In this week’s Ranger escapades, I had a special visitor experience I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Per special request, a hearing family with a deaf daughter reached out to Yellowstone and requested interpreting services for accessible programs in the park. Naturally, the request made its way to me, and I was scheduled to give two programs to this family: a Geyser Hill Walk and an Experiencing Wildlife program. The girl, Emma, came from a rural town in eastern Idaho, and was learning both ASL and English in school, so her parents requested that I use a ‘total communication’ approach, basically meaning that I voice and sign at the same time. Anyways, we had an absolute blast walking around the basin together talking about geysers, I even gave her a thermometer to be a ‘young scientist’ for me and help estimate the temperature of the thermal features, afterwards, I gave a hands-on Wildlife talk to them, and had an absolute blast.

The next day, I received the most heartfelt email from the mother, and here is a little blurb of that “Adam and I have not observed such communication or enthusiasm from our daughter, Emma, in a long time. We have pursued similar experiences through a number of organizations over the last five years, and while each has been a rich experience, few have been as multisensory and interactive as the programs you presented about geysers and about predators and prey. I’ve long known that each of these characteristics can enhance learning, comprehension, and retention among students who are Deaf or hard of hearing (and others), but the vivid descriptions and discussion of the day’s experiences during our drive home helped me recognize and appreciate such effects from new perspectives.” As much as this experience meant to Emma and her family, it touched my heart as well, and I am thankful for this job which gives me the opportunity to impact people’s lives like that and have mine impacted as well.

My hike itinerary has been FULL lately, I’ve been knocking out some of the last hikes on my list for this summer and have already started an extensive list of hikes for next summer. But I’ve checked off some fun ones. Michael and I went out to Firehole Lake Drive one night and enjoyed the sunset over Great Fountain and saw White Dome erupt which was pretty cool.

Over my weekend, Kyle and I went to Bunsen Peak and Beaver Ponds Loop. Since my weekends switched to Tuesday-Wednesdays, I only have Tuesdays with Kyle now, but we still make it work. Kyle is great because he’ll go on any hike I suggest, and we’ve become pretty good friends even though I’m 22 and he is almost 35…. that’s something I love about this field is I’ve met some awesome people across all ages, and we get along like there is no age gap at all! Anyways, Bunsen Peak was another fire lookout tower hike, it was pretty short only about 4 miles roundtrip, but it had some stunning views of the surrounding park.

After that, we walked the Mammoth Terraces because neither of us had explored Mammoth much yet. It’s much harder than you think to explore this park when you’re also working here! But I finally got to check it off the list, so that was pretty neat.

For our final hike we did Beaver Ponds Loop, a 6 mile loop hike and had some interesting sights/encounters on this trail. We briefly crossed the Montana-Wyoming boundary line, so of course I took a dorky photo with one foot in each state, and we also crossed the 45th Parallel, which is the latitude circle that is the halfway point between the North Pole and the Equator. No signs for either of these places, so enjoy my selfie photos!

Because I love my hikes and a challenge, Wednesday I did a 14 mile hike with Mike and Michael out to Heart Lake. Michael and I love to rate backcountry bridges, and we concluded that we found one of the best backcountry bridges out by Heart Lake, let me know what you all think.

Otherwise, there was a backcountry geyser basin right next to Heart Lake, so we explored the thermals out there and watched Rustic Geyser erupt. Rustic has now become one of my favorite geysers because it had such a large and wide eruption that was unexpected, and we were able to sit pretty close to it.

And in classic Rachel fashion, I took a 45 minute nap by the lake, and was rudely awoken by Michael throwing his hat at me, but otherwise it was a great nap. All in all, I am now a big Heart Lake fan, and the large mountain behind me is Mt Sheridan, and it is on my list to summit next year!

Over my second weekend I went all out, and maybe a little too hard, but let’s talk about the good parts first. I hiked Gneiss Creek with Kyle; it ended up being an 18 mile day because we added in going to a neat backcountry cabin called Cougar Cabin. The cabin was gorgeous, and it was clear that nobody ever really goes back there, which made for some nice peace and quiet and beautiful scenery, however I did not see any mountain lions or find any cougars for Kyle, but it was still gorgeous!

The hike throughout Gneiss Creek was super fascinating though because it was a twice burned forested area, it burned in the huge fires of 1988, and then burned again in 2016, so we hiked through a lot of burned areas that had juvenile charred trees that regenerated in that 28 year period before re-burning.

It’s definitely interesting and a little conflicting considering my forestry and fire background to see the NPS standard of preservation over strategies of forest management that I studied in college, but I enjoy it, nonetheless. Since Gneiss was such a low trafficked trail, we found a bunch of animal bones at the cabin and on the trail.

We had to do 6 different river crossings and bushwack through overgrown grasslands, as well as ford a chest deep river, by far one of the wildest things I have ever had to do.

I told Kyle if I had to ford this river, I at least wanted documentation of this wild moment. The water was so cold we almost considered going back, but it was a one-way trail where we shuttled a car to the far entrance the night before, and if we went back, we would have to hike closer to 8 miles rather than 5 miles, so we sucked it up and froze our butts off! And of course, the one actual bridge that existed on this entire trail, was at the very end, the last mile had this nice bridge for the shallowest stream in America, so that was lovely.

However, the hike was a fun, adventurous trip, and we hiked all the way out to one of the boundary lines of Yellowstone, so that was fun to check off my list!

After Gneiss, Michael and I had plans to go to Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho, so I got to check another park off my list. We stopped for dinner in Idaho Falls, and I tried the fast-food restaurant Culver’s for the first time and had one of the best milkshakes ever! But I still do miss my In n Out burger, nothing tops that!

We spent the night in the CRMO campground, and in the morning, we explored the park, which included getting the classic photo at the sign, and becoming Junior Rangers!

Unfortunately, I pushed myself too hard going to Gneiss and doing an 18 mile day, and then turning around and driving 4 hours to CRMO, so I did get a little sick, and spent most of the day sleeping in the car while Michael explored the park. But we made the best out of the situation, and here’s all the photos we took before I crashed.

That night, when we were headed home, we drove up on a single motor vehicle accident. An individual tourist was coming around an S-curve around 9:30pm and had a head on collision with a bison, luckily the woman was okay, but unfortunately the bison did not make it. Michael and I helped control traffic flow for about 30 minutes since one lane was blocked off, until law enforcement arrived. A family had witnessed the accident and were helping out the lady by taking her to her hotel after the situation was cleared up, and as a thank you, we were able to give all the kids some Yellowstone Junior Ranger badges, it was a small gesture, but still meaningful to be able to respond to a situation and help out as rangers, on and off the clock.

After my chaotic and eventful weekend, my life has been pretty slow, I took several days off work this week because I got myself sick from pushing my body to its limits, but I am hoping to be back in the office after my weekend ends, and finish out my last few days in Yellowstone strong. My last day of the season here is going to be Saturday October 22nd, it’s been an unforgettable summer, and it will be hard to leave this place, but my heart is also so full after living my dream this summer. I hope to return next summer to have one full season of ranger escapades, but I am also excited to head home, enjoy an epic road-trip hitting 7 National Parks, and get some much needed quality time and hugs from my family, who I miss so much.

P.S. if you’ve read this far, I can’t wait to see you during my two week road-trip or shortly after when I return home. (Mom & Dad, Jacob & Emily, Sarah, Grandpa Bob, G&G, Cam & Demi, Anisa & Grace, KT, Gia, Jess, Jack, Scoring Lauren, and so many others who make me feel loved and pushed me to pursue my dreams).