ZOOM! Just like that, another 2 weeks has flown by, at least that’s very much how it feels out here. Being a returning Ranger to Yellowstone has been such a blessing but holy moly there’s not enough evenings or weekends to ever get everything done!!

Ranger life has kept me on my toes, these past 2 weeks the weather has been extra funky, the visitors have been random and the wildlife has been treating. I was honored to experience my first Lion Geyser baptism, and it gave off some impressive roars before it started erupting (how it got its name). 

I’ve had some early mornings to myself in the basin, and other days visitors can’t get enough of Park Rangers, I’ve been feeling like a celebrity considering the amount of people that want to take photos of me or with me! 

Old Faithful is still erupting, and the bison don’t seem to care. I worked a 2.5 hour bison jam the other day where he started grazing 10 feet from our visitor center, and then moved into the OF geyser area, eating his lunch while everyone tried to snap a photo with him, pet him or approach. Boy that was an interesting morning…. But life is never dull out here! We have even had some new geysers form in the past few weeks which has been fascinating to monitor and observe. 

These visitors sure keep me on my toes, but my staff this year always brings me back down to earth. Us girls have been having lots of fun together getting up to random shenanigans including doing a nice dinner in West and gossiping / having dance parties in the staff gym (don’t worry about why we chose that as our meeting spot). 

As always, I’m fitting in hikes and travels wherever I can. I’ve done some fun short post work hikes out to Fern Cascade, Great Fountain Geyser (caught my first eruption of that one!) and Mystic Falls.

Additionally, Paige and I picked up Michael post one of his hikes and we drove out to the Continental Divide to look for salamanders and go to the most underwhelming pullout in the whole park, Shoshone Point!

If you couldn’t tell, weekdays are for resting and weekends are for adventuring 😉 and I stay true to that phrase. Michael and I were able to make a quick side trip out to Craters of the Moon in Idaho, and have a redo of that trip. I got sick last year when we went there 🙁 but this year we got to explore this wild National Park and all it had to offer. We ended up hiking every day trip trail in the park, totaling about 11 miles, we camped in a Lava Flow!! And we got to soak in a natural hot spring.

It was a fun getaway from Yellowstone and on the way back we stopped at Atomic City and got to tour the EBRI Museum, home of the world’s first nuclear power plant.

The following weekend I went out to Lone Star Geyser and got to explore some of the nearby thermal features with Michael.

I took it easy on day one, and day two of our weekend we got to take Anna to the Tetons for her first time! We had a full day of fun including a stop at Moose Falls, the Grand Teton Sign, becoming Grand Teton Junior Rangers, a 11 mile hike around Emma Matilda Lake and then dinner in Jackson. Our day was packed but I wouldn’t change a thing, it was so fun to spend time in another National park and explore more of what’s around me. Unfortunately, no wildlife was spotted this time around, but we definitely heard a bear rustling around the woods nearby on our hike. What an adventure that was.

All in all, park life is keeping me busy but happy. There’s no place I’d rather be right now, I’m continuing to soak up every moment and be thankful I am here. Until next time, Ranger on!