A New Yellowstone Season Begins

I have begun another season out in Yellowstone National Park. This year, I will be out here five months, late May to mid October. I arrived in the Park last week, and will camp/fish for almost a month before my summer job begins at the front desk of one of the Park’s lodges.


Firehole River, in the Park

Heidi won’t be joining me this season, once was enough for her. But, she’s flying out for two weeks in early July when we will celebrate our 40^th anniversary with a trip to Glacier National Park.

This is the earliest I’ve been in Yellowstone National Park. I planned it that way. The month of June is good weather, good fishing, and light crowds of visitors inside the Park. Wildlife is more active than in the heat of July/August, the long daylight of June provides ample time to enjoy being outside. The landscapes are beautiful; lush green everywhere, the wildflowers have begun to bloom, and snow left in the higher elevations of distant mountains makes for dramatic panoramas.

Bison a common sight at close range

Speaking of that snow, it is springtime snowmelt that can turn the rivers to chalk or mud in the Rockies. That has ruined many a fishing trip for anglers who come out this time of year. But, Yellowstone National Park's westside rivers, the Firehole and Madison, clear early. That was the case this year, even with a very heavy snowfall last winter. Though the Yellowstone River was running at flood stage and chocolate brown as I passed it in Billings on the way here 150 miles downstream, the Firehole and Madison were clear and fishable the day I arrived. That’s not to say that early June fishing in the Park is without challenges, as I will describe in future postings.

Until my seasonal job and dorm life start next month, I come into the town of West Yellowstone for internet service, an hour’s round trip. I will do so every few days, and hope to get a regular series of postings going soon. And for now, I'm using general delivery at the West Yellowstone post office (Daniel Keifer; General Delivery; West Yellowstone MT 59758). Mail, boxes of cookies, or trout flies you anglers would like field-tested will all be accepted.

 

Fishing along the Firehole River

My email address (dckeifer@comcast.net). If there’s anything in particular you’d like me to write about or have a question about visiting/fishing Yellowstone, let me know.