The Nation’s First Park

In January 2011, Chris & Jay decided to stay at Yellowstone National Park for three full weeks, allowing enough time for Chris to adequately photograph the plethora of gorgeous features it offered.  She was able to secure a three week reservation in July, at a campground inside the Park, which she thought was ideal since they wouldn’t have to waste fuel driving in and out each day.  With Yellowstone’s reservations made all others, for the summer, were scheduled before and after their time there.  The Camp Hosting commitment at Bryce Canyon ate into the first week of their reservation but they felt that two weeks was probably enough time to see and photograph most of the Park.  It was not to be.

The Park has 310 miles of paved roads in a figure eight formation.  Speed limits range from 25-45 mph and “bear jams“ frequently occur where droves of visitors park anywhere they can find along the narrow, two lane roads to view not only bear but bison, elk, and scores of other wildlife.  They sometimes block the through lanes and slow or stop moving traffic. 

The stopped vehicles were not the only things slowing traffic.  The bison in Yellowstone are as revered as cows in India and frequently amble down the middle of roads or cross individually and in herds – further slowing traffic.  They can even be found resting on the porch of the Park Headquarters building.

This lone bison, still shedding his winter coat,

 lived near the RV Park where Chris and Jay stayed.

Mid-day sun is usually the worst light in which to take stunning photographs.  Since neither Chris or Jay are early risers, they would usually head out in the early afternoon, find a location to photograph and wait for good light.  The size of the Park is overwhelming and Chris found it difficult to decide on where to go since, with few exceptions, she didn’t know what she would find there, in which direction the site might face for the best light and invariably there were many other places to visit along the way on which the mid-afternoon sun was usually illuminating at an unappealing angle.  She’d take snapshots, make a note as to the best time of day to return and move on in hopes of capturing something more appealing. 

Mountains on the east side of Yellowstone Lake.

They decided to take advantage of the poor light to investigate the camp host opportunities of which there were many.  Over the course of two weeks they visited several campgrounds and learned of three vacant camp host positions but could not penetrate the bureaucratic morass to find out what duties the positions entailed, if they were to be filled that season and what type of site and RV hookups would be available at the host sites. 

A cell signal for phone and internet connection was imperative since the campground where they were staying was void of such a basic necessity to their lifestyle.  During their stay, Chris and Jay had to stop at roadside pull offs to make phone calls and check their e-mail while they traveled around the Park.  One camp host-less campground had a killer cell signal but didn’t appear to have any electrical or water hookups and the ground pit covered by a large plastic lid displaying “SEWER” was not the kind of connection they understood.  Another campground had full hookups but absolutely no cell signal.  The third had everything – hookups, cell signal, close to a Park entrance where they could go to a nearby town for gas and other shopping needs – and one of the three camp host couples had left that day due to a family emergency and wouldn’t be returning.  But the Ranger in charge was either too overworked or didn’t care enough to accept friends of another host to fill the position and Chris and Jay were told he wasn’t receptive to people “dropping in” on him.

During the first week, the would be volunteers spent at least three days locating campgrounds, talking to existing camp hosts, about the duties, the hours they worked and who to contact to apply for the position and got absolutely nowhere.  They were stunned and frustrated at the situation.  It seemed that having willing people on site was not incentive enough to spur the staff into taking action.  After hours of their valuable time and gallons of fuel, Chris and Jay finally decided to give up and on their way out of the Park submitted their applications for the 2012 season.

The infamous Yellowstone Falls.

They turned their attention to seeing the Park and, until an afternoon storm rained them out and ruined the light, spent an entire morning photographing the upper and lower Yellowstone Falls from a variety of vantage points.  Another afternoon they headed for Old Faithful and stayed through three, ninety-minute spaced eruptions to capture the geyser’s brief displays in different light.  Chris wanted to duplicate a stunning image she’d seen on a postcard that showed the erupting geyser next to the setting sun shining through the silhouette of a tree.  She found the tree and with camera on tripod, adjusted the position to keep the setting sun in just the right place between the tree’s branches while she patiently waited for Old Faithful to erupt.   The mound before her showed more and more steam activity and she quietly urged it to “blow” sooner rather than later, but the sun dropped below the distant hills and no more than five minutes later, Old Faithful spurted her last show before night’s black veil descended on the area.

The Old Faithful complex with the famous Lodge to the right,
Old Faithful steaming to the left

and the Visitor Center above it. 

The hours sitting in the truck took its toll on their spirits and derrieres and by the second week Chris and Jay  longed for a day hike where they could get into some natural surroundings and truly experience the beauty of the Park from someplace other than a paved overlook.  They decided to start out with a short, flat terrain hike to a natural bridge.  A Ranger had advised them to carry bear spray and have it readily accessible any time one veered away from the popular paved areas.  Chris and Jay considered the fact that several weeks before a man had been killed by a Mama Grizzly protecting her cubs, and discussed how valuable their own lives were.  They decided they were worth more than the $50 canister of bear strength pepper spray and with it strapped to Jay’s chest, set out for the bridge.  But families with small children that frequented the trail kept up such a constant chatter that they wondered why they’d bothered.

The Natural Bridge

The late spring and excessive snows of the previous winter endowed the area with more moisture than usual.  Beautiful Indian Paintbrush and other wildflowers bloomed along the trail but after pausing for more than a minute the hikers became magnets for the monstrous mosquitoes that hungered for their blood.  The hovering masses seemed to be attracted to DEET laced repellant as if it was pheromone spray.  As much as Chris wanted to photograph the beautiful blossoms, neither she nor Jay could tolerate the barrage and only a brisk pace kept the voracious predators at bay.

Spectacular views of distant mountain ranges they’d seen while driving through Dunraven Pass compelled the hikers to take the trek up Mount Washburn, one of the tallest peaks in the Park.  Thirteen hundred eighty-four vertical feet separated the trailhead from the 10,243 foot summit but the trail was wide with a gradual ascent allowing Chris and Jay to keep up a steady pace despite the weight of camera equipment.  The path was fairly heavily travelled with tourists sporting all manner of footwear from flip flops, to sneakers to sturdy hiking boots.  Some stopped and told them of a herd of Bighorn Sheep they’d spied and others spoke of a bear they’d seen the day before giving the bear spray toting couple a warm, fuzzy feeling that they had the deterrent with them.

This female Bighorn Sheep was less than 10 feet from Chris and Jay

 as they hiked up the mountain.

Despite frequent stops for Chris to photograph, they tired at the 10,000 foot mark due to lack of oxygen, but a man-made structure at the top beckoned them forward and they persisted.  The reward was worth it.  The structure contained a large, south-facing room with tall, glass windows on three sides revealing an unobstructed view of the Absaroka Mountain Range in the east, the Tetons to the south and the Gallatin Range to the west.  With the exception of the Tetons, all that was visible was within the fifty-mile wide Yellowstone Park boundaries – a truly remarkable experience.  Chris peered through a large telescope in the corner of the room and laughed when she sighted a bear jam in Hayden Valley, an area they passed through almost daily, and frequently had road blocks due to the number of wildlife gawking visitors.

The goal.  The building at the summit with snow still present in July.

Jay befriended Ben, an American man and two, young, Belgian women, Caroline and Hanna, who were traveling the Park together and had hiked to the top via another trail on the opposite side of the mountain.  Caroline was wearing a short sundress which was completely inappropriate attire to keep her warm during their descent as the sun would set before they reached their vehicle and the whipping winds at the summit further chilled the air.  Chris loaned her a shirt to help warm her and they decided to all hike to Ben’s car and he would drive the shirt donors to their truck at the other trailhead.  Along the way they passed another herd of Bighorn sheep complete with resident male, a marmot who sounded a loud warning chirp and, fortunately, no bears despite Caroline’s desire to see one before she left the Park.

It was an interesting ride back to the truck with five of them piled into a tiny Honda Civic whose trunk was completely packed full of their camping equipment and personal items and a back seat partially filled with more personal items and hiking gear from the day’s outing.  Caroline sat on Hanna’s lap in the back seat with Chris while Ben and Jay commandeered the two in front.  Contact information was exchanged and Chris and Jay chalked up Belgium as another country from which they had met U. S. travelers.

On the way out of the North entrance to the Park the next day, the Montana bound couple stopped at the Park offices and dropped off their volunteer applications for a 2012 camp host position.  They were fortunate to catch the Volunteer Coordinator in the building and had a more positive conversation than previously.  She at least seemed receptive to them dropping off an application.  They left the area ready to move on and explore the next State and possibly find the ideal home or property, complete with snow-capped, mountain view that would draw them away from lands east.

Sir Percival Bryce

The schedules at major points of interest are usually packed with time on the roads and trails and activities from early morning into the night.  Zion National Park was a wonderful playground, that kept Chris and Jay continuously entertained and substantially increased the volume of photos on the computer,  that they stopped at a small town called Hatch, for a few days, before continuing on to Bryce Canyon National Park.


To get there required a short stretch of interstate highway then turning, at Cedar City, onto a winding, two-lane road that ascended a 10,000 foot mountain.  Desert sage gave way to tall pine and the bleached bark of leafless Aspen.  As they neared the summit the harshness of the past winter was evidently displayed by the broken trunks of Pine and Fir.  The heavy winds and snow had bent the supple Aspen trunks into groves of pale arches.

The travelers arrived at an overlook where, far in the distance, they viewed the West Temple of Zion amongst the expansive mountainous terrain of southern Utah.  Amid the other visitors were father and son bikers.  The former sporting a long, gray ponytail and ribbons from his Vietnam service; features that Chris and Jay more or less expected in such a character.  What they didn’t expect was the tiny, but adorable dog attached to the leash he was holding and the equally tiny pet carrier lashed to his bike.  He and his son were cordial and engaged in light conversation and Jay thanked the elder for his service.

The mountain summit was unexpectedly flat with broad, snow-covered meadows, stretching to either side of the road.  They passed the entrance to Cedar Breaks National Monument and wondered what it was.  Thankfully the descent was much more gradual than the ascent and they arrived in the valley town of Hatch in good spirits.

This is what they found during a day trip to Cedar Breaks.

If the remoteness of the location and lack of “attractions” wasn’t enough to keep Chris and Jay holed up in the RV during their three-night stay, the weather certainly did.  The night of their arrival the temperatures dropped, the winds roared and precipitation of all types prevented them from stepping outside for anything other than a trek to the office for mail and to do laundry.

Caught up on e-mails and photo editing, they arrived at Bryce Canyon National Park on a gloriously sunny, blue-sky day and took up residence at Ruby’s RV Park, a mere two miles from the Park gate.

Chris was so excited to be back at Bryce Canyon.  She had been there with her daughter, Jessica, in 2007 when they turned transporting some furniture, from her home in Maryland to Jessica’s in Oregon, into a cross-country trip.  Jessica enjoyed their first day there so much that she insisted on doing the half-day horseback ride into the canyon, which they both thought was spectacular - until the saddle sores set in the next day.

A panoramic view of Bryce Canyon.

The 8,000 foot elevation at Bryce Canyon took some getting used to in more ways than one.  Several inches of snow fell during the freezing nighttime temperatures and although most days were sunny, Chris and Jay had to bundle up against the cool mountain winds.  Minimal exertion caused shortness of breath in the thin air making their first few trail outings much longer and slower with frequent stops to ease the gasps and prevent the need for CPR.

A view of the hoodoos from the canyon floor.

On Sunday, May 24^th, eight days into their two-week stay, Jay received a phone call from Kevin Evans, a Park Ranger.  He explained that one of the camp host couples didn’t show and couldn’t be contacted.  The Park was desperate to fill the position.  He had gotten Chris and Jay’s names from the camp host volunteer applications they had submitted at Zion and wanted to know if they were available until the end of July.  They were his thirty-first call!  Jay was taken aback at the request and shared the information with Chris.  They thought of the reservations already in place and how the commitment would change their summer and said they were interested and would get back to him.  Within minutes, Chris dug out the summer’s schedule and discovered the only deposit they’d paid was for the reservations at Yellowstone and all others needed just a phone call to cancel.  They eagerly accepted.

Within days they’d been issued uniforms, radios and keys and had moved into the Sunset Campground host site.  After two days of training, by their host counterparts, they were on their own and interacting with the hundreds of visitors that frequented the campsites.

The volunteers before the 4^th of July parade.

Chris spent the morning decorating the Polaris ATV they used for campground rounds.

Bryce Canyon National Park has two campgrounds – North and Sunset.  Sunset Campground has about one hundred campsites in three loops; two for tents and one for RVs.  At the campground entrance is a registration kiosk and a service road that leads to a loop containing four full-hookup campsites.  The first was occupied by camp hosts Liz and Gary Seaman and the second by Chris and Jay.  The others housed their new boss, Kevin Evans and his wife, Cheryl, who also worked for the Park.  Bob and Eva Safranek, Visitor Center Volunteers, had taken up residence in the fourth campsite. Via various meetings they attended, to become oriented to the Park’s policies and personnel, they also met one of the North Campground hosts, Chip and Jill Hayes.  Over the weeks to come they all became fast friends, getting together in the evenings for birthday celebrations, happy hours and going away parties.

The camp hosts were advised to keep the radios on during their waking hours, carry them even during their days off and while hiking, to contact a Ranger in case a Park visitor needed assistance.  Unfortunately the real juicy stuff was on the Law Enforcement channel to which they did not have access, but the transmissions became an unending source of entertainment.  There was always an unusual situation which required a call to the Rangers; from overpopulated campsites and loud and even nude campers to canyon rescues, lost pets and, sadly, several deer struck by speeding vehicles.  But, not all radio traffic was “official”.  Chris wanted to share her birthday pies (that’s right, not cake) with the on-duty Rangers.  The word was quickly spread and all three arrived at the appointed time for the evening’s sweets.

The work schedule was a little longer and harder than the new volunteers expected.  Gary and Liz had been there for a month and liked a four day on/four day off schedule.  Chris and Jay enjoyed the four days off but by the end of four fourteen hour days they were a little bit beat.  The schedule required them to be up and dressed by 7 a.m., then make rounds of the campground at 8, and 11 a.m. and 4 and 8 p.m. when they recorded what sites were occupied and with what, i.e. tents or RVs; and the most fun job of all – cleaning fire pits!!  Campers peppered them with questions but most of all compliments on how nice the campground was, how clean the bathrooms were and how grateful they were for the answers to all of their questions – especially the ones about the bears.

A prominently displayed notice on the Registration Kiosk warned of bears and it seems people actually read it – above all the foreigners.  One French woman was particularly concerned and with a French/English dictionary in hand, expressed her fears to Chris who explained that since the Park initiated strict trash disposal and food containment regulations, bears had not been seen in the campgrounds but they had been spotted in remote areas of the Park.  To further allay her fears, Jay offered her $1,000 if she saw a bear.  Thankfully she didn’t.

The most memorable question of the season came from a visitor at North Campground when they asked Chip and Jill “At what elevation do deer become elk?”  Who cares what they answered, the question was priceless!!

An unexpected reward for interacting with the campers was FREE FOOD!!!  Sunset campground had a group site that was reserved every Monday night by Backroads.com a worldwide outdoor tour company.   They filled the site with white vans for transporting the road bicycles, tents and carrying all the meals they prepared for their guests each night.  Any dinner fare that was not consumed was offered to the camp hosts – which they eagerly accepted.  They were treated to scrumptious lasagna, garlic bread, a moist, brownie-like chocolate cake and sometimes salad, in such quantities that it had to be shared amongst their NPS neighbors.

One perk of volunteering at a National Park is the opportunity for various types of training.   Chris and Jay were able to attend a CPR/First Aid refresher course to update their certifications.  A short time later there was a call on the radio for people to assist in a rescue.  A young woman had sprained/broken her ankle while hiking in the canyon and the Rangers needed hands to help carry her out.

Weeks earlier Liz had asked if volunteers could assist with rescues and was told they could not unless they’d had training.  As a result, Chris and Jay never responded to previous calls.  Having just received the First Aid training, Jay decided to ask if they could help, figuring that he’d get turned down if what Liz said was true.  The Ranger in charge said they could use all the hands they could get.  Despite it being a day off, within minutes Chris and Jay were in uniform, supplied with food and water and out the door.

The pace the young Rangers set hiking down the steep switchbacks into the canyon had the volunteers panting and literally jogging to keep up.  By the time they reached the injured visitor her ankle had been splinted and she was ready to be loaded into the litter, a contraption uniquely suited to the task with handles fore, aft and on both sides and a bicycle sized pneumatic tire directly under the middle of it to support most of the weight.  All the handlers had to do was guide and stabilize.

Chris and Jay were apprehensive about matching the pace out of the canyon, but  were relieved to learn that the route out was down – to Tropic a small town nearby.   It was a longer trail but they would go faster and boy did they!  Later Jay said he felt as if his feet were hardly touching the ground!
 

The Rangers held a going away cookout for the camp hosts that were departing and their arriving replacements.  It is customary to give a gift as a token of appreciation for the volunteers’ time and contribution to the Park’s needs.  Chris and Jay were expecting the obligatory NPS coffee mugs, which they got, along with a beautiful hardbound Bryce Canyon coffee table book, but Chris giggled with delight when Jay opened the box to reveal a Prairie Dog stuffed animal.  The Utah Prairie Dog is an endangered species that resides in the Park and one of the meadows where they live is frequented by shutterbug tourists.  The stuffed animals are sold in the Visitor Center to raise funds for their preservation.

Attendees of the going away picnic: L-R Chip Hayes (camp host), Rangers Katheryn Sommer, Peter Christianson, Dan Fagergren, Caleb Janda, & Duane Poslusny; Jill Hayes (camp host), Ranger Tyla Guss and Kemper Toller (camp host).

L-R Ranger, Rayne Rohrbach, Vern & Jo (replacement camp hosts), Liz and Gary Seaman (camp hosts) and Ranger Virginia Thiel.

L-R Kevin Evans, Jay Crouthers and Cheryl Evans.

Each animal comes with a full-color frame-able certificate and owners are encouraged to name their new pet and register it.  Chris looked at the cute little critter sitting on her desk one day and the expression on its face screamed Percy!  She and Jay agreed it needed only a monocle to appear like a stuffy British aristocrat and played around with variations of the name.  They settled on Sir Percival Bryce; Sir Percival having been the Knight of King Arthur’s Roundtable that found the Holy Grail.

Sir Percival Bryce.

The six weeks of camp hosting passed all too quickly but Chris and Jay enjoyed the experience and decided to apply to other National Parks in the months to come.  Sad to leave Bryce, but eagerly anticipating almost two weeks in Yellowstone, they departed the morning of July 14^th to re-provision during a brief stop at Salt Lake City before heading to the nation’s first National Park.