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 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.
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