DOES SIZE REALLY MATTER?

Does size really matter? Frankly, it doesn’t matter much to me, whether you are talking about apples or rental cars or…well…you know, but it does if you are visiting or living in Yellowstone National Park!

Everything about the place is on a grander scale than most all other Parks in the lower 48. Covering over 2.2 MILLION acres, Yellowstone is right up there as one of the largest Parks in the lower 48 states, larger than Delaware and Rhode Island put together! If you started at the North Entrance in Montana and drove straight through to the South Entrance in Wyoming, you’d be driving nearly 100 miles.

Nearly 3.5 million people visited Yellowstone in 2012. Those visitors found out about Yellowstone in one of its four Visitor Centers and got everything from fishing permits to groceries to gas in one of its nine ‘Service Areas’.  (A Service Area is like a little village.) Yellowstone is so big it has its own zip code and five post offices.

Yellowstone offers eight different lodging facilities, including the historic Old Faithful Lodge with over 325 rooms.  Visitors can camp in one of over 2100 campsites in 12 campgrounds throughout the Park. Even with all these rooms and campsites, believe me, I’ve tried to get last-minute summer reservations before and it’s not easy!

The situation with backpackers is really not too different.  Backpackers, like me, have a choice of over 1,100 miles of trails to pick from.  To put that into perspective, the entire shoreline of the West Coast of the US is just under 1,300 miles. That’s a whole lot of trail! The Backcountry Trip Planner lists over eight different areas (usually a thermal or geographical area like a mountain or lake or river) and these do not include the many very remote campsites around lakes like Shoshone or Yellowstone accessible by kayak or canoe. Even with all these trails and backcountry campsites, the Planner suggests you get your permit early because nearly every one of even the remote Shoshone Lake campsites is ‘occupied almost every night of the summer’. Yellowstone in the summer is one huge but well-occupied National Park!

I’m sure Xanterra, my employer, is going to require me to work the 8-5 job for which I am contracted.  BUT, the days are very long in the North and my weekends are free! I intend to be one of those many summer tourists hiking a trail, backpacking to a remote camp or kayaking its rivers. But trying to figure out where to start my hiking and backpacking adventures in Yellowstone by looking at the Backcountry Trip Planner frankly gave me a headache. 

So I picked up the handsome Falcon Guide Hiking Yellowstone National Park.  It is actually organized a little differently, by area AND length of hike. As a hiking guide it also provides short trail descriptions. Hurray, more detail! Unfortunately, I got stuck on the Introduction: Bears, Bison, Bugs and More which lets you know all the wonders and the dangers of hiking in YNP.

For example, did you know that the best advice when encountering a bear is to ‘stay calm and back away slowly’? Are you kidding? And both the Trip Planner and the book suggest you carry bear pepper spray, a capsicum-laced spray that temporarily disables the bear’s vision. According to the Planner, the spray can be quite helpful but you should leave the area as quickly as possible because when the bear’s vision returns, it is going to be one pissed-off bear!

The downside of the spray (well, except for the part about being temporary)?  To maximize its effectiveness, you need to wait until the bear is within 10 feet(!) of you! Yeah. Gonna remember to do that as Mom Grizzly is barreling down on me.  And, of course, you have to spray directly into the bear’s eyes. Which, of course, you are guessing at because you remember the Planner advises you not to look directly into the bear’s eyes.

I’m pretty sure I need to go to a bear spray practice range. You know, kind of like a shooting range. I think I need a little practice standing calmly (or slowly easing backward) and NOT looking the grizzly in the eye while getting my bear spray out of the holster hooked to my belt (if I'm wearing one) as I watch the bear get up a head of steam toward me! And leprechauns live in my laundry.

Bears are, however, not going to deter me from my hikes or backpacks. I AM going to take the other really good advice from every hiking or trail book I have ever read and NEVER hike or backpack alone. SO if you happen to be nearby and your backpack is handy, I’ll get us one of the permits the Rangers keep back for ‘drop-ins’ and you, too, can enjoy this great expanse of wonderful wilderness. Remember to bring your own bear spray.  I’ll be sleeping with mine.