Moominmama's Adventures: Yellowstone Redux

 

Wherein Moominmama returns to Yellowstone National Park to work for five weeks and makes new friends...

Moominmama spent five weeks working in Yellowstone National Park two years ago when COVID precautions dominated the experience. I wasn't going to write about the park again this year but the experience was so different this time that it seemed worth sharing in at least one post.

For starters, the Moominhouse and I were in an entirely different RV park, near Old Faithful. That meant I was living amongst geothermal features (Grand Geyser above) for all five weeks, and seeing steam coming from the ground wasn't quite so unnerving after a while.

I had an opportunity to do some new hikes, and hang out in the Old Faithful Inn with some new friends. That's thanks largely to my new friend Janice, who during our orientation collected all our phone numbers and got us on a group text, setting up wine dates and hiking trips with one another.

We often met after work in the evenings on the balcony inside Old Faithful Inn, overlooking this magnificent stone fireplace. Janice showed up with bottle of wine and got us all talking.

Other fun events included a couple evenings at the Yellowstone staff pub, which had been closed two years before. We had a pizza party there for Janice's birthday, and three of us sat (or danced) through a loud karaoke night. As the only one of the group not staying in the dorms, I was also able to invite folks over for campfires outside my trailer. Here are Janice, left, Cindy and Linda.

We also paired or trio'd on hikes on our days off.  To Morning Glory above, to Fairy Falls and Imperial Geyser, and out to Shoshone Lake, where I went in for a brief swim that gave me a reputation for being a bit crazy!

We were all at the park for the Helping Hands program, which  gives us the opportunity to live in the park for five or six weeks during either the spring or fall shoulder season. In exchange, we agree to work at least 20 hours per week. Several of us were returning workers.

Two years ago, I was making beds for guests, and this year, I was assigned to work in the employee dining room at Snow Lodge. This involved a mix of serving, cleaning and mostly food prep. I've never chopped so many onions in my life!

But the entire experience was far more social than when I was just working through a list of rooms solo, stripping and making beds then going on hikes on my own on my days off. I did do some solo hiking this time, including up Signal Mountain, in the northern part of Grand Teton National Park, which abuts Yellowstone.

You can see the magnificent Tetons in the background. The park is surprisingly different from Yellowstone despite the proximity, with plentiful sagebrush, a scent I've come to love, especially after it rains. 

Part of my growing comfort with Yellowstone's strange geothermals, besides the fact that I haven't plunged through the earth's crust into one yet, is seeing the beauty of the cyanobacteria they contain. 

Different bacteria can form intricate mats along the steaming ground and create pools of bright color depending on the temperature and chemistry of the water. It's a lesson in the persistence of life. 

Global warming has and may continue to bring about the end of multiple species, potentially even the human species. But these bacteria are likely to thrive. And the knowledge that this beauty will survive the worst we can do, offers a strange comfort to me now. It helps that many of the pools, despite their heat, reflect back that cold, pure blue that I associate with the melting glaciers. Not all is lost!