Yellowstone National Park

Recent Posts

A modest proposal for fixing tourists’ stupidity

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Stocks

A few weeks ago, I wrote a column more or less defending tourists unwise enough to think their trip to Yellowstone National Park should include a close encounter with a bison. I’m going to have to reconsider my stance after reading about the father-and-son team who put a bison calf in their SUV and took it to a ranger station, worried that the creature was freezing to death. What’s next? Will tourists net fish to save them from drowning? Maybe capture a pelican and put it in a cage so it doesn’t get hurt falling from the sky? Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, bison, Yellowstone National Park

Crowds at park’s East Entrance portend busy year

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Monk

CODY, WYO. — For the past decade, at 8 a.m. on the first Friday in May, Yellowstone National Park ranger Dennis Lenzendorf has pulled aside a locked barricade to open the park’s East Entrance to the season’s first visitors. But this year was a little different. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Canyon Visitor Center, Dennis Lenzendorf, Hayden Valley, Lamar Valley, National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park

Prairie Lights: Sympathy for the bison-loving tourists

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Bison

I feel doubly bad about the viral video in which the young woman attempts to pet a bison in Yellowstone National Park. For one thing, thousands, perhaps millions, of people will watch it and think, “I knew that business about the bison being dangerous was bullshit. The animal couldn’t have cared less.” (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Prairie Lights, bison, St. Francis of Assisi, Yellowstone National Park

Otter Creek: An important victory for an important place

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Overlook

By now the demise of the Otter Creek mine is old news. I thought I should write something about it but I didn’t. Talking to a good friend a couple of weeks later, I told him that it felt weird to write, photograph, organize and spend a significant amount of my life and emotional energy on something and then let the end of it pass without a note or retrospective. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Opinion, Arch Coal, Emigrant Creek, Livingston Enterprise, Otter Creek, Tongue River Railroad, Yellowstone National Park

Photographer gets down and dirty with bison gleaners

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Bison

There was a good story in the Billings Gazette last month about the Buffalo Bridge Project, which involves a group of people who scavenge whatever is left of bison that are killed just outside Yellowstone National Park. The photos were good, too, but for whatever reason there were no pictures of the dirty work—the blood, gore and viscera that accompany this odd, primitive endeavor. Matt Hamon to the rescue. He is a photographer based in Potomac, Mont., who spent a lot of time with the “gleaners,” as he calls them, and he has posted a batch of compelling, in-your-face photographs of what is involved in using all parts of a dead bison. What is more intriguing is that this series of photographs is only the start. Continue Reading →

Filed under: Last Best Blog, bison, Buffalo Bridge Project, Matt Hamon, Yellowstone National Park

No surprise: Government says bison selfies a bad idea

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Yards

CODY, WYO. — People visiting Yellowstone National Park this summer should follow some simple advice to avoid being injured by wildlife: keep your distance, and no bison selfies. That’s the conclusion of a report issued this week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that examined five separate incidents leading to injuries caused by bison in the park last summer. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: News, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ruffin Prevost, Yellowstone National Park, YellowstoneGate.com

Author says park’s smaller mammals need attention, too

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Marmot

CODY, WYO. — Grizzly bears, gray wolves and bison top the list of animals that literally stop traffic across Yellowstone National Park all summer long. But if one Wyoming researcher had his way, park visitors would be snapping a lot more photos of fringe-tailed bats and golden-mantled ground squirrels. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, mammals, Steven Buskirk, University of Wyoming, Yellowstone National Park

In Montana, leading the charge in rethinking ‘vacation’

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Lake

The Onion, the spoof online news outlet, recently ran a hilarious headline that read: “Health Experts Recommend Standing Up At Desk, Leaving Office, Never Coming Back”

The reason it’s funny is that it includes a dark strain of truth. Nearly 60 percent of workers consider themselves “disengaged” from their jobs. In fact, I bet many of you might be reading this at a desk where you wish you were doing something else. (more…) Continue Reading →

Filed under: Diversions, Glacier National Park, Justin Bigart, The Onion, Wisetail, Yellowstone National Park