Last week we stopped for
a few days in Gallatin National Forest, just outside of the West Entrance of
Yellowstone National Park in Montana. This is an excellent, well maintained
campground and the price is right at $22 a night (electricity included). We chose
to come here because we wanted to scratch Yellowstone off of our bucketlists.
So, off we went to explore this world famous park. (fun fact: Recent online
rumors state that roads were melting in Yellowstone due to volcanic activity.
These rumors are false. They have closed some roads but the closures are due to
bridge upgrades.)
We decided to start at
the visitor center and then make our way to Old Faithful. Along the way people
were stopping and causing traffic back-ups whenever they saw an animal. Bison
are the main attraction and people act like typical tourists when they see one
on the side of the road. They stop, get excited, then hold their iPad out the
window and get their photos. It got annoying really fast.
Then we walked along a
boardwalk that took us through some geothermal stuff. Hot springs, geysers, and
stuff you would expect to see in the Yellowstone lowlands. The boardwalk was
covered with tourists, fighting for position in front of the geysers in an
effort to get their cheesy photos. There are also a LOT of Asian tourists in
Yellowstone and the stereotype about Asians and cameras is alive and well. If
you think I am being racially insensitive, let me remind you that I am half
Korean so deal with it.
Number of Pizza joints in West Yellowstone = 1. Number of Chinese restaurants = 4. I didn't research camera shops but I bet there was one or two. |
We got to Old Faithful
and waited for the eruption while eating our bag lunches. It was pretty cool
but, again, tourists. This time, sitting on benches and holding their iPads in
the air. I was quickly starting to feel unimpressed with Yellowstone. This
place is so well marketed that they killed themselves by attracting tons of
annoying car tourists who all want to get the best seat, best picture and best
campsite. It’s a rat race. (fun fact: Old Faithful is NOT the tallest geyser in
Yellowstone NOR is it the only on that can be predicted on a reliable schedule)
We went inside of the
Old Faithful Visitors Center and inquired about some day hikes. They were all
carefully drawn out hikes with pamphlets and boardwalks. Pedestrian hikes. I
started thinking about all of the iPads and I decided we weren’t going hiking.
I was convinced that this place was a tourist trap and the only way to get a
decent look at the nature here was to take it to the backcountry for a night.
This would prove to be a SERIOUS underestimation...
We went to the
backcountry office and registered. We picked out site #OD4. A large site on the
prairie lands in the shadow of the Twin Buttes. A short 4 mile hike in and a 3
mile hike out. After we registered we were required to watch an 18 minute,
backcountry safety video. I imagined all of the old ladies in straw hats who
stumbled into this office with their iPads in hand saying, “Oooooh,
backpacking, won’t this be FUN?!” This video was clearly made to deter them.
The first 15 minutes of
the video talked about how to handle an encounter with a bear, the last 3
minutes talked about the basics. The video kept repeating the phrase, “Your
safety is NOT guaranteed.”
Ha, they really try hard
to scare the tourists out of backpacking. Good, hopefully we can find some
seclusion and enjoy ourselves.
The next morning we
loaded up the truck with our backpacking gear and headed to the trail head.
When we arrived, we ate some sandwiches, lifted our packs onto our shoulders
and headed off to see if Yellowstone could redeem itself.
The trail was
interesting. First we walked past some cool geothermal features. These ones
didn’t have a boardwalk or warning signs. These ones were undisturbed in their
natural setting and we didn’t have to share them with anyone.
Our trail turned to the
west and we hiked through bison rich prairie lands. These were OUR bison. We
didn’t have to share them with people in rented RVs. They pretty much just eat
grass and shit all day but hey, it’s not every day that you get to walk amongst
massive herds of buffalo.
We arrived at our
campsite just before dinner time. There were two buffalo grazing in the area
designated as our site so we waited for them to move. They weren’t in a hurry
to get out of our way so we just setup camp in some trees nearby. This is the
backcountry. You gotta improvise.
We had supper and then
sat around the fire enjoying the beautiful scenery. This was more like it. A
Jack London-esque backdrop in a totally secluded prairie. Just us, our two
buffalo and some tents. Yellowstone was really starting to impress me.
Sometime in the middle
of the night, Noah started crying. The boys sleep in a different tent just
outside the front zipper of our tent. The whole camp is covered with a tarp and
we keep our gear between the two tents. The boys LOVE sleeping together and it
gives us a break from them. Anyhow, Noah is crying that he is cold. Jessica
heads ‘across the hall’ to their tent and helps him get bundled into his
sleeping bag. She slides back into our tent and lays her head down and this is
the PRECISE MOMENT when shit got crazy. All of the fears we keep in the back of
our minds about camping came RUSHING to the forefront and sleep was suddenly
out of the question.
We heard a noise,
immediately outside of our tents that sounded like growling and heavy
breathing. I grabbed my bear spray, removed the safety and clutched it as I
quivered with fear. Jessica heard it too and assumed the same thing, grizzly
bear. She kept whispering, “Mikey? What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?”
I thought the best
course of action would be to blame it on the Bison. I acted cool and said,
“Don’t worry. It’s a Bison. Go to bed.” She eventually calmed down, the noise
stopped and after explaining why I thought it was a Bison (I said I heard
hooves) she was comfortable enough to fall asleep. I was still clutching the
bear spray but I was calming down. I started to nod off.
Suddenly, out from the
east, I heard a LARGE pack of wolves. I could tell it was large because wolves
always howl in different pitches to make themselves sound like a bigger pack.
If you listen close, you can pick out the different pitches and count them. I
stopped counting at 7. I wish I could say these howls were off in the distance
but I could hear them howling, playing and, at one point, I heard them fighting
over something…probably another cocky backpacker.
The howls got closer and
closer and I was getting worked up again. I kept telling myself, “calm down.
Wolves avoid people. Wolves are afraid of you. They know you’re here and they
don’t want anything to do with you.”
As they made their way
into the hills I started to feel calm again. Then I heard simultaneous grizzly
and coyote activity. I was having an anxiety attack. I just wanted it to be
morning so I could hike to my car, grab my iPad and go see stuff from the
safety of a boardwalk. Then, on the opposite side of my tent, I heard a lone
wolf. Howling, then walking, then stopping and growling, then walking. HE WAS
CLOSE. My stomach was in my throat. Let me be clear, I DO NOT scare easily in
the wild. But this, this was different, Yellowstone comes to life at night and
the animals are in charge.
I sat, wide eyed, as the
sun came up. I wanted to go outside, start a huge fire and stand guard with my
pocket knife and bear spray but early morning is a common time for bears to go
looking for food. Everyone else was asleep so I sat and waited. The boys
managed to sleep through the whole thing. Ah, to be a kid.
At 7:30 I decided to go
outside. I grabbed my knife and bear spray, put on my shoes and walked over to
a rock and relieved myself. Then, I put my foot on a log and proceeded to tie
my shoes. Just as I finished lacing up my last shoe an animal walked out of the
trees 30 feet from me and stopped in his tracks. A gray wolf. The lone wolf.
This is his territory. I caught him off guard. Catching a wild animal off guard
is the beginning of every animal attack story out there. So there we were. I
was crapping my pants and the wolf was staring directly at me. Sizing me up?
Checking to see if I was a threat? Scared of me? I don’t know. All I know is
that my initial reaction was to go back inside of my tent and disappear.
I crouched under the
tarp, between the tents and whispered to Jessica, “Hunny, there is a wolf out
here and I need to come back insi….”
Suddenly a wolf’s face
appeared. This time is was 15-20 feet from me. He was positioned in such a way
that all I could see in the space between the top of the tent and the bottom of
the tarp was WOLF. He had his front-right leg slightly off the ground with his
paw curled back. The way a domestic dog does when he is fully engaged in
stalking something. That something was ME!
So, with a weak and
shaky voice I said, “Never mind hunny. I have to draw him away from these
tents.”
Every ounce of my
physical being was telling me to stay there between the tents and curl into a
ball. Meanwhile, my paternal instincts kicked in and I felt the safety coming
off the bear spray and the blade was being flipped out on my pocket knife.
Then, with a wolf just feet from me, I stepped into the open prairie. Just him
and me with nowhere to go. Him with his jaws that are 100x stronger than mine
and me, dual wielding pepper spray and a 2” blade.
My first priority was to
draw him away from the tents. So, I slowly and deliberately started moving
toward the fire pit. I thought I might be able to find some sticks and coals
that I could use in my fight. I kept hearing in my head: YOUR SAFETY IS NOT
GUARANTEED…YOUR SAFETY IS NOT GUARANTEED. Stupid video. 15 minutes on how to
handle a bear encounter, ZERO advice on how to handle a wolf encounter. You
know why? Because people don’t encounter wolves. It is SO RARE that Yellowstone
doesn’t even cover it in their backcountry safety video.
Ah, but I DO KNOW what
to do. Thanks to Ranger Britney at Porcupine Mountains State Park in Michigan,
I know a lot about wolves. She never covered what to do in an encounter but she
explained how their minds work. This wolf DOES NOT want to fight me. I caught
it off guard and it is determining IF it needs to defend itself. So, look non-threatening.
Avoid eye contact, don’t turn your back to him. Show him that you made a
mistake and now you are moving on.
He continued his stare
and was still just FEET from the place where my family was sleeping. As I
walked toward the fire pit I kicked up some dirt and gravel and he took a good
15 steps away from me. It surprised him but he was not attacking. I started
making more noises. Throwing sticks in the fire pit, kicking dirt. Each time he
took a few more steps and then stopped to stare at me. He got to the edge of
the field and stood staring at me for a while. I walked back to the tents and
woke everyone up. I said, “Hey guys, if you slowly come outside, you can see a
wolf off in the distance.”
It’s almost as if he
heard me say this because right after he finally turned and ran off into the
hills. My heart was pumping. I decided we would skip coffee and hot breakfast
and eat some cereal bars and break camp. Every 30 seconds I found myself
scanning the horizon for animals. I was scarred.
I feel like the ‘lone
wolf encounter’ was natures test to me. I was being neurotic and paranoid all
night and I was truly scared. Then, as I left my tent in the morning, mother
nature said, “Here, face your fear.”
Something inside of me switched on. It was like one of those situations where nature takes over and you
do what you are programmed to do. I don’t know what I was planning to do with
that tiny knife and that pepper spray but I was prepared to do it until one of
us was dead. So, as much as I want to say I HATED my experience camping in the
Yellowstone backcountry, I was able to sharpen my skills as a fatherly
protector and when you live in an RV and you’re traveling the country, that’s a
valuable experience.
We hiked back and the
whole time I kept thinking about what I did right and wrong. I managed to get
the GoPro to turn on for 20 seconds while I stole some photos in front of an
amazing waterfall. We made it back to the car and there were other cars all around
us. Asians, iPads, old ladies in straw hats, it was good to see them again. On
the road out there was a big traffic jam, people stopping to photograph an
animal. You can tell by the size of the traffic jam how rare of an animal it
is. This was a big one. I saw the park ranger walking back to his car with his bear spray out and
we saw a black bear running into the woods. The car tourists were all having a moment. They got to see a black bear in Yellowstone.
Ha! Black bears. How
tame.