Well, I think I’m going to Grand Canyon this winter, surprise! That’s the winter job on the docket for me, so yay, new place, more blogs! This has been a fun place to store all my memories and adventures, and I’m excited for a new chapter.

Without further ado, work is good. Been giving lots of programs to eager visitors and soaking up my last month here doing what I love. I feel like I have grown so much as a Ranger over two summers and I am thankful for the opportunity I had here. The other morning I predicted Old Faithful in the densest fog I had ever seen, I had to walk all the way out there to hear the water splashing!

At our Junior Ranger tent this week to wrap up the final week we talked all about rocks, and the park geology! I got this super cool photo of Ranger Anna describing to kids how the caldera boundary was formed in Yellowstone.

Recently, I got to give one of my favorite programs, Geyser Hill Walk. It’s a 90 minute walk where I take people around the Old Faithful basin and get to decide where I want to stop and what talking points I want to make. This group was super interactive and fun, and Ranger Michael sneakily caught a photo of me with the group across the river!

One night I took the boys out for some pool, and like the baller I am I won both games, (maybe by default but don’t worry about it!) Sometimes going to the pub and shooting pool is all we need to de-stress after a chaotic workday.

Michael and I got our first backpacking trip in of the summer going out to Heart Lake and bagging Mt Sheridan. We backpacked out to Heart Lake and got special permission to use the patrol cabin down there, it was such a fun, unique experience staying in a ranger backcountry cabin filled with amenities.

We had gone out to Heart Lake last summer, so we were familiar with the area and we revisited the backcountry basin and checked out our favorite geyser, Rustic Geyser!

In the evening we had a nice backpacking dehydrated dinner on the porch, watching the sunset through the trees by the lake and seeing tons of bats flying around.

In the morning, the day started out a little rough because I woke up to a BAT flying around our cabin. Terrifying. I like my wildlife but keep it outside please. But after that it was smooth sailing. Getting up to Sheridan was no easy feat, but getting on top of that peak made it all worthwhile. The views up there were unmatched, seeing Yellowstone Lake, Shoshone Lake, Heart Lake and the Teton Range.

Much to our delight as well, the key also opened the lookout tower so we were able to explore inside and get an idea of what it would be like to be living up there for months at a time!

Usually in all backcountry cabins there are a series of logbooks that act as records for when people visited the cabin, and any fun stories they want to add in. We had a blast reading the logbooks at both places and adding our own entry that we hope to come check on sometime in the future.

Heart Lake was a very mentally challenging but fun backpacking trip, I’m glad I had Michael with me to offer support throughout and help me up some of those tougher hills. Here’s some tidbits of other fun photos I wanted to add to the log!

No matter how much you love a place, or how many hikes there are to do, you gotta have a balance in life and take advantage of other adventures and trips. Back in March, I found out one of my favorite bands, the Lumineers, would be playing in Montana, so I secured tickets to go with Michael, and we decided to make a little weekend out of it… what a great decision! Missoula, you did not disappoint.

We spent our days exploring the town, going thrifting, buying books and enjoying the funky, fun town. I thrifted a new shirt that ended up being my concert outfit, and we had so much fun there. The Lumineers put on a fantastic show at a gorgeous outdoor amphitheater. Even Michael said they sounded exactly like they do on their albums as they did in person!

Our second day we hiked the ‘M’ behind the University of Montana, similar to the Cal Poly ‘P’ this was put up by students in the 1930s to show pride in their school, and now has become a fun hike for people to go up and get a great view of campus. Afterwards, we walked around the campus and saw how beautiful it was, definitely a place I’m adding to my list for grad school!

And of course, I found a carousel for us to ride. This is something that started when I was little, the carousel was one of my favorite amusement park rides, and now every time I visit a new place that has a carousel, I MUST ride it. This one was super fun too, probably the fastest carousel I’ve ever ridden, I of course chose a strong stallion to ride, and Michael got to ride a cool dragon!

On our way home we stopped by Grant Kohrs Ranch, we didn’t have much time to explore, only about 45 minutes due to their early closing time, but it was fun reading about some of the ranching history in the United States and visiting another National Park site!

Remember how I walked across the whole lower loop last summer? Well I did it again! The Mary Mountain trail, one of my personal favorites from last year, I just had to complete it this summer. In total it took about 21 miles of hiking over 12 hours including a nice stop at Mary’s Lake and the Cabin for lunch. We had a great crew of 5 who were down for the adventure: me, Michael, Leighann, Anna and David.

We saw large herds of bison grazing in the valley, found more skull sheds, enjoyed the best buddy toilet in the park and even heard wolves howling! I also had the nastiest peanut butter m&m ever that David described as tasting like a freshly remodeled daycare, specifically the one from Toy Story 3!

This was a special hike for Michael, because at mile marker 17 he reached his goal of hiking 1,000 miles across his two summers as a Yellowstone Park Ranger! I was so incredibly proud of him!!

Yellowstone has been good to me, and I am equally excited for my next adventure and what all these new memories will bring. Until then, Ranger on!