Your Yellowstone Guide
√ helping you map out your YNP adventure
√ sharing life lessons from the trail
√ releasing soon: a Yellowstone memoir
You’re in the right place.
- Are you an armchair traveler who would enjoy trekking across Yellowstone through the pages of a book?
- Are you planning a visit to Yellowstone?
- Are you overwhlemed by everything you don’t know and some of what you do?
- Do you need answers for your questions?
- Do you need a guide to help you map out your adventure?
- Do you need a little hope for navigating everyday life by faith?
If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you’re in the right place.
I’m Natalie. I’m here to help and offer hope. And I’m glad you’re here.
Let’s go to Yellowstone.
Recent Posts
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...
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....
How to be Prepared: Make Noise
“It’s time to turn around,” my husband said. Relieved, I pivoted on the spot. J and I were in Yellowstone’s Bechler Region, a remote area with no roads, plenty of waterfalls, and its share of bears. It took the morning just to drive there. After spending the rest of...
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...
How to Be Prepared: Be Alert
Crossing the gravel parking lot, Dad and I turned toward the Gardner River. Worn by wildlife and fly fishermen, the narrow path that paralleled it wasn’t an official trail. We knew it only because of the hours three generations of our family had collected here at...
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...
“There is a great deal of good to be learned from what we see every day, if we would but consider it.”
~ Matthew Henry
