Here we are, looking at the second to last weekend in October. Visitation has dramatically decreased and colder air is back, baby! If you are visiting the park this week, this is what you need to know: This week, we dive into what the park was really like during the record setting summer visitation, take a look at the impact of winter snowcoaches and snowmobiles on the park’s wildlife, catch up on the fate of the grizzlies just north of the park and find a lesser-known view of a popular waterfall. Readers of this week’s post will also learn about recent bear den sightings in the park, where to catch a late season grizzly sighting, and find out where you can still camp.
Whew! We made it through the first major snowstorm in the region for the season! Last week, especially Monday to Wednesday, the park was bit chaotic. We will definitely get into the specifics in a bit.
This coming week, we will see the return of the sun, fantastic views of snow back on the mountains, a couple of campground closures, and all of the other wonderful things that Yellowstone has to offer. We will also dive into the recent storm, chronic wasting disease, NASA’s plan to harvest Yellowstone for energy and more.
Give it a read, a share and get ready to visit America’s first National Park. If you want to support my weekly park posts, please pick up a guidebook!
This week in Yellowstone, we learn of the fate of a woman and her dog that both jumped in a thermal feature, how climate change is impacting the park’s ecosystem and what delays you should expect. We also look at the coming campground and road closures, incoming rain and snow storms, and hear about a great overlook hike along the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone near Artist Point.
Give it a read, a share, and get ready to visit America’s first National Park. If you want to support these weekly park posts, please consider picking up or gifting a guidebook!
This Week in Yellowstone is a weekly post to help everyone get ready for their trip to America’s first National Park. It is a labor of love and one that I hope helps make the next trip you take to Yellowstone even better. I’ll be trying to post this each and every week, as close to the weekend as I can. It should be released on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on my workload with real writing gigs. Tweaks and changes will be occurring over the next few weeks, but the content should generally be the same. You can expect to see news events that occurred in the park, the weather for the coming weekend and week, a highlight of the week and so much more.
As I said, this is a labor of love. If you want to support me, please share this link with others, pick up a guidebook, or send me a tip via Venmo or PayPal. I’ll get those linked up in the future, but if you are interested, just shoot me an email. Anything and everything is appreciated.
I hope you enjoy this week’s post, the first of hopefully many!
Douglas Scott
On Monday, September 27th, Yellowstone National Park officials verified that three wolves that had dazzled the millions of visitors who came to Yellowstone over the last year had been legally killed by hunters outside the park. The kills more than likely occurred in areas of Montana where baiting wolves is not only legal, but accepted practice. The kills also more than likely occurred near the spot where Montana Governor Greg Gianforte illegally killed a wolf earlier in the year.
Olympia doesn’t have a great reputation around the state. From Spokane to Bellingham, and Vancouver to Ocean Shores, the capitol of Washington State is known mostly for politics and a somewhat drab, occasionally unsettling downtown scene. Outsiders might quickly stop by on trips to more exotic locations, but for most, Olympia is skipped over. Even some locals avoid downtown Olympia, but those who decide to pass over this small town at the southern end of the Puget Sound are missing a spectacular annual event. At the end of August and first few weeks of September, the waters around Olympia become full of salmon, migrating home to spawn and die. While this event happens in most cities around the state, Olympia is one of the few that offers a stunning viewing area where you can watch salmon, seals and the tides, all from an overlook above the water.
Happy 105th Birthday, National Park Service. I am so happy for you.
Those words seem weak, lacking my true feelings in a commonly stated platitude. Sure, I could add an exclamation point, but even that comes up short. “Thank you” means nothing, compared to what you have done for me. You have changed my life; you redirected a lost soul with your majestic beauty and endless adventures. You let a dreamer have a place to dream and gave a kid who felt more at home walking alone in the woods a place to rekindle a relationship with his soul. You have taken away stresses and pain and replaced them with tear-jerking panoramas more stunning than any picture can capture. You saved me from a life of regret and pain and mistakes of my 20’s; you let me blaze a new trail for my life, passing through the purest wilderness in existence. You are my soul mate and it might be fucking cheesy to say it, but I don’t care. I owe you my life, National Park Service, and nothing I can do or say will ever repay you for what you mean to me.
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In this brief summer intermission show Mathias shares his travel stress and gear choices for his upcoming trip to the Alps and his 100K race at Ultra Tour Monte Rosa around the mountains of Grächen, Switzerland. Hello Alps, baby!
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Friend of the show Tabatha Collins is back and she brought her trail running partner and fellow mountain slayer Mary Flinders with her. They were the first folks who attempted my epic Cushman Six route in the Staircase region of Olympic National Forest/Park.
And yes, I said attempted. When Tabatha contacted me a few days prior I felt comfortable sending them out into these mountains. These ladies are strong, experienced and know what they were doing. But these mountains aren’t easy, and there’s a lot of backcountry off trail travel.
