about the bike, more worried about me because the bike was given free to her and was pretty crappy...clearly. This days plans didn’t work out well so I found a friend, who had come from Canyon, gone on a road trip but then started at Old Faithful weeks later, and we went on a short hike to Fern Cascades near the dorms. I also discovered that she was a vegan! It made me very excited because she was the first vegan I have ever met.