Yellowstone National Park: Wildlife and Wonders

My September podcast is available!

In this episode of the Journey Jukebox travel podcast, we go to Yellowstone National Park, America’s First National Park.

This episode picks up right where my Cody, Wyoming visit left off: after basing herself in Cody, I spent a day and a half looping through Yellowstone by chartered bus, and brings back a full rundown — bison herds thick enough to stop traffic for fifty cars, a moose sighting straight out of Lamar Valley, a surprise cinnamon bear, and the bighorn sheep on the way out of the park.

From there we walk through the icons — Old Faithful (which kept everyone waiting an extra thirty minutes), the otherworldly colors of Grand Prismatic Spring and the Midway Geyser Basin, the bubbling mud volcanoes, and dinner at the historic Lake Yellowstone Hotel with a general manager who’s spent 40 years working his way up through the park’s lodging operation.

Here, we get honest about the less charming side of visiting a place like Yellowstone. Like tourists stepping over barriers at Mammoth Hot Springs, walking up to bison for a closer photo, and — in one widely reported case — Pierce Brosnan’s own $1,500 fine for wandering off a boardwalk into a restricted thermal area. National parks are already stretched thin on funding and staffing. We talk about why this isn’t just about rule-following. It’s about keeping the wildlife wild and the parks safe for everyone who visits them.