The outdoors first welcomed me when I went to Yellowstone in 1951. I worked there during the summers while I was in college for three years. Immediately I loved it there.
Lake Lodge before beautiful Lake Yellowstone was my home. My duties sent me to the hotel laundry. The boys washed the sheets and the girls put the sheets through the mangle while we sang.
But the good part was that we got off about 3pm and we got a day off. We would hitchhike on our day off to Jackson or Cody and tour all of Yellowstone.
My exciting event was that the summer of 1951 the movie “Shane” was being filmed in Jackson. We hitchhiked 100 miles down to Jackson. Since we had University of Nebraska shirts on, a man from Paramount Pictures invited us into the Silver $ Bar. We met Van Heflin and all the people were very nice to us. They even had their car drive us the 100 miles home.
Yellowstone provided us with the beauty of nature and possible quiet times. The coyotes sang each evening. In the 3 years we were there, we saw all of the park.
Several of us from UNL went together, but we met other college students from all over the USA and from Australia and England.
The weather was great and cooler than Nebraska. We traveled to and from Yellowstone by train and stopped in Denver and Salt Lake.
It turned out to be the trip of a lifetime. I loved Yellowstone. I have also been there 3 more times as a tourist.
Sincerely,
Yellowstone National Park
America's first national park is named after the river that runs through it. Within the park's massive boundaries, visitors can find mountains, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and some of the most concentrated geothermal activity in the world. The park has 60% of the world’s geysers, as well as hot springs and mud pots. It is also home to diverse wildlife with the largest concentration of mammals in the Lower 48 states, including grizzly bears, wolves, bison and elk.
State(s): Idaho Montana, Wyoming,
Established: 1872
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