 |
Hi. I’m Ben Benton from Flagstaff, Arizona. I believe that you will enjoy my daily journal from Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 1999. I left downtown Flagstaff with my saddle and duffel in early July and lighted in the horse corral at Mammoth Hot Springs. My journal will continue through September 20th, unless the weather shuts us down earlier. You’ll read about adventures on the back country trails, Yellowstone history, people I meet, and anything else I can think of to write about. I’m the author of “National Park Employment Data,” a guide to working in national parks, which is available for purchase on my web site at www.gorp.com. I’ve been working in national parks and ski areas off and on for over twenty years. Because I want the data in my book to always be fresh, I continually test the concepts, employers, and tips that I provide. Right now, I’m working for Amfac Parks and Resorts. They are a top notch concession company because they place employee training, morale, and amenities first. |
 |
|
Previous |
Friday, 7-23-99When I signed on last Friday, I was sent to a little on-site personnel office in the Mammoth Hot Springs employee housing where I was assigned room 607 in Aspen Dorm. They said Aspen is like an “honor dorm” because it is actually a motel in the winter. It looks just like a Super 8 both inside and out. John Bertran had been assigned room 607 just the day before me. John is from Huntington, West Virginia, and heard about Yellowstone jobs in his local newspaper. Amfac was advertising in West Virginia because a higher than average unemployment rate. Mid-season parks employment recruitment is tough because the need is immediate and the nation’s economy is booming. John is about 55 and every day is a new adventure. One day he’s hiking, running or mountain biking; the next he’s discovering the research library in the basement of the Visitor Center across the street. Q. John, why did you decide to come to Yellowstone? A. “Adventure. Because it is there. I was looking for a break in my routine, or a working vacation. Never been West and it seemed like a great opportunity to get paid to do it.” Q. What do you do in Huntington, WV? A. “I have a bar. I have a young lady who is managing it. She’s worked for me for 12 years and is very capable of taking care of it.” Q. Even though you’ve never been West, did you take vacations before? A. “I was in the demolition business for 18 years and traveled all over the east coast.” Q. How did you happen to get into the bar business? A. “The company I was working for went out of business. A friend of mine knew about a bar for sale so I decided to try not traveling for a while.” Q. Did you have any bar or restaurant background before that? A. “No.” Q. So, what do you think of your choice to drop everything and do this? A. “Wonderful choice. Just feels great. I’m enjoying myself immensely.” Q. Any final thoughts for the folks out there in Yellowstone Journal land? A. “If anybody has any aspirations to do anything like this, this is the neatest thing I’ve ever done. I don’t know how you could beat this.” ***** I know I’ve written a lot about the elk who hang out on the lawn outside my dorm, but today really takes the cake, so bear with me for one more elk story. This morning at 5:30 I went to the hotel lobby to upload my journal. There was a light rain and elk were bugling in the distance. During lunch I came back to the dorm for a minute and there were hundreds of elk lounging on the lawn. The best comparison at this point is a college football field. The dorm lawn is manicured, sprinklered, and covers about the area of a football field. I would estimate several hundred elk were in family groups, groups of three to ten, and mostly kneeling. Some were lying, but that was rare. None were standing. The only things missing were beach towels and six-pack coolers. I’m not making this up. You could have imagined a bunch of fans waiting for a concert to start. There’s about 37,000 elk in Yellowstone. Throw in a few moose and bighorn sheep, and that’s almost the population of Flagstaff, Arizona. The northwest corner of the park, where Mammoth is, has the least rainfall — about 10 inches per year. The southeastern corner has the most, up to 60 inches. Down there the mosquitoes are the size of hummingbirds. In spite of the brief rain this morning, it’s been dry for several days. The elk probably got tired of the dryness out there and decided to come in to Mammoth and hang out on the moist grass. Maybe they’re the same ones that migrate to the elk refuge in Jackson Hole every winter and get fed hay. That’s a federal welfare program that started years ago when elk were dying because they couldn’t migrate past the town of Jackson and into Idaho for the winter. The park service talks about keeping the balance of nature in the park but, believe me, the balance is about as natural as Disneyland. |
|
|