Behind Open Doors

Prior to this summer, I've wondered what it would be like to be one of the few remaining employees in a deserted park during a shoulder season. I have now come face to face with my curiosity as I am one of the last remaining seasonal employees in Yellowstone. To be honest, I was uncertain about the month of October in Wyoming and I didn't quite know what to expect. Good summer friends would be finding work in new cities, meeting new people, collecting unemployment, or off somewhere filling their passports with stamps and visas. I didn't know if the habitual goodbyes of coworkers and friends would affect my attitude. I didn't know if I would get cabin fever being the only individual living in an 8 bedroom house. In essence, I was expecting October to be kind of a drag. However, October in Yellowstone has been anything but mediocre.

After working in Yellowstone for the past five months with the nonstop barrage of photo-hungry visitors, the Old Faithful faithful, and the hour-long bison jams, it seems as though the park has rewarded the permanent employees and longer-seasoned seasonals. Yellowstone is becoming more beautiful by the day, just as all of the visitors have vacated. All of the cliché autumnal changes have been better than I could have expected. The grasses and underbrush have turned various shades of brilliant and soft reds, oranges, and yellows. The elk outnumber the people. And the skies are consistently some of the most unbelievable sights I've seen. It's as though the sunsets and sunrises mysteriously encircle you to form a 360 degree scene that looks more like something out of a Pink Floyd illustration than a truly natural sky.

And the best part is that the "summer" season in Yellowstone is open for another month. By some fortuitous circumstance, Yellowstone has saved its best for last. And yet the doors to Yellowstone are still open. They'll remain open until November 5. However, it seems as though Yellowstone's phenomenal Octobers will remain secret to the masses.

Since Yellowstone is somewhat of a ghost town in the fall, I expected it to be lonely and boring. I couldn't have been further from the truth. I do not feel lonely, and I am certainly not bored. This month has given me the opportunity to know some of the personalities that have lived in the park for decades. I've been able to have philosophical conversations with a soon-to-be-retired botanist, and I've debated (or attempted to debate) string theory with a long-term ungulates biologist. I've celebrated birthdays and house-sat for permanent employees. And I've been able to experience what Yellowstone is like without the infamous amounts of traffic and visitors. Contrary to what I expected, the opportunity to be in the park after it has emptied has been the reverse of loneliness. It has actually made me feel part of the community. And I will consider myself lucky to be one of the last standing seasonal employees fortunate enough to experience such a vivid shoulder season.