Yellowstone, The Opening (May)

For the first few weeks I have been working to get things like the water and the electricity turned on to the hotel and surrounding properties. It's a large chore with having to apply air pressure to the water pipes and then listen for breaks in the pipes caused by freezing, and then repairing the pipes. The electric is easier but still takes time to turn on the circuit breakers. I've also been doing lots of drywall repair and painting of things damaged by the snow or leaks.

The park is barely open this early as the only road open was at Mammoth, and even as roads have slowly opened, the amenities such as visitors centers and general stores have remained closed for the season. The lakes are all still frozen as well and snow is everywhere. Thankfully this hasn't stopped many of the animals from emerging, so even though sight seeing has been limited it has still been fun.

One of many Pine Martin that we've had to trap and remove from the hotel after they got a good hideout for the winter.

Mountain Goats, seen on the road to Cody WY.

Lower Falls.

A Frozen Lake Yellowstone.

Norris Geyser Basin

Big Horn Sheep, on the road from Fishing Bridge to the East Entrance.

"Nope, we don't mind you looking."

"Nope, we don't mind if you are in a hurry either."

Buffalo resting in front of the steam from the Mud Volcano.

Fishing Bridge, early in the season.

...and from the other end.

The stores are here but not open yet.



Too much snow, so no hiking or backwoods travel yet. Bears are out, so not a good idea anyway.

Grizzly spotted near the Mud Volcano.

More accurate judge of distance, and we were in the car.

Video of our first bear sighting.

Yellowstone, The Begining (April)

My job in Yellowstone will last for six months, while Mom's will last for a little over 4 months, so she has some free time in the beginning and the end while I will be working. My first week we stayed in Gardiner Montana at a local campground in town that had full hook ups for us RV'ers, and we drove into Yellowstone each day to Mammoth Hot Springs, to do our indoctrination and safety training. On our fist day Mom and I both got our ID cards and our employment paperwork done, even though she would be waiting a few weeks to start her training.

The entrance in Gardiner, near Mammoth, is the original, main entrance to the park and the only one open year round. Unfortunately we didn't get much free time to explore as I was in training when things were open, so that will be an area to explore another time.

If you can zoom in, those are Elk in the background to the left of the sign.

The Original Entrance, Roosevelt Arch.

While I was in training, Mom and the kids took a trip to see some friends that we had been stationed with while in Corpus Christi and in Jacksonville. They went to Buffalo Wyoming and stayed in the Occidental Hotel.


At the end of the week I took the RV and relocated to the Lake Employee RV Park (known as the LERV), and started working at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. The maintenance people here are responsible for the maintenance of the Hotel, the Cabins, the Lodge and it's Cabins, and the campgrounds in the area. It's a big job just to get everything running again after a long winter. Mom and the kids got settled in and started school back up while trying to get into a routine again.

Our site for the next 6 months. Couldn't wait for the snow to go away.

Through Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana

(Posts will be slow as internet is almost non-existent in Yellowstone)

Well we were on our way to Yellowstone for our summer jobs. To catch you up, Mom and I got workamping jobs in Yellowstone National Park. My job needed me to be to Gardiner Montana to start checking in by the morning of April 10th. We had a few things to take care of in Colorado Springs, before we got there, including picking up our car from my parents, so that we would have a second ride for the summer, and to get two new tires for it, and get me some time to work on some loose ball joints. We also had a few items we wanted to put into our storage unit. We also wanted to see a few family members before being gone for the summer.

While there it snowed pretty good and the kids got to build a snow man.

When we left Colorado we stayed in Casper Wyoming and visited the Historic Trails Museum. It's a free and well done museum that explains the trails used by the wagon trails to populate the Western United States, and most all of the trails passed through the Casper area as that was the best place to cross the North Platte River before all of the different trails went their separate ways.


We next stayed the night in Sheridan Wyoming, and then in Bozeman Montana, before heading into Gardiner for checking in and some indoctrination and safety training in Mammoth Hot Springs.