Lessons from Yellowstone (+ Yellowstone Guides)
5 Kid-Friendly Yellowstone Hikes
We started taking our kids out on Yellowstone's trails when they were tiny, as in four, eight, and fifteen months tiny. They went from being carried to toddling to running ahead and we went from being the pack animals who carried them to trying to keep up. These...
What is the Wilderness?
“Where do the rangers keep the animals at night?” Standing across the camera counter from the man who asked that question, I almost laughed. Surely he was joking. But I looked at him and saw he was serious. This guy has to be at least thirty. I thought. How could he...
Yellowstone’s Explosion & the Landscape of Everyday Life
This summer one of Yellowstone’s thermal features had a moment. Headlines featuring the word explosion will do that. At the end of July, Black Diamond Pool in Biscuit Basin didn’t just erupt. It exploded. Something happened in the unstable ground below it or maybe...
When is the Best Time to Go to Yellowstone?
When is the best time to go to Yellowstone? I get this question a lot. Here’s the simple answer: Whenever works best for you. While simple is good, you may want something a little more, shall we say, helpful. Here it is: There is no bad time, no wrong time to go to...
Yellowstone in Spring | What to Expect
It took just one trip to Yellowstone for my husband to discover that my beliefs about its weather are--in a word--delusional. It began the night before our first vacation. The next morning, as soon as he finished his last exam of his senior year, we aimed to head...
How to Plan a Winter Trip to Yellowstone
Yellowstone in winter is an adventure in comparatives. It’s more majestic and less crowded than in other seasons. It’s more difficult to get around. (Even the animals take the road.) It’s also more difficult to do simple and necessary tasks. (Consider a visit to an...
One Surprising Reason to Visit Yellowstone
Leaning against the stone stairway of the historic Fort Yellowstone building, I watched the autumn scene unfold. A massive bull elk stood sentry over his painstakingly collected harem. His occasional bugles rang through the settlement—reminding the cows that he was a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Gifts and Graces | Spring 2023
When it comes to navigating the landscape of life, I find it dishearteningly easy to drift toward reacting in fear or finding my way by feel rather than walking by faith. Maybe you know what that’s like. One practice that helps me stay on course is to pay attention....
Hiking with Kids in Yellowstone
We started hiking with our kids in Yellowstone while they were still babies. Because of that, we've embraced some mindsets and strategies to foster a pleasant hiking experience for everyone. We want them to be happy, safe, and motivated to keep going. (And we...
Picnicking in Yellowstone: What You Need to Know
“He’s a good big brother, helping his little sisters like that,” said an older woman as she walked past us on her way to her picnic table. “Thanks,” my husband and I mumbled together, remembering. Our kids were playing quite happily together along the shore...
Gathering Winter’s Saving Graces
For Yellowstone's bison, it's the end of this season that's most dangerous. They've spent the winter foraging for frozen foliage by swinging their heads back and forth through the snow like a bucket on an excavator. After a long winter of burning their reserves...
Where to Hike in Yellowstone: 5 Short Hikes
By temperament, I am hard-pressed to choose a favorite anything. Ask for my favorite food, color, or book and I’ll give you two. Or maybe three. Sometimes more. So here are not one, two, even three favorite short hikes in Yellowstone. Here are my favorite five,...
How to Guard Your Heart
A long, long time ago—forty years last month—my parents took my little brother and me to Yellowstone. If you’ve read around here long, you know my life has never been the same. (Thank you, Mom and Dad.) One of the sights I most remember from that first visit is...
How We Prepare Him Room
Zipping my jacket to my chin, I picked up speed in hopes of generating more body heat. Before long it would be warm—possibly even hot—but that would be later. For now, the October sun hadn’t been up long enough to chase away the overnight chill. Earlier, when the...
Where to Picnic in Yellowstone: Our 5 Favorites
Because I promote picnicking as the best way to deal with the inevitable and recurring need for food, here are some YNP picnicking realities and a few of our favorite picnic areas. (Note: Each is near water—either beside a river or above Yellowstone Lake.) Our 5...
Navigating by Faith When We’re Disoriented by Life
At the switchback, I paused for a breath and surveyed the landscape. Interested as I was in the spruce and fir trees dotting Lamar Valley’s faded grass, what I really wanted was to see how far my husband and I had come so I could figure out know how much further I had...
Our Seasons Aren’t As Simple as They Seem
Summer’s green is wearing thin. Before long, it will give way to the colors of autumn. Between the arrival of unrelenting heat and a steady green march across the lawn, some years it seems we go straight from winter to summer without stopping for spring. This doesn’t...
Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure. Proverbs 4:26
