by Ice Dragon

Created on: June 11, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

The best vacation I ever had wasn't technically a vacation, but if you think about it, it really was. It began in late 1997, when I saw an ad in the paper looking for people to work at Yellowstone National Park for the coming summer. Out of sheer curiosity (and frankly, utter boredom at my current job), I called the 1-800 number listed and requested an information packet. I filled it out when it arrived, and sent it back a couple days later. Within a week, I received a call from a recruiter to do an immediate phone interview. A week after that, I got a letter from them in the mail offering me a position as night security at the Lake Yellowstone Hotel. Needless to say, I happily accepted.

Skip ahead several months, and there I was driving out of Seattle on my way to Yellowstone National Park. At our indoctrination, the large group of new employees received a brief history of the park, some info on what we should be wary of, and some general hints that aren't available to John Q. Public. Things like "If a tourist asks you when Old Faithful erupts next, and you're on the other side of the park from it, just tell them that if they leave now they should catch it. That way, if they get there early, you were right. If they're late, they'll blame it on some slow moving RV that was hogging the road, and you'll still be right."

It was late May, but the roads were still fighting with the snow over which one would be dominant. The park was still recovering from the fire of 1988, and sizable areas of forest were still black and scarred. In spite of that, or maybe because of it, wildlife was everywhere. My first day there I saw a couple of brown bears that were fishing in the river, a bison or five, and the very first Yellowstone critter I ever sawa chipmunk just inside the North gate. Wow.

Granted, I worked night security. That just provided me a wonderful time to view the park. At around 7 am, the animals were starting to move around and the tourists were still groggily reaching for their 4th or 5th cup of coffee. I saw so much stuff in those early morning hours, and it was just magical. Almost nowhere else in America can you stand beside your car in the early morning mist, listening to the waking calls of birds, the rush of water. Then, as you stand there, you hear a thudding coming from out of the mists to one side, accompanied by grunting. Looking over, you see a bison trotting down the road, followed by another, then another. You know that if you flee, you'll be run down, so you stand there with the car between you and a couple tons or so of wild critter, looking at each other as the group moves by you not more than six feet away. To say anything would break the spell.

Almost every morning was like this, only differing in what animals were seen. Sometimes it was deer or elk, usually bison. Once in a while there was a bear roaming around. There was a coyote, some wolves that teased tourists by keeping to the wooded edge of a clearing, and a couple porcupines that wandered through a parking lot.

This was also the time and place I met the woman who is now my wife. She was working as Night Maid in the same hotel I was Night Security. We hit it off as friends first, then our feelings grew. We played tourist on several occasions, seeing moose, Old Faithful, touring the Paint Pots.

We've never forgotten our experiences there, and someday hope to return. Either as tourists or workers again.

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