Leaving Yellowstone

    Our hearts are full as we leave Yellowstone National Park. When I think of Yellowstone I will remember abundance.

Watching the bears playing

 An abundance of beauty - meadows covered in flowers of every color, a variety of animals roaming the hillsides and valleys, mountain vistas, meandering rivers, flowing waterfalls, scenic lakes, beautiful sunsets, amazing geysers, and colorful hot springs. Every turn of the road and trail revealed beauty everywhere you looked.

 View of the Yellowstone River 

Mammoth Hot Springs

Yellowstone Lake

 An abundance of friendship and love - sharing all of this with my husband, and all the friends we made along the way. From the Old Faithful lower store to Tower General store, we will remember all the great people we met and go to know through our work. Especially the many international students that we spent time with at work and at play. These young people are so brave to come so far, some by themselves, for a summer job. The "kids" brought fun and energy to our summer. To all we say thanks for sharing Yellowstone with us. We feel like you are part of our extended family.

An abundance of walking - we hiked over 215 miles of trails in the park this summer, on about 40 different trails. Through our employer's "hike-a-thon" program, we earned water bottles, hiking poles and backpacks. We plan to use these things on many future hikes. We also joined the park wide employee hiking cub and earned our 100 mile t-shirts.

Coyote seen on a hike to Lost Lake

So many bison

There was such an abundance of animals, birds, insects, rocks and plants, all these beautiful things. We identified about 60 types of wildflowers, plus all the ones I couldn't identify (especially all the yellow ones!!)



Our camper gave us an abundance of comfort and a place to call home. It is spacious enough to have company and has enough storage for everything we needed this summer. We are truly fortunate to be able to enjoy this new lifestyle together.

This was the view right behind our camper one evening

Food, yes we even had an abundance of good food in the employee dining hall. We enjoyed having eggs and bacon or sausage each morning along with fresh berries, muffins and sweet breads. We mostly enjoyed not planning, shopping, cooking and cleaning up meals. Oh and dessert!!!! Ice cream and the best cakes!  We were definitely spoiled in many ways this summer!

Tower Fall

Cashiering was mostly a lot of fun. We enjoyed sharing park and trail info and our love of the park with the guests that came to the store. We also enjoyed hearing their stories and seeing their excitement of being in the park.

Our first "retirement" job was all that we expected and more, and we are looking forward to many more adventures!

Goodbye Yellowstone! The Ends.

P.S. Our next adventure has us staying in the Zion National Park area for longer than expected. We now hope to spend the next month working and exploring another amazing part of our great country!