What a whirlwind these last two weeks have been, by the time you all are reading this post, the season will have officially ended (Sept 30th) and most of the Yellowstone ’22 crew will be gone. But with that, let’s get into my highlights of the past few weeks!

Work has been real good to me lately, I’ve given several programs recently, including a Ranger’s Choice program on Lodgepole Pine trees which if you know anything about me, that’s my jam! So it was epic, I talked about the different types of trees we have in the park, what causes them to look a certain way and passed around lots of visuals.

I gave a lovely little Experiencing Wildlife program, and I feel my confidence building every time I give another ranger program. I become more and more confident in my knowledge, the material and I let it flow naturally, doing what I do best, just connecting with people.

Another program I got to give was a Geyser Hill walk and that was easily one of my best programs I had given this summer. Everything flowed so well and at the end the audience clapped for me and one visitor told me it was the best program he had seen during his trip, and he had already seen 4 other ranger programs. So that was a very ‘heart touch’ moment.

P.S. My mom convinced me to wear braids to work because she said it would look cute (I do) and I got so many compliments, I even got nicknamed Ranger Longstocking! So we unofficially made the next day ‘braid day’ so most of the long haired individuals on staff wore braids and it was some wholesome fun, I wish we took a photo but we didn’t think of it!

Additionally, I got to walk out to Mystic Falls during one of my rove shifts and soak in the beautiful day with this nice 2 mile roundtrip stroll. I talked to some folks on the trail, giving informal programs and just enjoyed being outside.

Later in the week, I got to shadow the EMS Team and ride in the NPS Ambulance Rig! Although we did not run any calls, it was a neat experience to be able to explore the ambulance and get some valuable insight from the more seasoned EMS crew members and hear about their experiences working medicals in a national park.

And of course, the geysers are always keeping me busy and erupting, Beehive, the ranger favorite geyser, erupted and gave me a gorgeous rainbow, and Ranger Michael got this cool photo of me updating the Castle prediction board.

For my hikes these past few weeks, I’ve kept it fairly light and have focused on spending time with the Rangers and enjoying moments more than doing rigorous peaks. So, one night Michael and I went out to Riddle Lake and enjoyed a nice sunset out there… Riddle is definitely in my top 5 hikes of this summer. While we were out there, we even heard some Elk bugling as they searched for a mate! Afterwards, we went to my house and made dinner together while Facetiming Zenja. Gotta keep #teamBaer alive!

Over my weekend, a crew of us: Trent, Dave, Kyle, Shannan, Bev and me went exploring some thermal areas and took Trent down to Mystic Falls for the first time. There are 10,000 thermal features in Yellowstone National Park, but it really got put into perspective for me this weekend with all our thermal ranger exploration. For example, when we walked out to Mystic Falls, there were random pools of heated thermal runoff with vents steaming right next to the waterfall. Just seeing all that this weekend was really mind blowing and surprising to me, but absolutely epic as well.

During our adventures, in classic clumsy Rachel fashion I misstepped and sunk into thermal mud? quicksand? quickmud? honestly I am still unsure. However Bev and I got quite the laugh out of my blunder, but when I told Zenja later that night she was less than impressed, I thought the conversation was hilarious so here’s how it went down:

Zenja: RACHEL! You were wearing open toed shoes in a thermal area??
Me: Uhhh, yeah? I didn’t want to have muddy sneaks again.

Zenja: If that was acidic mud, your foot would be gone!

Me: Well clearly it wasn’t because its still there 🙂

Since the days are starting to get shorter and shorter, I have been squeezing in some bucket list short hikes some nights after my work shifts. We changed our Visitor Center hours from 9-5 for the month of October, so that gives me about 1/2 hours of daylight to work with. One of the nights, I went to Divide Peak, this had an old fire lookout tower on it that burned down (I think during the fires of ’88 but I am not sure). Anyways, I still went up to check it off the list, we got a small view of Yellowstone Lake on the way up, but were surrounded by trees at the top. However, it was pretty cool to sift through some of the rubble and I did find some melted glass (glass melts at about 1400 F, so it was a hot fire!!) and various wreckage that I nerded out about to Kyle. It felt like we were kids going on a treasure hunt in some ways, so it was a nice post work de-stressor!

The next day post work, I did a short hike to Fern Cascades which starts right behind our housing area. It was only a 3 mile loop but it takes you down to some gorgeous waterfalls and is a pretty quiet trail, so it was nice to have the area more to ourselves. And yes, I am wearing the same outfit two days in a row, don’t @ me, (sorry mom).

Anyways, us Rangers have been soaking in those last few days together, filling our nights with silly games and lots of laughter. Bev has been the glue of our team this summer, and she made us a heartfelt end of summer slideshow, and we even Facetimed in the Rangers that had already left for the season! Here is my favorite moment from that slideshow:

After that we played the iconic game of Throw Throw Burrito which is a fast paced version of spoons that ends in you pelting someone with a burrito. I know it sounds super silly but it is easily one of the best games I have ever played, especially with a group of rowdy rangers.

For Bev’s last night, we had to be classier because some of the lovely moms/grandmas were in town so we went to the Inn for one final game night. We played Tensies, Neanderthal Poetry and Happy Salmon. These were some more lighthearted kids games, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need. We even found a bougie claw foot tub and took goofy photos in it, man oh man am I going to miss this crew. What an unbelievable summer it has been, the women I have met have been the best strong, independent female role models, and the guys are a bunch of fun goofballs.

Thank you God for this amazing summer…. sincerely, Ranger Baer.