Yellowstone Journal

	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/nped/. 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 Journals 7/16 7/17 7/18 7/19 7/20 7/21 7/22 7/23 7/24 7/25 7/26 7/27	Wednesday, 7-28-99 Tomorrow morning I’m going to Canyon Lodge for CPR training. I’m studying up on The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River and will tell you what I find out. Many years ago I hiked into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone on the Seven Mile Hole Trail. It has lots of thermal activity all the way down, which is about 800 to 1,000 feet. I fished when I got to the river and camped overnight. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is just a fraction of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, but mighty spectacular just the same. The GC Yellowstone is 20 miles long while the GC Colorado is 240 miles long. The GC Yellowstone is 800 to 1,200 feet deep while the GC Colorado is about 5,200 feet deep. There’s two falls in the Canyon Junction area and I’ll post a picture of the lower falls tomorrow. ***** Remember the story about the 200+ elk lounging on the lawn of my dorm? Since they stayed all day, there were 200+ piles of elk droppings on the lawn. Well a day or so after they left, I noticed that the elk droppings were gone. You guessed it. There’s a crew in trucks with pooper scoopers that go around and scoop it all up. That’s their job.
	Copyright ©1999 Ben Benton -- All Rights Reserved Ben Benton 124 North San Francisco Street, Suite 100 Flagstaff, Arizona 86001-5250 (520) 779-5300 Facsimile (520) 213-8425 e-mail [email protected]