Moominmama's Adventures

  In which Moominmama experiences a bit of the Wyoming Wild West and survives a snowstorm... The drive east from Yellowstone Lake takes one out of the caldera and into the Absaroka mountain range, and it is stunning, especially with the mountain tops still dusted with snow. Sunday night into Monday morning, the first snowstorm hit Yellowstone, and I awoke to a winter wonderland in my RV park. It was beautiful but the snow didn't last -- at least not in the lowlands. But there's still some snow gracing the mountain tops around Yellowstone, including Avalanche Peak in the Absarokas.  Avalanche Peak is one of the highest points in the park and a hike I was considering until I turned my ankle again this past week. It was a stupid mistake. The land around Lake Lodge, where I work, is hilly and uneven, and I took my eye off the ground to greet a colleague, promptly putting my weak ankle in an untenable position and tumbling to the ground with an embarrassing squawk. It was both the ...

Wherein Moominmama explores what it means to live on a volcano and worries about snow... Yellowstone National Park has its own Grand Canyon, but one that was formed differently than the famous Arizona canyon. The Yellowstone canyon walls are surreal: sulphur yellows, pinks, whites and reds created by geothermal fluids. Harder to see in the two dimensions of a photo are the many pinnacles that jut up on the sides, called hoodoos. Created by volcanic action, the canyon provides a path for the Yellowstone River below, adding erosion to the mix. This is reportedly what created the famous Upper and Lower Falls.  The rhyolitic lava and tuff on the canyon walls erode at different rates, with the Upper Falls featuring harder rock. The water carved its path, creating the large Lower Falls from the softer rock. While the park contains many grassy fields, winding creeks and forested vistas, its geothermal origins are hard to escape. The volcanic caldera on which Moominmama lives for the next ...

In which Moominmama arrives at Yellowstone National Park after a last hurrah at Grand Teton National Park... Moominmama applied in July for a part-time job at Yellowstone for September and October -- and got hired! My arrival here on Sept. 9 starts a five-week stint that will be one of my last big adventures out west. The Helping Hands program at Yellowstone places part-time workers in food service and housekeeping, or some mix of the two. For now I am assigned to Lake Lodge, with its tree beams and glorious front porch facing out over Yellowstone Lake. In terms of work, I'm stripping linens and making beds in the cabins near the lodge. I'll do that five mornings a week and have afternoons off plus a two-day "weekend" during the week. There are many regulars here,  mostly retirees, who work here for the privilege of living in the park for part of the summer or fall. There are dormitories, but there is also an employee RV park, where I am staying. This afternoon when I...

In which drought and smoke make it difficult for Moominmama to enjoy the glories of Grand Teton National Park... To avoid crowds, Moominmama parked well outside Grand Teton National Park in the Caribou-Targhee National Forest of eastern Idaho. The Moominhouse is in a lovely campground near the Palisades Reservoir, which advertised, among other things, swimming. Alas, climate change had other plans. The Palisades Reservoir, pictured above, is currently down to 18 percent of its capacity. The sandy area pictured above should be covered in water, but all that remains is a narrow wet stripe just below the smoke-obscured mountains. When full, the reservoir was designed to hold 1.2 million acre-feet of water (a single acre-foot is 326,000 gallons) and provide water and flood control to 650,000 acres of farmland.  In the deeper north end, there is still water for boating. However, the boat ramp had to be extended to reach the water, and boat trailers are now backing up a quarter of a mile...