Your Yellowstone Guide: Let's Take a Hike
helping you map out your Yellowstone adventure
& encouraging you to navigate life by faith
Hi there! I’m Natalie.
After living and working in Yellowstone, I now return nearly every year as a visitor. Not only do I know the park from the inside, I know what it’s like to navigate the details of getting there from the outside.
If you’re intimidated by planning your Yellowstone adventure, I’m here to help. If you’d like to read about what Yellowstone has taught me about living life by faith, I’m here for that, too.
Let’s go to Yellowstone.
Blog Posts: Tales from the Trail
Yellowstone and the Waiting World
Yellowstone is quiet right now. Its hibernators have denned and many of its birds have flown away. Its roads, except for the one between the North and Northeast Entrance, are empty. The park and its visitors are waiting. They aren’t waiting for the traffic to unsnarl...
There’s No Guarantee of Your Safety in Bear Country
It wasn’t until the third hike of our week in Yellowstone that we found the dreaded bear frequenting area sign planted in the dirt at the trailhead. I sighed. Every time I see this sign I’m not only frustrated that it gives absolutely no useful information, I’m left...
Where to Stay in Yellowstone
Back when I worked in Yellowstone, I enjoyed desk duty at the Old Faithful Visitor’s Center (now the Visitor Education Center). Even back when park visitation was 2.5 million (as opposed to today’s approximately 4 million), the crowd pushing against the counter and...
Earned, not Bestowed
Seeing a three-way split in the trail ahead, I slowed, looking for a clue as to which one was ours. There was nothing—no sign, no discernible difference between the trails, no indication of which path was the one we wanted. Because my husband always knows where he is...
How to Be Prepared: Do Not Run
My youngest daughter was eight when my family and I found ourselves in the path of a bear at close range on the trail. (Read more here.) As kids are prone to do, her response to learning there was a bear heading down the trail in our direction was to make an...
Yellowstone Weather: What You Need to Know
Yellowstone can deliver extreme weather—in any season, without warning, and sometimes on the same day. That is the number one weather reality to keep in mind when packing for a trip to Yellowstone. Here are some others: For every season, prepare for it to be colder...
How to Plan Your Yellowstone Vacation
Planning a trip to Yellowstone? Consider these 10 things to help you plan your Yellowstone vacation. Make a plan--one that includes a plan A, and a plan B, and possibly a plan C. Bison choose their own crosswalks and cross the road slowly. In herds. Wildlife block the...
Don’t Walk Alone: How to Be Prepared
Tyson the Bison That, according to the signs in the Madison Campground bathroom, was the name of the bull hanging around in the campground. The signs prompted campground residents to be aware of his presence so as not to accidentally get too close. Even docile-looking...
How to Prepare for Your Yellowstone Vacation
After a season of working in Yellowstone, a lifetime of return weeklong visits, and years of talking with friends about their upcoming or completed trip to the park, I’ve figured something out: There is a difference between planning a trip and preparing for one. A...
When to Make Reservations for Yellowstone
When I worked the desk at what was then called the Old Faithful Visitor Center, there were two questions I dreaded. First, "Are there any campgrounds with openings?" The second was related. "Are there any hotel rooms available?" While there was never a particularly...
How to Be Prepared: Don’t Leave it Behind
“You’ve got a griz!” The call came from the picnic area below—just seconds after I had discerned that the brown shaggy head and shoulders cresting the hill twenty-five yards to my left was not, in fact, a bison. It was a bear. Wherever it was headed, we were in the...
4 Must-Have Items You Need in Yellowstone
No one really wants to take time from what we want to be doing in Yellowstone to shop for something we didn't think to bring along. To save you that headache, here are a few must-have items you'll want to put on your list of things to pack: Sunscreen Yellowstone’s...
“There is a great deal of good to be learned from what we see every day, if we would but consider it.”
~ Matthew Henry
