Greater Yellowstone roads opens for Memorial Day weekend at the 2009 summer season | Family-friendly Summertime Adventures in Yellowstone National Park
9:09 PM PDT, August 3, 2008, updated at 1:34 AM PDT, May 24, 2009
May 24, 2009 update: See this Amazon discussion for details on the upcoming publication of a revised and greatly expanded 2nd-edition update of Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: http://tinyurl.com/qw467p
In the meantime, you can order copies of the first edition via several reputable 3rd-party sellers here on Amazon who still have the book in stock.You can also preview the book here for free. Please post your Yellowstone and Grand Teton travel planning and general questions here (or email yellowstonehiker at gmail.com if you prefer private communication) and I'll do my best to answer your questions, or at least point you in the right direction. Here's a link to the latest Yellowstone Memorial Day road report update: "All major roads leading to and within Yellowstone National Park are opening for the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The Beartooth Highway, the section of US-212 linking Red Lodge, Montana, with Cooke City, Silver Gate, and the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park, opened for travel at 8:00 Friday morning.
The road between Tower Fall and Canyon Junction over Dunraven Pass is set to open to travel Friday afternoon.
Many seasonal visitor services in Yellowstone National Park are open for the Memorial Day weekend. Details and current conditions are available online at http://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/index.htm, by consulting the park newspaper handed out at entrance stations, or by asking the staff at visitor centers and information stations in and near the park." Sincerely, == original August 3, 2008 post ==  Historic Mammoth Hot Springs and boardwalk loops Start your counterclockwise tour of Yellowstone’s Grand Loop Road in the parks’ top left corner, at the NPS headquarters, Mammoth Hot Springs. After a brief self-guided spin around the Fort Yellowstone Historic District – where you’ll learn about the US Army’s 1886-1918 stewardship of the world’s first national park – head for the adjacent hot spring terraces, steering clear of resident elk who blanket the lawns during the autumn rut. A network of handicap-accessible boardwalks offers an intimate look at northern Yellowstone’s most approachable thermal area. While the park’s most famous geysers, like Old Faithful, wow audiences with their dramatic antics and instantly gratifying performances, the sculptural nature of Mammoth’s mercurial hot-spring terraces are impressive more for their development on a geologic time scale. Impatient kids love the steam, gurgling and Dr. Seuss-like sinter formations.  Old Faithful, bragging rights and a must-see icon If you haven’t seen the most famous geyser in the world’s most active geyser basin, can you really say that you’ve visited Yellowstone? Visit Old Faithful during the full moon or make the 1-mile climb to Observation Point for a unique perspective on the iconic grand dame and an expansive panorama of the steamy Upper Geyser Basin. Time your visit with an eruption (the average interval hovers around 90 minutes) by checking the predicted schedule at a Visitor Center. If you’ve got time to kill, grab a snack or drink, and check out the lobby and whimsical parkitecture of the Old Faithful Inn.  Old Faithful Tips: If you’re staying at the Inn, ask about joining the bellhops as they raise and lower the flags each morning and evening – two lucky guests get to climb into the Crow’s Nest most days, which is otherwise off limits. Even-numbered rooms in the east wing of the “Old House” face the geyser, but the views can be obscured on the lower level by lodgepole pine saplings. One little-known way to score a last-minute room at the Inn is by calling to inquire if there are any handicap-accessible rooms – by law, they are released to the general public inside of two weeks of the check-in date.  Lone Star Geyser, the antithesis of Old Faithful experience For the antithesis of the crowded Old Faithful geyser gazing experience, take a well-shaded stroll or 15-minute bike ride along a flat, abandoned road that traces the Firehole River to one of Yellowstone’s most dependable and impressive backcountry geysers. You may hear Lone Star Geyser before you actually see its sparkling jet of skyward water. Between eruptions, during its noisy steam phase, the massive geyser cone can be heard more than a mile away. Regular eruptions, which usually last 20-30 minutes, begin about every 3 hours, with minor eruptions around 30 minutes prior to the main event. Splashing preplay starts up to an hour before eruptions. The Old Faithful Visitor Center posts eruption predictions. With kids in tow, pack a picnic and allow a couple of hours for a leisurely 2.5-mile hike in. For an unforgettable first night in the wilderness, camp out just beyond – yet within earshot of – the geyser basin at one of the three nearby OA-series backcountry campsites (permit and reservation required) along the Shoshone Lake Trail. Moonlight hiking along the paved trail to Lone Star is another frisson-inducing option. There's something positively primeval about Yellowstone that energizes all ages and generations. Maybe it's the strident bugles of mating elk that echo across the broad valleys in the fall, or the sulphurous, rotten-egg odors that pervade many thermal areas. In any case, the sense that the Earth's superheated molten core is uniquely close to the park’s surface is always palpable. In the early 1800s, when pioneering mountain men dispatched dramatic reports about the region's "thundering volcanoes" and hyperactive hydrothermal features to their editors back East, the response was uniformly, "Sorry, we don't publish fiction." Rambling around a small slice of this 2.2-million-acre park's wild assortment of otherworldly attractions never fails to reveal that Yellowstone is indeed larger than life. About the Author Andrew Dean Nystrom has contributed text and images to two dozen Fodor’s and Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, covering locales as varied as Antarctica, Alaska, Mexico, Bolivia, the US Southwest, and Argentine and Chilean Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. When not out rambling, he nests with his wife and son near a wild stretch of Los Angeles River. By day, he’s Senior Producer of the Los Angeles Times Travel website. Email him your Yellowstone and Grand Teton trip planning questions and feedback via yellowstonehiker @ gmail.com  By Andrew Dean Nystrom, author of the National Outdoor Book
Award-winning Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone
(Wilderness Press; 2nd edition forthcoming Spring 2009)[This story appeared in the July 2008 issue of theLongitudeBooks.com monthly e-newsletter. All photos in the post are courtesy of the National Park Service.] Yellowstone's Thorofare Region: The Wildest Slice of the Wild West
11:50 PM PDT, July 4, 2008
The following essay originally appeared in Lonely Planet's coffee table pictorial anthology,
 The Middle of Nowhere."Born a mile high in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, I have always gravitated towards extreme landscapes: Antarctica, Death Valley, Tierra del Fuego, the vast Patagonian steppe.  In Bolivia alone, I bicycled the World’s Most Dangerous Road, skied the world’s highest developed slope, navigated the world’s highest motorable pass, tasted wine at the world’s loftiest vineyard, recovered in some of the planet’s highest soakable hot springs and traversed some of the bleakest yet most riveting terrain on earth around the world’s largest and highest salt flat, the otherworldly Salar de Uyuni.After spending a summer conducting scientific field research, surveying the microbial diversity of Yellowstone National Park’s myriad hydrothermal areas, I can confirm that none of these superlatives, however, can compare to the sheer wildness of the world’s first national park. Three million people a year visit Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks. Only a small fraction, however, venture beyond the 9000-sq-km park’s famous roadside attractions. Even fewer realise that a rewarding two-day hike leads into the heart of the wildest remaining slice of America’s mythic Wild West, ending up at the most remote inhabited outpost in the lower 48 United States.Yellowstone’s Thorofare Patrol Cabin is the stuff of legends, the sort of place countless intrepid ramblers have heard about but few have seen first-hand. The remoteness of the seasonal ranger station is trumped only by fly-in homesteads in the Alaskan Bush and Inuit villages north of the Arctic Circle. Despite what the region’s name connotes, the Thorofare is hardly the high road to anywhere. Quite the contrary, it is a detour leading smack-dab to the middle of nowhere… unless you happen to be an elk poacher, park ranger, rogue outfitter, trophy hunter, trail crew worker, solitude seeker or member of the wide-ranging Delta wolf pack. Forty-eight kilometres from the nearest road, a lucky seasonal ranger lives here in a rustic, two-room log cabin erected in 1915. From July through September, he (there’s never been a she, yet) is visited by only a handful of hearty backpackers. Telltale grizzly-bear claw marks furrow the face of the 40-sq-metre cabin. After dark, rangers joke, it is best to knock on the inside of the cabin’s thick wooden door before making a beeline for the outhouse. What, I wondered, besides its sheer remoteness, makes this wide-open toss of raw backcountry so alluring? I found it to be the vital challenge of establishing a rapport with the charismatic menagerie – recently reintroduced grey wolves, wayward wallowing moose, ravenous grizzly bears – and catch-and-release fly-casting for native, blue-ribbon cutthroat trout in gin-clear spawning streams. Camping in designated sites overlooking the Yellowstone River’s meandering upper reaches meant trespassing on the stunning domain of soaring bald eagles and endangered grizzly bears, and falling asleep to a primeval, frisson-inducing chorus of ‘h-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-wling’ wolves. In autumn, omnivorous grizzlies entered a frenzied state called hyperphagia, when they stuff themselves on whatever they can get their supersize mitts on – moths, pine nuts, roots, berries, ants, grubs, tubers, trout – in preparation for six months of hibernation. The Thorofare’s weather can get treacherous any time of the year: snow has been recorded somewhere in the ecosystem every day of the year. Browse a U.S. weather map on any given day and there is a good chance that Yellowstone will register the nation’s lowest temperature. As for the hike in, it is a flat, glorious, dusty two- to four-day slog along the eastern shore of Yellowstone Lake, one of the world’s most expansive alpine lakes. In July, the lack of views during the initial stretch is more than made up for by expansive wildflower meadows that burst with colour. Before reaching the patrol cabin, more burned stands of lodgepole pine forest, marshy meadows and challenging stream crossings await. Just before the first major snowstorm, as the lone ranger and I departed for the civilised comforts of the front country, I pondered the future of this generous slice of unfettered nature. For many, the rapid encroachment of development in the region’s fragile buffer zones symbolises the trampling of America’s natural heritage brought on by the hell-for-leather race for progress. Happily, the park remains a psychological and geographical refuge of wilderness (literally ‘where the wild beasts roam’). Yet perversely, once such a remote, pristine place is pinpointed on a map, it’s inevitably threatened by masses wanting to experience it. It remains to be seen if the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem will become an island of ever-decreasing genetic diversity, or if it can persist as a model preserve where humans beneficially coexist with the abundant wildlife." Practicalities: August is the prime month for trekking the Thorofare. Proximity to Civilisation: The Thorofare Patrol Cabin is 48km from the Nine Mile trailhead (32km as the osprey flies), at minimum a two-day hike or a long day’s horseback ride. Hiking Yellowstone: Pelican Valley + Dances with Wolves
10:59 PM PDT, June 19, 2008, updated at 12:54 AM PDT, July 8, 2008
The following essay originally appeared in Longitude Books' August 2005 newsletter:
"As a volunteer for the Yellowstone Center for Resources, I woke up each morning blessed that it was my duty to explore some of the Western Hemisphere's wildest and most wonderful pieces of country. Pelican Valley exemplifies the benefit of getting out of your vehicle in Yellowstone and hiking into the vast wilderness. Since it has been off-limits to camping since the mid-1980s, wildlife moves more freely here. Our only neighbors at the historic 1920s log patrol cabin in Pelican Valley were the Crystal Creek wolves. The pack's den was a quarter mile from the cabin, well within howling distance. Each morning, as we headed out across the broad valley to investigate the microbial diversity of some of the park's 10,000-plus hydrothermal hotspots (that was our job), we invariably caught a fleeting glimpse of the 19- member wolf pack. One particularly memorable morning, while I stripped down to my birthday suit for a bath in Raven Creek, I noticed a very curious gray muzzle poking up over a rise less than a hundred yards away. Buck naked, I sprang up to see who or what was spying on me. It was the alpha male of the pack, of course. A delightfully childlike game of hide-and-seek ensued, with the wolf's head popping up and me ducking down. He was obviously just as curious about me as I was about him. In the midst of this innocent inter-species dance, my female research partners appeared atop another rise behind my barren backside! Their nervous chatter scared the wolf off and hastened me back into my uniform. I never did get to finish my bath, but I can still hear the indelible echoes of those wonderfully eerie howls as I close my eyes when I lay down to sleep at night." _______ Andrew Dean Nystrom is the author of the National Outdoor Book award-winning Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks hiking guide.
Yellowstone Hiker Falls Through Trail & in Hot Spring at Artists Paintpots
1:24 AM PDT, June 3, 2008, updated at 3:19 PM PDT, June 15, 2008
The Associated Press reported last Friday: "The National Park Service says a hiker burned her leg and ankle when she fell through a dirt trail into a pool of 170-degree water at Yellowstone National Park. Park officials say Jeanette Hogan of Utah stepped on a rain puddle on the trail when the crust gave way and she fell into the previously undiscovered pool of hot water. Park geologists are evaluating the Artists‘ Paintpots area, south of Norris Junction. The parking lot and trail there will remain closed until it can be reopened safely." [The NPS has yet to report that the trail has reopened as of late Monday.] I hiked this easy, intriguing trail with my family a week prior to this incident, in clear weather but with plenty of snow still lingering and the nearby Gibbon River swollen to near-flood stage, and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary along the short, mostly dirt loop trail, which I've traversed at least a dozen times during all seasons. The Yellowstone NP / NPS press release on the subject indicates that the injured hiker was following an established trail and that "members of the park’s trail crew were working on another section of the Artists’ Paintpots trail at the time of the accident." The release goes on to report: "Park geologists are currently evaluating the area. The water in the pool is 171 degrees Fahrenheit. Water boils at about 197 degrees Fahrenheit at that altitude. The water at the surface of the hot pool was found to be slightly acidic, with a pH similar to vinegar...Four people treated for thermal burns in the park in 2007." Just goes to show that you can never be too careful when navigating around and exploring Yellowstone's dynamic, volatile thermal areas. The NPS even posted a snapshot of the hot spring "pool" in question and the thermal, heat-mapping image below:
[NPS photo courtesy Yellowstone National Park Service] Memorial Day weekend conditions update for Yellowstone & Grand Teton national parks
9:49 PM PDT, May 23, 2008, updated at 10:54 PM PDT, May 28, 2008
I spent the past 10 days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, hiking and snowshoeing around with my family (son, wife and my mom and dad) from Jackson Hole, Teton Village, Moose, Jackson Lake, Colter Bay and Lizard Creek to points north, in Rockefeller Parkway and Yellowstone NP -- from Flagg Ranch to Cooke City. Here some highlights of what we discovered and learned.
The winter of 2007-08 was the longest and snowiest in a decade in Greater Yellowstone. Snowplows were broken while opening Yellowstone's south entrance. As much as half of the region's bison population is thought to have perished due to the harsh winter. Carcasses are everywhere, bear management staff are on high alerts and grizzlies and black bears are ravenous. Roadside snow banks were piled well overhead high across the region...but there's plenty of self-propelled exploration to be enjoyed on the lowest elevation, south facing and least shaded trails. Plus, fishing season opens Memorial Day weekend. In Grand Teton National Park, the NPS rangers at the new, impressive Craig Thomas Discovery & Visitor Center in Moose are directing all but the hardiest hikers to the Taggart Lake trail, which sees lots of sunshine thanks to the '85 Beaver Creek fire. Even the lowest elevation trails in Grand Teton NP, like along the Snake River at Schwabacher Landing, were obscured by snow and thus challenging to follow (most trails in Grand Teton NP are not marked for winter travel with orange blazes like many trails are in Yellowstone are). After a couple of snowbound attempts, we were able to access the serene south end of Phelps Lake via several new trails in the Laurance S. Rockefeller (LSR) Preserve. The final 1106 acres of the Rockefeller family's former JY Ranch retreat were transferred to the National Park Service in 2001; the trails officially opened in the fall of 2007, with little public fanfare. Rangers we met along the Moose-Wilson road said the LSR Visitor Center is set to open sometime in the summer of 2008. Stay tuned for more updates on this impressive addition to Grand Teton NP in subsequent posts. In Yellowstone, we slept around Yellowstone Lake and Old Faithful, and enjoyed several mid-summer like days of sunshine and highs in the 70s. Then the snow flurries, freezing temps and afternoon showers kicked in. While the newspaper showed temps hovering around 120ºF in Death Valley and Las Vegas, we watched flakes fly horizontally by day and several inches of powder accumulate over the past few nights. Going with the flow, we introduced our infant son to the wonders along the boardwalks of the Upper Geyser Basin, West Thumb, Norris, Mud Volcano, Artist Paint Pots, the rims of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs. We also watched Old Faithful erupt several times from different vantage points: from the boardwalk, from the Inn's balcony, high above from Observation Point, and, most gloriously, by full moonlight. Rangers in both parks report that most all facilities scheduled to open by Memorial Day weekend will open as planned. Yellowstone's East Entrance Road to Cody, and Craig Pass, between Old Faithful and West Thumb on Yellowstone Lake, were both closed briefly during the fiercest snow flurries, so as always, call ahead to confirm current conditions. Flood warnings were issued for the Madison River and several other campgrounds (including Norris) have pushed their projected opening dates back due to the heavy snowfalls. All that said, it's shaping up to be another fantastic (and record-setting, in terms of visitation numbers) season in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Foreign visitors seemed to equal if not outnumber domestic visitors. Take a hint from our friends worldwide - get out and visit your national parks, they are a true national treasure, right under our noses. NB: Call (800) 226-7623 or (888) 863-8465 for the current status and details on Beartooth Pass conditions, which was reported open as of this posting and connects Billings and Red Lodge to Cooke City and Silver Gate, Montana, and the Northeast Entrance of Yellowstone National Park. Happy trails,~ Andrew Author, Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National ParksWinner, National Outdoor Book Award, Best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook (2005) Updated June 2006, 2nd edition forthcoming in early 2009 Google Maps and why you shouldn't always trust them, especially when planning a Yellowstone National Park visit
11:30 PM PDT, May 10, 2008, updated at 9:55 PM PDT, May 23, 2008
After checking on the Yellowstone weather forecast while planning for our family visit next week to Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks, I just checked out Google Maps cool new "terrain" layer for Yellowstone, to see just how detailed it is.
First thing to note is a search for "yellowstone national park, wy" lands you on the map at Yellowstone's South Entrance station, not in the middile of the park, or even the Mammoth Hot Springs park HQ, so you'll have to scroll around a bit – or simple follow my sample links below. So, Google's relatively new terrain layer is pretty cool, but not authoritative, especially when it comes to labeling developed, (hu)man-made park features, like campgrounds. For example, on the more detailed (or zoomed-in levels) their map shows a backcountry campground halfway along the Mary Mountain Trail, on the seldom-seen Central Plateau, but fails to label the lovely Mary Lake, which does appear in aquamarine, if you toggle to the Satellite layer. The most important thing to note here is that, while their is an NPS-only patrol cabin on the north shore of Mary Lake, their is no camping allowed along the entire Mary Mountain/Nez Perce trail, due to NPS bear management restrictions, and it hasn't been allowed for several years. This restriction makes the Central Plateau traverse a challenging 21-mile dayhike with 500+ feet of overall elevation gain, hiking east to west, from the Hayden Valley to the Firehole Basin, along a historic stagecoach route. Most hikers opt for an out-and-back exploration of the Hayden Valley, starting from the trailhead just south of Canyon Village. In any scenario, this in one of my favorite hiking routes in Yellowstone, for its combination of abundant wildlife, birdwatching, unmapped thermal features and stunning scenery, all relatively accessible from the Grand Loop Road. Watch for more future posts detailing other quirks I noticed about Google's mapping of Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. And please, post links to quirks you find here in the comments. Happy trails, ~ Andrew Author, Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Winner, National Outdoor Book Award, Best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook (2005) Preparing for a mid-May 2008 visit to Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks
11:47 PM PDT, April 14, 2008, updated at 5:53 PM PDT, April 20, 2008
My family, the grandparents and I are preparing to take our infant son to Yellowstone and the Tetons for his first visit to Wyoming and the National Parks, during the second half of May.
Today's Yellowstone weather report -- call 307-344-7381 and press 5 then 1 for current local conditions, or 307-344-2117 for recorded NPS Yellowstone road reports, updated as conditions change -- says the high temperature reached 50-56ºF with mostly sunny conditions, with lows ranging from 28º to 34ºF, and southwest winds blowing up to 20mph. Tomorrow? Highs 30-36ºF, lows 14-20ºF, with rain and snow likely, with an expected snowfall accumulation of 2-5 inches. This dramatic shift illustrates just how volatile weather is in the Greater Yellowstone region. When calling, you can also request a free Yellowstone National Park trip planning packet. For other questions that cannot be answered by the park's official website (or by this blogger in reply to your comments left below!), normal NPS phone business hours are 8am to 5pm, M-F, MST. The NPS Yellowstone website also reports that the park's south entrance recorded 101 inches (yes, inches) of snow in March alone. Plows are currently at work to clear the roads in time for the scheduled April 18 opening of the park's westside roads (Mammoth to Norris Junction to Madison Junction to Old Faithful; Madison Junction to West Entrance; Norris Junction to Canyon), and the May 2 opening of Canyon to Lake and Lake to the East Entrance. The car-traffic-free spring bicycling period began this year on 3/28 and lasts through the third Thursday in April (this Thursday, 4/17). Stay tuned for updates as we prepare for our trip. Please let me know what you'd like to hear more about, before, during and after our trip. Happy trails,~ Andrew Author, Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Winner, National Outdoor Book Award, Best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook (2005) Yellowstone National Park: Temporary East Entrance Closure Continues
10:58 PM PDT, August 15, 2007
Today, the National Park Service published the following update. This news is only of concern to those of you who are traveling via Cody, Wyoming. While stunningly scenic, the alternate Chief Joseph Scenic Highway route is a long, once-in-a-lifetime detour:
"The East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park remains temporarily closed due to the threat posed by the Columbine Fire. Park rangers closed the road at the East Entrance and at the Pelican Creek barricade near Fishing Bridge at 7 o’clock Tuesday evening. The fire has advanced to within a half-mile of the south side of the East Entrance road. Because of the potential for the fire to continue its advance toward the road, park managers expect the temporary East Entrance closure may remain in effect for a few days. This temporary closure will be reevaluated on a regular basis. Yellowstone National Park intends to reopen the road to traffic as soon as access can be safely resumed. Despite this temporary closure, all camping, lodging, restaurants, stores, service stations and visitor centers inside the park and along U.S. Highway 14-16-20 between Cody and the East Entrance remain open and fully operational. All other park entrances and roads remain open. The Columbine Fire poses no threat to park visitors. Alternate access between Cody and Yellowstone is possible through the park’s Northeast Entrance and the Chief Joseph Scenic Highway. Updated Yellowstone National Park road information is available 24 hours a day by calling 307-344-2117. This is the second time the East Entrance road has been temporarily closed due to the threat posed by the Columbine Fire, and the third time the road has been temporarily closed this summer. A small mudslide near Sylvan Pass led to an overnight closure in late July. The road had been temporarily closed due to the fire from late Sunday afternoon until 8 o’clock Tuesday morning. Mark Grant’s Northern Rockies Type 2 Incident Management Team is directing the firefighting efforts on the Columbine Fire. The team’s Public Information Officers are updating Columbine Fire Information on the web at http://inciweb.org/incident/920/, and providing recorded information on the fire 24 hours a day at 307-344-2580." For updates, see the official Yellowstone National Park website. Happy trails,~ Andrew Dean Nystrom Author, Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks Winner, National Outdoor Book Award, Best Outdoor Adventure Guidebook (2005) Historic JY Ranch Gifted by Rockefellers to Grand Teton National Park
12:43 AM PDT, July 31, 2007, updated at 4:33 AM PDT, March 9, 2008
The National Park Service has announced that a historic Rockefeller family property, the 3,000-plus acre JY Ranch on the east shore of Phelps Lake in the heart of Grand Teton National Park, will open to public access this summer.
This transfer of the historic dude ranch was first announced during a May 2001 ceremony, in which Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton accepted the gift on behalf of the NPS.
Check back for full coverage of the new hiking trails in the next update of my National Outdoor Book Award-winning Happy trails, ~ Andrew Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks mentioned in New York Times Travel section, Letter to the Editor
2:22 AM PDT, July 15, 2007
Here's the full text of my letter to the New York Times Travel editor, which ran today, July 15th, in both the online and print editions of the NYT:
"BIT OF YELLOWSTONE To the Editor: In “The Last Wilderness” (July 1 [2007]), Timothy Egan writes that “there is not a single national park in Idaho.” In fact, more than 1% of Yellowstone National Park’s 3,472 square miles is within Idaho, on the park’s western flank. Although the percentage may be small, Idaho’s sliver of Yellowstone, in the park’s remote southwest corner, harbors some of its most Andrew Dean Nystrom Mr. Nystrom is the author of “ Top Trails Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks: Must-Do Hikes for Everyone (Top Trails) ” (Wilderness Press, June 2005)"
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Bio
For the past dozen years, I've worked full-time as a freelance writer, editor, photojournalist, bicycle messenger and adventure travel planning consultant.
I've contributed text and images to two dozen Fodor's and Lonely Planet travel guidebooks, and my writing has been translated into a dozen languages. For 2+ years, I was a regular contributor to the syndicated newspaper column, Travels with Lonely Planet. My main area of interest and expertise is adventure and responsible/sustainable travel with a purpose in the Americas. I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a BA in Geography and Education. Prior to launching my freelance writing career, I was the senior writer/producer of the Webby Award-winning travel site LonelyPlanet.com. If I'm not scribbling or shooting photos, I'm probably out scouting new hiking trails, biking to a farmers' market, hunting sublime tacos, cooking up a storm or foraging for wild edibles. When not out rambling, I advise the National Geographic Society's Sustainable Tourism Initiative and edit and produce the Los Angeles Times Travel website (http://travel.latimes.com), for Tribune Co. and Los Angeles Times Interactive. I'm based just the other side of Dodger Stadium from Downtown LA, where I garden and inhabit a wild urban pocket with my wife and young son. Greater Yellowstone Park News
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