8/19/11 Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Leaving Stanley, Idaho, I drove eastbound to catch the bluegrass festival at Grand Targhee Ski Resort in Alta Wyoming. Just a week earlier I was accepted as a volunteer, so after paying the camping fee I started my first shift searching bags and wristbands into the venue. That night was the first time I saw the Infamous Stringdusters as they rocked out the venue under the full moon that shone overhead. After the show it was time for bluegrass picking as I wandered around the small camps listening for the musicians that were around. Jamming along with some and watching others, I saw tons of talent in the hills of the Grand Tetons hidden away at 8,000 feet.

On Saturday, Yonder Mountain String Band once again threw out an excellent performance which was followed by more activities in the forest and Sunday was started off volunteering backstage finding time to converse with the various artists of the day including The Greencards, Railroad Earth, and others. Sunday night following the show I met Wendy and Jen, two gals that worked at Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. With my next stop in mind being Yellowstone, they offered a place to stay for the week. We departed ways and stayed at the resort for one more night.

Then began the drive to the first National Park sitting on top of the largest volcanic system in North America. The park sits on the Yellowstone Caldera also known as the Yellowstone Supervolcano which is filled with hot spring boiling with extreme heat, mudpots, and geysers that at times could shoot water hundreds of feet high. Upon my arrival, I also soon realized that this was one of the largest tourist attractions in our country. Arriving at Old Faithful, hundreds of people would gather around the predictable geyser to see the magnificence it holds every ninety or so minutes. This is when I also realized I could make some decent money playing music for the people leaving after the show.

That night I met up with Wendy and Jen again crashing at their place gearing up for a ten mile bike and twenty mile hike through the backcountry. I was very fortunate to have met them as they gave me a map to use along with bear spray to hike out in grizzly bear country.

It was wonderful to experience the national park without being around all of the tourists as I hiked out to the largest backcountry lake in the U.S. Following the hike I began to play music for tips for the people clearing out of Old Faithful every hour and a half for the next two days which worked out well with car insurance and bills coming up. I had a great time on my stay at Yellowstone meeting part of the employee team and gathering peace in the volcanic terrain away from the tourists.

While jamming out on the banjo in front of Old Faithful, a fellow approached me named Dax, who was part of a band touring called Frog's Gone Fishin'. They are based out of Denver and with Colorado in mind for the next month, they asked if I would come along and jam some songs on stage with them and get a job working in the awesome state of Colorado. Departing ways, I enjoyed one last day of the beautiful park as I took the long, scenic route across Wyoming to the college town of Larimie.