BISON IN MY BACKYARD

My contract is up in a few days. If the shutdown hadn’t occurred I might have been too busy to notice the passing of time here at Mammoth. But every action has a reaction and the shutdown is no different. The shutdown has resulted in my employer, Xanterra Parks and Resorts, losing revenue that is irreplaceable. The businesses in the surrounding Park towns – Cody, West Yellowstone, Gardiner, Livingston and Jackson – have experienced a loss of jobs and profit as businesses have shut down early. But there are other reactions that are noticeable, as well.

For one thing, the animals seem very aware of the lack of traffic and the decided lack of irresponsible and invasive tourists. The animals are, in many ways less dangerous  - less agitated and nervous when going about their business. But in some ways they are exerting their authority. This is THEIR Park. We humans are the lowest mammals on the food chain in Wonderland. Sometimes it literally feels like they are taking over the streets as they saunter from forage to forage.

As the shutdown continues and the Park empties out, Old Man Winter is becoming a constant presence.  Here, at Mammoth, we have already had our first really good winter snow.  I even had to dig out my truck and brush 9 inches of snow off my truck roof. Yellowstone’s high country still has a lot of snow and is getting even colder. The animals are seeking warmer elevations where food might still be available – or, as in the case of the unnaturally green lawns of Mammoth, abundant. Not only have the elk and bear increased in number here at Mammoth, but I have seen a few white shaggy mountains goats up in the cliffs between Golden Gate and Upper Terraces right outside Mammoth proper.

With the increase in animals here in Mammoth, the need for caution rises. In the past week, the Rangers have warned Mammoth residents that three bears – one a Grizzly that took down a many-pointed bull elk very close to the Gardiner Road – were prowling Mammoth without seeming to be terribly agitated by the constant and practiced hazing of the Rangers. The Rangers, in order to avoid hurting curious and hungry bears, shoot bean bags at them in order to startle but not unduly hurt these creatures as they eat their way into stupors in preparation for their long winter’s sleep.

Bison have also returned to vie for the lush green lawns of Mammoth. The other night, one of the resident many-pointed bull elks came looking for his harem, usually gathered on the lush green lawn opposite the Dining Hall and my dorm.  Instead, he found two bison feeding on that very same lawn. At first the elk confidently pranced toward the bison but in the middle of the road separating the Dining Hall and the lawn, he stopped short, surveying the two lone bison, as though he was too short-sighted to have noticed that two massive bison were grazing where his harem of lady loves usually forage.  He let out some tentative bugles as if to say “Hey what are these two ugly guys doing here and where da heck are all my women?” (I always picture the bull elk during rut as kind of WWF stars – all show and very little brains left.)

My friend Craig in Tucson asked what I would miss about Yellowstone. Surely being able to Facebook on a regular basis “Bull elk going nuts in the front yard” is one of those things. “Huge shaggy bull bison in the back yard.” could be another. I don’t think I have ever lived in a place where looking around you for very large roaming animals as you leave your domicile is de rigueur. I absolutely love that.

Lately, for my work, I have had the opportunity to travel through the virtually empty Park doing inventories at the various locations. My last inventory took place at Grant Village, as far south as Xanterra properties in the Park go. To get there, we stopped at Canyon to drop off payroll, then to Lake to inventory and drop off payroll and then finally to Grant, often your first stop when entering the Park from the south. We had plenty of time and miles to observe how very, very empty of traffic the Park is these days. I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat – this Park is 2.2 MILLION ACRES. That’s a whole lot of wilderness. Wonderland is vast. At its busiest, Wonderland is…well…wonderful.  Can you imagine what it is like to feel that you and your coworkers in the car with you are the only ones on the road that day? Pretty darn amazing.

With growing possibilities of wildlife sightings, whenever I come back to the office, the typical question is “Did you see anything interesting?” “Nah, just the usual elk and bison.” is still the most often the reply. Honestly, after you live in Yellowstone for a few months, your need for unusual critter sightings ratchets up. A wolf or bear sighting is much higher up on the ‘wow’ scale for us residents. But as I begin to leave, I realize just how incredible it is that I have become accustomed to the daily presence of elk, even though when the 7x7 bull chased cows in front of my office window today all three of us sharing that office stopped what we were doing, ran to the windows, took out our phones and started snapping pictures. Accustomed is one thing but unaffected is quite something else.
In less than week now, I will turn my packed pickup toward the Gate and say goodbye to Wonderland. How do I feel about that? Well, I’m glad I planned a vacation in Southern Utah as my ‘transition period’. I’m happy I can spend more than a few hours with my son in Missoula before I head south. I’m thinking of which restaurants in Tucson I will visit first – Mexican of course. Then maybe Thai. I’m already dreaming of sitting on my wonderful back patio right above my lush arroyo sipping really good coffee and watching the noisy birds.

BUT, I notice I am already wondering when I’ll get the opportunity to be in Yellowstone again.  Yellowstone, as I’ve come to know through some of my coworkers, can become an addiction. Elk in your front yard and bison in your back yard kind of spoils you for city life. Or any life that doesn’t throw you in with really huge mammals and sleek sneaky critters like the wolf.

Life is about choices.  Always. So the choice is whether I live my comfortable Persian-rug existence in Tucson or whether I perhaps share a dorm room with a person that does not appreciate my fine qualities as much as I do.  Tough choices. To those of you that are wondering whether I’ll be back – probably, but whether as an employee or visitor is still unknown. Maybe both. Also, there are other Wonderlands out there – like Denali, like Glacier. Who knows? I might want to live in one of those.

For now, I am concentrating on the fact that I am writing this blog entry instead of packing my gear. I really should be packing my gear. But the 7x7 bull is bugling out my window, hoarse from his quest to populate Yellowstone with his particular progeny. The night is that inky blackness you only experience far, far away from the ambient light of the nearest town or city. The air is brisk and very clean.  I can honestly say those things have meaning and power in my life.

I’ve learned a lot about Yellowstone and most importantly about myself from my sojourn here. But I’ve decided my readers really need a separate blog entry for that. In the meantime, I’ll prepare for bed with my window open so I can hear the bull elk bugle through the night, accompanied by the peculiar humphy groan of the bison and maybe even the eerie howl of a lone coyote. You just never know when you live in Wonderland. All kinds of wonderful things might happen. And not just in my dreams.