Final Spring Break

Spring Break was a nice time to get away from Purdue and escape the everyday business of what happens on campus. Caroline and I took off to Tampa, Florida, to meet up with some friends we made while working at Yellowstone this past summer, Tom and Ann. Ann is a fourth grade teacher in the local community so Caroline and I went into her class on Friday to tell them a little about the “college experience”. We told them about our class schedule and just how valuable our college education is to us. We then enjoyed the next few days canoeing, building sandcastles and doing a little hiking in the Florida area. I must say it was quite different from Yellowstone!

The countdown begins for graduation!

Josh

Summer Coming to a Close

This summer sure has gone by fast! It has been very busy this summer with record-breaking numbers of people coming into Yellowstone. Over 644,000 people visited in June alone, which broke the previous record by 40,000. All 9 hotels and 5 campgrounds have been filling up non-stop and phone calls are still coming in! It has been truly incredible.

Although this summer has been busy with work it has also been busy outside of work. We have been hiking nonstop as well. Caroline and I managed to hike 312 miles. It was well worth every hike. I have attached three of my favorite photos from the summer hikes. The first is me on top of Electric Peak which is on the NW Side of the park, a 20 mile roundtrip mountain climb. The second is me fording our first river in the NE section of the park; the ford was .2 miles into the hike so you ended up being wet at the beginning and the end. The third is a picture of Caroline in front of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone; this is a great picture simply because the background of the picture looks fake as though you are in front of a green screen. But I can tell you it is definitely real and very beautiful!

Yes, this summer is coming to a close very rapidly. On August third I will be back in West Lafayette for R.A. Training which I am very much looking forward to!

See you all soon back on campus!
Josh

For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People

Today went very well, it was our first day on the phones and we had some excellent questions between Caroline and me.

I hope you enjoy these and, yes, to answer any previous questions, these are real! These questions are all questions we have received on the phone.

1. Are there fireworks on the 4th of July in Yellowstone?
2. What time do they turn the geysers off at night?
3. When do elk turn into moose?

Hope you all enjoyed those anyway on to today.

Today after work we went on a hike down to Osprey Falls. We left at 6:00 p.m. and got back at late dusk there was just a little bit of sun light left, about 2 minutes worth. It was 8 miles it was a glorious hike. It starts off with 2.5 miles across some rolling plains and then it just drops! When I say drops I mean drops! Once you are at the bottom you hike along the canyon until you get
soaked about 500 feet away from the falls. We couldn’t even see the falls yet and we were soaked! That’s how much mist was coming off the water. Once we arrived it was soooo impressive. There is so much water. If anyone is coming to Yellowstone this summer please contact me and I would be more than happy to give you a list of good hikes.

Josh
Bears seen to date: 3
Wolves seen to date: 0
Bison and Elk seen to date: 195,982,875,987 (really this is a made up number but it is probably close)

Fun at Yellowstone!

It has been a very fast few days here in Wyoming.

Caroline and I are working for Xanterra Parks and Resorts. They are a concessionaire that run the lodges at some awesome places such as The Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, and Yellowstone. Here Caroline and I are taking phone calls and making reservations for all the lodges within Yellowstone. The first few days have been great!

The second day for work we went on a tour of Lamar valley which is where they first released the wolves back in 1995. We did not see any but we did see a grizzly bear, it was really far away and you needed binoculars. But anyway, we got paid 7.25 an hour from 8:30-4:30 to take a tour it was great!

Today we woke up early and went on a guided tour again to Lamar Valley, this time we saw the pens where they kept the wolves and heard all the history. We then came back and did a quick trip to the visitor center mammoth and watched a video. We then took a nap and went on a hike around mammoth hot springs. It has been very packed as Caroline keeps me on the move with hikes. We have already logged over 20 miles and it is growing fast! Tomorrow we are waking up early at 6:30 and going on an 8 mile hike called Rescue Trail. It should be awesome. Obviously we had today and tomorrow off, but we start work again on Monday and again will work till Friday.

Here are some pictures of some of the hikes.

Josh

Summer Jobs

Being that it is dead week and not much is going on, I felt it fitting to discuss summer jobs. Whether it is a job or an internship, summer is a key time to beef up that resume. Over the past two summers I have worked at Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky Ohio. Here I worked in their sales division making reservations for hotels, indoor water parks, and cottages and cabins. It was a great time as I enjoyed all of the benefits being an employee has to offer, such as getting into the park whenever I wanted to! Miss Lisa West and Jade Wilson made the summer go by very fast as we always had good conversations about the Cleveland Cavs and Lebron James!

This summer however I will be away from the hills and thrills as I travel out west to Yellowstone National Park. Here I will be roughly 2 miles from the East Side Entrance at Pahaska Tepee about an hour away from Cody Wyoming. Here I plan to be a host in their restaurant as well as work the front desk area. This is a much smaller operation as there are roughly only 40 employees, compared to Cedar Point that had over 5000! Don’t worry I will keep everyone posted and provide you all with many pictures as the summer approaches!
I went ahead and posted links to both websites in case any of you are looking for summer plans!
http://www.pahaska.com/
http://www.cedarpoint.com/

-Josh-