Gettin into it

5/21/24 - 5/26/24

Oliver-

Opal is working the dinner shift tonight which goes until 10:30 and I got off at 6:00 so I decided to give my first stab at fishing. The section I chose to target was the Little Firehole River which leads into the main Firehole about three miles north of Old Faithful. The river winds through a meadow with a few sections going through groves of pines. On both sides of the meadow are hills that make it feel like you are in a little valley. When I got out of the car and peeked over the hill, I could see a handful of Bison peacefully grazing on both banks of the river. I worked my way a quarter mile up the river with no luck until a couple Bison blocked me from going any further. On my way back down though I caught three Brook trout which felt good for an on a whim trip after work. At times when I was fishing the Bison on the opposite bank of the river were so close you could hear them breathing. I released all the fish but did take home a little Bison fur that I found stuck to a pinecone with the idea to use it when tying flies.

Opal-

Some things Oliver forgot to mention. First, a few nights ago we got about three inches of snow. It melted by the end of the day but that morning if you had told me, it was the middle of February, I would have believed you. Second, we had our first bear sighting the other night on a drive around the Old Faithful area. It was a grizzly and pretty far away. There were a lot of stopped cars and at first, I thought it was because of bison nearby. Then Oliver noticed people looking off in another direction and there was the bear.

Today was my first day off work. I drove to West Yellowstone and got us a backpacking permit for tomorrow night. More on that to come. It was a beautiful drive following the Madison River with the peaks of mountains just visible on the horizon. After getting the permit I headed to a market to pick up some food, and then started my drive back. After about ten minutes of driving traffic came to a standstill. Two hours later I discovered the source of the clog, a single bison by the road everyone was stopping to take pictures of. The rest of the drive was easy, but it gave me a little peek into what summer will be like with all its visitors. For the rest of the day, I took my lunch, a book, and some art supplies down behind the cabins to the Firehole River and sat in the sun taking it all in. I am a hostess at the Inn, the oldest building here, and it's quite gorgeous. My coworkers are fun, and the guests aren’t too annoying yet. My only complaint is that I am not working very much right now, I have been reassured though that after this week I won’t need to worry about that at all. For now, we seem to be settling in well.