Happy August! I’m officially over halfway through my summer, and the hunt for what’s next is underway. I have some leads, but nothing finalized yet, so keeping my fingers crossed! In the meantime, Yellowstone has had some fun visitors to the park. I had the opportunity to meet the director of the National Park Service, Mr Chuck Sams, in a small group setting. He was super personable, friendly and easy to talk to, and best of all he had the honor of shaking my hand!!

The following weekend, Michael’s younger brother Matthew came into town with his girlfriend Claire and her family. I got to meet his brother for the first time, they got to spend lots of quality time after not having seen each other for 7 months and we got to show them some of our favorite spots in Yellowstone. Night one we took them for an evening eruption of Old Faithful, and walked the geyser basin 3 mile loop. It was pretty adorable to see the brothers banter back and forth and it was fun to get to know Claire as well.

Then came our weekend, we had to take the family out to Mt Washburn, a classic hike with gorgeous views, and it did not disappoint them either. We saw lots of pika and the weather was perfect out, so the hike was super enjoyable. Claire’s moms were nice enough to drive us during the whole visit, so we got to play tourist as well. After Washburn we took them out to the Grand Canyon, Hayden Valley and went back by the Lake. Claire’s brother Corbin had brought along a megaphone and Michael had a field day playing traffic controller.

Wednesday, the family booked a tour of the lower loop, so Michael and I had the morning to ourselves. We went out to Storm Point for a short hike and then we were invited to West for dinner with Claire and her family. At that point, it was raining, but the Buffalo Bar did not disappoint, and we had a great time with the family!

For our recent weekend, Michael and I had grand plans to bag Mt Holmes, a 23 mile doozy of a peak, and then drive the Beartooth Highway the next day, one of the most scenic highways in the United States. We crossed a large, freezing cold stream just one mile in and adventured forward. We made it all the way to the Winter Creek Cabin, 7 miles in and were mentally preparing to start the mountain climb. The weather was brutal though, very cold, stormy with afternoon thunderstorms predicted, so we had to make the difficult decision of bailing on the peak. Cancelling on a hike is never fun, but with the ominous weather we knew it was the right call.

That night we drove out the Northeast entrance and camped outside of Cooke City at a small forest service campground filled with free range cows. We woke up in the morning to bellowing cows, and one of the cows had the audacity to lick my car. (I’m still not over it). Anyways, we drove to the summit of Beartooth Pass, stopped at a cute store called Top of the World, holding the record for the most expensive Wyoming gas I’ve ever seen, and shared a fun adventure together. We made it into Cody for lunch, going to Grandma’s diner and splitting the biggest cinnamon roll I have ever seen. Although we didn’t summit Mt Holmes, the Beartooths did not disappoint, and it was fun adventuring with Michael!

As for other life updates, here’s small tidbits of things I’ve been up to. Work is still going well, I went out to catch 2 different Beehive eruptions with some fellow coworkers, both on the platform viewing side and up to Geyser Hill. Because this is such a Ranger favorite geyser, it’s rewarding for us to bring as many people as we can out there!

I also checked off a personal bucket list item, making an Old Faithful prediction right on the money. We always tell visitors our predictions are 90% accurate with that +/- 10 minute window, but this eruption was spot on. What a fun accomplishment!

Additionally, I was in a baking mood and made cinnamon rolls for the team, they were a major hit and people are already eager to know what the next thing I’m planning on baking will be.

As for the most exciting update, I made it to 500 miles! Across two summers, I have hiked 500 miles in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (including some mileage outside of the GYE) which was an awesome goal to hit! I’m currently at 515 miles, but I do not plan to stop yet, we’ll see how far I can make it by the end of this season!

And with all that said, this is the time for me to sign off, until the next blog, with lots of love, Ranger Baer!