Hi there! I’m so glad you found your way over from the audio version of Waking Up in the Wilderness: A Yellowstone Journey. On this page, you will find the main map in the book’s print version and notes that were not easily incorporated into the text, along with the Resources and Reading and Acknowledgments sections. I hope you enjoyed experiencing Yellowstone, or more of it, through the audiobook.

Map highlighting places from Waking Up in the Wilderness

 

Notes

Chapter 3

1. The 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition, often referred to as the Washburn Expedition, officially explored the area that became Yellowstone in 1872. Washburn’s contribution was commemorated via a mountain that bears his name: Mount Washburn. While a moderately strenuous, six-mile round-trip hike will take you to its summit, the parking lot from the Chittenden Road trailhead also offers a lovely prospect. Truman Everts, another member of the Washburn Expedition, became separated from the group early on and spent more than a month wandering alone in the wilderness before being rescued. He, too, has a mountain named after him: Mount Everts near Mammoth Hot Springs. His story is included in the Resources and Reading List at the end of this book.

2. As close to the main road as Biscuit Basin is, even there the “wild” in Yellowstone’s wilderness has exerted itself. During the summer of 2024, an explosion occurred in the middle of the day near a busy boardwalk in Biscuit Geyser Basin, ejecting steam and debris and destroying a section of the wooden walkway. Apparently, such explosions happen regularly–but usually not in areas of the park frequented by a lot of people. With its roads, parking lots, and places of commerce, it’s easy to forget that Yellowstone is a wild place.

Chapter 4

1. I’ve shared a few stories from this book on the internet—primarily on my website, natalieogbourne.com, and at anthemoftheadventurer.com. This would be one of those stories.

Chapter 10

1. On March 1, 1872, Yellowstone was established by the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act. The phrase on the arch is anchored in a string of legal language that gives the park its purpose, making it a place “reserved and withdrawn from settlement, occupancy, or sale” and providing “for the preservation … of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders.” It’s a big job. Read the full act here. It’s amazingly short!

2. Because the floods of 2022 washed out several stretches of road in the north end of the park, as of this writing, Boiling River is neither accessible by road nor open for swimming or soaking.

Chapter 12

1. Today these shops are the Yellowstone General Stores. Because the Hamilton Stores were known as Ham stores when I first visited the park and for decades before and after, they may remain so forever in my mind.

Chapter 14

1. Because I didn’t realize Elyse was quoting Junie B. Jones (from the Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park) until I read the audiobook and heard the words out loud, just as Junie said them in the many, many audiobooks from that series we listened to on our cross-country trips to Yellowstone, I didn’t know this might need to be attributed. And now it is. Also, here’s some unsolicited advice from those 60,000 Yellowstone miles: If you do a lot of road-tripping with children, find yourself some audiobooks to listen to together as you go.

Chapter 30

1. Yellowstone Association is now a part of Yellowstone Forever, an organization that provides both educational programming for visitors and philanthropic opportunities to support Yellowstone National Park.

Chapter 31

1. Like the Yellowstone Association mentioned earlier, the Yellowstone Institute is also part of Yellowstone Forever.

2. It doesn’t take an earthquake to cause a road collapse. The deluge of 2022 washed out several sections of road between Mammoth Hot Springs and Gardiner, Montana. and three more between the Lamar Valley and the Northeast Entrance. I have a photo of Jaime and me standing on one of those now-missing sections, ready to set off on the trail to Trout Lake. Seeing the aerial footage of that stretch of missing road is a weird sensation, indeed.

Chapter 31

1. Listen to this recording of “Yellowstone,” by Gene Quaw here.

Resources and Reading

During the four decades that Yellowstone has been part of my life, I have read a lot of books and articles, talked to a lot of rangers, and perused a lot of interpretive boards, maps, websites, and trail guides. I know what I know because I’ve picked it up from other people along the way, and what I’ve written here is an outflow of all that accumulated information. In most cases, I don’t know when or where I came across specific details, which makes it hard to give credit where credit is due. What I can do, however, is offer a few resources and favorites from my Yellowstone library. 

If you’re interested in digging a little deeper into some of the specific topics discussed in Waking Up in the Wilderness, consider the following books:

Yellowstone Memoirs and Photography

• Mountain Time: A Yellowstone Memoir by Paul Schullery
• Yellowstone Has Teeth: A memoir of living year-round in the world’s first national park by Marjane Ambler
• Silence & Solitude: Yellowstone’s Winter Wilderness by Tom Murphy (While all his photography books are a visual feast, this one is my absolute favorite.)

Resources, Guides, and Interesting Reading

• Death in Yellowstone: Accidents and Foolhardiness in the First National Park by Lee H. Whittlesey
• The Geysers of Yellowstone by T. Scott Bryan
• The Guide to Yellowstone Waterfalls and Their Discovery by Paul Rubinstein, Lee H. Whittlesey, and Mike Stevens
• Lost in the Yellowstone: Truman Everts’s “Thirty-Seven Days of Peril” by Truman Everts (The audiobook makes for good company on a drive to the park.)
• The Rise of Wolf 8: Witnessing the Triumph of Yellowstone’s Underdog by Rick McIntyre (There are five books in this series. I’m up to book three and each has been a delight, managing to inform while reading like a memoir.)
• Yellowstone On Fire! by the staff of the Billings Gazette
• Yellowstone Place Names by Lee H. Whittlesey
• Yellowstone’s Rebirth by Fire: Rising from the Ashes of the 1988 Wildfires by Karen Wildung Reinhart
• Yellowstone’s Red Summer by Alan and Sandy Carey

Hiking Guides (We consult these every time we plan a visit to the park.)

• Day Hikes of Yellowstone National Park Map Guide: The Comprehensive Guide to Day Hikes in Yellowstone National Park by Jake Bramante
• A Ranger’s Guide to Yellowstone Day Hikes by Robert Anderson and Carol Shively Anderson
• Yellowstone Trails: A Hiking Guide by Mark C. Marshall

Acknowledgements

One does not write a book without collecting a large contingent of encouragers and helpers along the way. To that end, I offer my heartfelt gratitude to:

• Jody Collins, Megan Gerig, the members of the Marion County Writers Workshop, and the gals in the Wednesday morning Mastermind—each of whom have asked questions, provided critique, and given guidance in various stages of this book.
• The Yellowstone National Park archivists, historians, and interpretive rangers who have answered questions over the years.
• Allyson, Angie, Becca, Danielle, Jennifer, Karen, Kathie, Kathy, Linda, and Mom. Your faithful support means so much.
• Rachel, Pamela, Julie, Deb, Libby, and Jenn, each of whom weekly speak into my life—and this project—with encouragement, kindness, creativity, wisdom, and love.
• Earl, Ellie, and Danielle, who encouraged and supported this work from the beginning. Ellie, you were the one who prompted me to start writing this book. Earl, you gave an outdoorsman’s perspective and prodded me to get this book out there. Danielle, you’ve always believed that Yellowstone and this project matter. This book wouldn’t be what it is without any of you.
• Lois Flowers, my editor. Thank you for opening the door to friendship by asking to meet in real life, for believing in the value of this Yellowstone project, and for helping me shape my words.
• Uncle Brian. I think you nudged me (gently!) in every way you could think of to get this book published.
• Pat and Karen. Parts of this book were written in the still part of the morning at your place. Thanks for asking the hard questions that helped me figure out what I already knew.
• Mom and Dad, the adventurous stock from which I came. Thank you for heading to workshops and conferences with me and for reading and rereading various drafts of this book. More than that, thank you for driving Matt and me across the country to start us on our own wilderness stories.
• Mason, Elyse, and Emma. You’ve been great travel companions from the start. Seeing the world through your eyes and watching you experience it with your bent toward enjoying it has challenged me to do the same. Julie and Dion, I appreciate so many things about each of you—not the least of which is your spirit of adventure. We haven’t been to Yellowstone together yet, but I hope we get to go—sooner rather than later.
• Jaime. Who knew when we made that first cross-country drive to Yellowstone all those years ago that it would become your place as much as mine and what a through-line it would be in our life’s story? Thank you for always believing this book mattered and investing your time and energy in heading into the wilderness with me and the kids. Thanks for van camping and every cup of Madison-brew coffee you’ve made in the below-freezing temperatures of a mountain morning. There’s no one I’d rather wake up in the wilderness with than you.
• You. Thank you for taking the time to head into Yellowstone’s wilderness with me by reading this book. Life just isn’t the same without travel companions. 

take heart & happy trails ~ Natalie