Well we are about midway through our contracts with Xantera for our summer in Yellowstone. Our typical work week begins on Wednesdays with Me working maintenance on an evening shift from 1:30pm till 11, as the "On Call" night guy, and Mom working a late shift from 5pm till about 10:30. Mom did so good in her training classes by picking up the program and helping teach her colleagues how to do it (some of who had been there years before), that she was made a Senior Guest Service Agent. It made her in charge of her shifts for things like reports and verifying that the sites that are occupied in her campground match what is in the reports (came with a raise too 😉).
On Thursday our shift times change to 7:30am till 5pm for me and carry this way thru Saturday, and her shift times change to 2:30pm till 10:30pm for both Thursday and Friday and then she changes to 6:30am till 2:30pm for Saturday and Sunday. My Sunday is a half day from 7:30 till 11:30.
Typically we try to do something fun Sunday afternoon and Mondays depending on the weather or if we have chores or projects around the RV that need to get done.
Tuesdays are our Cody WY. day. As you know if you have been reading along, our kids are in the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) and there is a squadron in Cody that meets on Tuesdays, so we come to Cody about every Tuesday and do some sight seeing in the area or museums, do our grocery and other shopping, or go to the library to check out books or DVD's and use their fast WiFi.
We have been seeing lots of sights so here are the pictures (not necessarily in order).
Yellowstone river early in the season.
Inside of Old Faithful Inn.
Black Bear butt on the hillside.
Porcupine seen at night on way back from Cody.
Elk are all over the place.
Pine Martin are hiding in the hotel, this is in our wood shop.
Yellowstone Lake from near Mom's campground.
Zoomed in on Gull Point, but the water level is very high so it is mostly under water.
Caught the one in our shop.
Buffalo on the side of the road, the babies are called Red Dogs for their lighter color.
Mammoth hot springs. The orange area is actively spewing water.
The water route changes direction several times a year as the pools grow and as the actual underground spring changes the location as to where it emerges.
Mammoth terraces.
Little layers of tavertine sediment in the hot springs
See the deposits on the tree branches in the water?
another view
Yes that is water in those pools.
And these as it flows down the hill.
The famous ground squirrels near the parade grounds at Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth.
Son driving the boat we rented from Bridge Bay Marina.
Daughters turn.
Kids doing a Rifle Demonstration for their new CAP squadron. See bottom of page for the YouTube Video.
My Cadets teaching the Honor Guard way to fold a flag.
Marmot posing by the road.
Yellowstone Lake from a lookout butte.
View from one of our fishing spots.
Son caught a Cutthroat Trout.
Fun to catch but protected so got to let him go.
Road to Cody and dog getting some ice cream.
Fourth of July parade at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel.
Love these old busses.
The Maintenance departments entry.
I helped build the float.
Barely seen is he is waving a plunger.
Buffalo roaming behind the Bridge Bay Campground office (where mom works).
Views from top of Elephant Back Mountain, Hotel in upper center in front of the lake.
The Lake Lodge area.
The Employee RV Park area (where we are camped).
The Bridge Bay area.
A Roiling pool near the mud volcano (roiling means it is bubbling because of steam vents, but not boiling) the temp of this water was 140F
Daughter viewing another roiling lake.
Dragons Mouth (shoots steam and water out of the cave).
Yellowstone River near the falls.
Tower Falls (named for the rock formations).
Moose by side of the road
a little closer.
Lake Lodge as seen from the lake.
Lake General Store.
Hotel from the front (where I work primarily).
Fourth of July parade in Cody.
Several Bands.
And Lots of horse groups.
Lots of old cars too.
A clogging group.
Daughter carrying banner on the right (in glasses).
Son on the Left.
That's a Gatling Gun shooting blanks.
Just loved this.
Another Moose
A Coyote.
Black bear cubs in a tree.
and the original size picture.
The Mamma Bear who had just chased off a male bear that was after the cubs.
Kids doing a rifle drill performance for their new squadron in Cody.
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.
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.
(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.
