My wife says it’s my happy place and she is right. My first visit was at 10-years-old with my best friend and his grandparents in their Airstream. I had never been away from home before and a trip that was supposed to take 3 weeks lasted 3 months. It was an experience every kid should have. After that summer Yellowstone and Airstream became synonymous with happiness for me. After high-school graduation and before careers, my closest friends and I would travel there every summer to hike, fish, drink and smoke blueberry cigars. Then it got even better; I was lucky enough to find a girl that loved it as much as I did. We spent our honeymoon in a tent at Bridge Bay and hung out at the bar at Canyon. Sightseeing was limited because it rained constantly the week we were there but it was perfect. The tent was a Springbar brand and it never leaked. We were living in California during the devastating fires that threatened the park in 1988. I remember tearing up during the news reports as we watched helplessly as our beloved park burned. It took snow in November to finally extinguish a fire that consumed 36% of the park. When our sons were old enough, the first camping trip we took them on was to Yellowstone in a newly purchased Springbar. Because they both seemed to hold their noses during every hike, I was sure they hated the park. Weeks later, arriving home from work, I found them piling pillows around the base of our baby-grand piano and asked why. “We are building a tent like Yellowstone” was the excited answer. I told them I thought they hated it because they were always holding their noses. “It stunk dad” was the reply. I had no argument for that comment. For our 25th anniversary we purchased a 28ft International specifically to go back in style. After all, silver is the color for the 25th anniversary right, so it made sense. The reservation for this year’s trip was made last July; partially to celebrate our 39th anniversary and because it suited everyones schedule best. We obviously had no idea what role a virus would play in our visit.

At the early stages of the pandemic, it was questionable if any National Parks would open for the 2020 season. Later, the roads starting opening with very limited services. It became clear that all or most lodging would remain closed as would all Visitor Centers. Hearing this, I was naive enough to think (hope, actually) that the Park would close to anyone not having a reservation. How great would that be! Even if the numbers were limited to those in campsites I could only dream about all the open space. I started imagining dozens at Old Faithful rather than the usual thousands… Reality hit when I dropped the Airstream off for service. Their lot normally stocks 20-30 trailers at any given time but today there were only three and those had license plates so they were sold. That might not sound like much until you consider how much they cost. The smallest traditional model starts at just under $50K and go up substantially from there. Further conversation revealed every Airstream coming in through September was sold. It became clear people wanted to get away from home at any cost, so my dream of running into limited visitors in Yellowstone was crushed.

The lines to get into the Park were as long and drawn out as ever and the streets of West Yellowstone were packed as one would expect for a summer tourist town. Really, the only visual clue that things are different now were almost everyone was wearing a mask and the sandwich boards out front of many businesses clarifying how to navigate those willing to enter. The town was busy and looked like it would be fun to explore so we agreed to come back. Two days later we were back. Our trailer batteries were unable to hold any charge and needed to be replaced. We figured our choices were greater in town than the Park and besides, we could have breakfast and explore. Following the parts store recommendation brought us to the Running Bear Pancake House. The wait seemed far longer than the small crowd would cause but we stayed patient. Once inside, we immediately understood the wait, there were only 1/3 the number of tables and the staff was cut the same. The owner thanked us for our patience and when we inquired about business he explained because of the current situation they didn’t have access to the same volume of staff so those still available worked more hours. Same number of hungry visitors but 1/3 the capacity/staff to accommodate them. After breakfast we visited several Fly Fishing / Sport stores in search of knowledge. I have become obsessed with learning how to fly fish and thought this a perfect place to find info specific to the Yellowstone area. The first shop was Bob Jacklin’s. Based on google, he is a highly regarded fly fishing guide and author so a logical place to start. Entering the shop it was evident either they had a huge run on inventory or they didn’t restock the store for the summer season. When I asked if they had any fly fishing books specific to this area; after a long pause, one employee looked at the other and mentioned he thought the owner had written a book. “I’ll look” said the other. After a fruitless search the answer came back “I guess we don’t.” I wondered why they were open. Did they think because other shops were opening they better too? Maybe they thought no one would come so why stock anything. Other similar shops had more inventory and I was able to find some publications to feed the new passion. Like other stores, they had limited staff too, so you needed patience. We discovered this would become the theme for Yellowstone too.

A short conversation with a seasonal Park Ranger would explain-and confuse. Initially it was a question about a closed path at Mud Volcano. Access to the feature we wanted to see was closed. We heard other visitors near the closed entrance saying the reason was vandalism by visitors. This made us mad and sad-why would someone do that (whatever “that” is.) Asking the seasonal ranger about the closure he thought the more logical explanation were Bison on or near the walkway. This proved correct. We went back the next day and found the path open but this time with more rangers than we had seen throughout our visit. We also noticed that Bison were not only lounging by every feature (except Sour Lake,) they had taken over a section of the walkway. I guess the rangers gave up trying to close anything. The next question I had asked the seasonal ranger was were there any rangers furloughed? He was seasonal so it didn’t effect him but he heard some rangers were early on in the pandemic. He also went on to say his understanding was the park was back to full strength now. I asked why then are the Visitor Centers and Firehole river access closed. “Safety” was his answer. I asked if that were true why were the grocery stores/gift shops/snack bars (order in-take out) open? People weren’t having an issue waiting in line and wearing a mask in those spaces. It has become somewhat second-nature for people to socially distance themselves and this was no different. No confrontations, no viral outbursts, just people navigating around each other for ice-cream and souvenirs. After a slight pause “Politics” was the reply. It may be our parks but we don’t get the key.

As crowded as it was, and the fact we visitors were somewhat policing ourselves, everyone seemed to be on their best behavior. Maybe we are all so conditioned to be in a line it is no different than home. One rule that was broken with some regularity was bringing your dog on hikes. The signs and literature are quite clear about not bringing them to any feature but people love their pets and there was a lot of them. It was interesting the difference between campground maintenance. Madison campground had signs on the restroom doors requiring masks and explaining their adherence to CDC cleaning guidelines. Problem was, you could see over a period of a day that no regular cleaning was occurring-overflowing garbage, dispenser out of towels and bugs covering the basin area. Bridge Bay was the complete opposite. No signage requiring masks or touting any cleaning schedule yet the restrooms remained spotless. The feature trails seemed to best show the average American’s view on safety. Many of these walkways were 1.5 miles or more is length and 4ft in width-much more when there was signage or an obvious landmark, yet many people wore masks the entire time. Even when their particular entourage was all alone they still had masks on. I don’t know about you, but I tried a couple of times and found breathing very difficult when hiking uphill with my nose and mouth covered. Personal choice for sure.

The day before we left we received an order placed months ago; a Dr. Fauci bobblehead doll with his quote “Flatten the curve” proudly etched on the base. We decided to bring him along as our version of the traveling gnome. We had fun documenting our visit with the Dr. It was not meant as a political statement and people loved the idea of getting their picture taken with him.

Yellowstone is still our favorite and while it was extremely crowded, it was fun being part of many people’s first experience in Yellowstone. Numerous visitors told us they had lost their jobs and had always wanted to see the park so here they are. Normally there are dozens of tour buses filled with foreign tourists at every venue but aside from some lifted tour vans originating in West Yellowstone, today’s visitors were largely from the U.S. We appreciated the lack of drama regarding masks and social distancing. Everyone wanted to be there so we all complied with the rules. I wish our home communities were as understanding and accommodating. Things will eventually calm down and people will likely go back to their previous lives but I hope they gained an appreciation for how fortunate we are to have such treasures available for all Americans to enjoy.