Yellowstone Treasures Blog

Here is an early heads-up for the days in 2012 when entrance to Yellowstone and all other National Parks will be free. The usual $25.00 fee per carload good for one week will be waived on these dates:

January 14 to 16 (Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend). A great time for seeing wildlife and the beautiful ice-crusted trees around the geyser basins.

April 21-29 (National Park Week). Not everything is open yet, but bison are giving birth to their little orange calves and crowds are non-existent.

June 9 (Get Outdoors Day). The full Yellowstone season is gradually getting underway.

September 29 (National Public Lands Day). A good time for avoiding crowds and hearing the bugling of elk.

November 10 to 12 (Veterans Day Weekend). Most facilities are closed by now, but you can still travel the Gardiner to Cooke City northern road to visit Mammoth Hot Springs and the wildlife-rich Lamar Valley.

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During recent weeks I’ve been concentrating all my efforts on two long-term writing projects.

One job I’ve given myself this fall is determining what changes I want to make in the upcoming reprint of Yellowstone Treasures. People do not always know that everything is constantly changing in the park, from realigned stretches of road to new geysers that pop up and old ones that change their behavior. My goal is to keep the guidebook as up-to-date as possible with almost-yearly reprints and new editions about every four years.

The other time-consumer is polishing all the parts of another project I’ve been working on for about three years with a colleague. This one is a translation from the French of the account of a visit to Yellowstone in 1883 made by the prolific Belgian travel writer, Jules Leclercq. Getting this fascinating account published requires a lot of small changes to our manuscript in order to comply with the university press’s guidelines, along with preparing information to be used in promoting the book. It will be called "Yellowstone, Land of Wonders: Promenade in North America’s National Park." But don’t hold your breath—it won’t be available for more than a year.