Moose Falls

This morning, I had plans to meet with Michelle at 11 to go swimming at a waterfall she said was by the South entrance of the park.  I had slept through breakfast, and woke up starving around 10 am.  I decided to head to the general store, but I wasn’t quite sure how to get there.  I started walking in the direction I thought it was, and ran into Steve and Joe, two people I had met at the employee pub on the Fourth of July.

“Hey, do you guys know how to get to the general store?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll walk you there if you want.  I gotta grab some things.  Can you wait a minute?” Steve said.

“Sure, but I have to be back at 11, will I have enough time?”

“I can give you a ride,” Joe said.  ”By the way, I’m Joe.”

“I’m Steve.”

“I know.  We met the other night.  Anoush. You walked me to the hotel and back to get cash”  (Sigh).  This has happened to me a lot since I’ve gotten here.  I was told by my orientation leader that a great way to meet people is to go to the employee pub.  So I’ve gone a couple of times.  But it doesn’t do much good if those people don’t remember me because they’re so drunk.  So it goes.

Joe gave me a ride.  On the way, there was a bison laying right next to the road.  ”WOW!” I said.

“Oh. Hah.  You’re still in the starry-eyed phase, huh?”  Joe said.

I guess I am.  A lot of people complain about things here: the amount our company takes out for housing and three meals a day ($300/month), hours, side work, etc.  I have no qualms with any of it.  The shifts are hard, but if you aren’t out all night drinking the night before, it’s really not bad at all.  And servers have nothing to complain about.  We make a ton of money, and where else in the world can you live and eat for $300/a month?  Plus, we get to live in a national park!

Anyways, after we got back from the store, I went to my dorm to wait for Michelle.  She wasn’t there, so I went outside and sat on the sidewalk so I would see her car pull up.  Then I realized I didn’t know what kind of car she had.  Just then, Michael, one of the bartenders, walked by me.  He is one of the friendliest people I’ve met here.

“Hey!  What’re you doing?”

I explained.

“I want to go swimming!  Let’s go get her!” he said.  I followed him to Osprey, and we knocked on her door.  She was asleep.  Not feeling well.  I thought great, no swimming today. But somehow, Michael convinced her to go.  He offered to drive.  We all had to work at the same time, 4 pm, and she might feel better if she laid in the sun.

So we loaded up his car, and Michelle drank some pepto.  Two others hopped in the car, Casey and Naiomi, a very adorable couple.  We started driving towards the South entrance.  It was fun to see how many tourists pull over in ridiculous places.  At one point, there was an animal jam, as it’s called here, because there were some elk right on the side of the road.  Some tourists were outside of their car taking pictures from about 5 feet away.  Michelle, a quiet, soft spoken girl, yelled out the window, “I hope they hoof you in the face!!”  They were too close, she said.

An hour later, we arrived at Moose falls.

The water comes from a creek off of the Yellowstone river, and is also fed by a hot spring.  So the water was amazingly nice.  Not cold at all!  I jumped right in, and swam under the waterfall.  You can see in the picture below how there is a little place under the waterfall where you can wade:

And this is a view from behind the waterfall:

Michael tried to take a picture of me right under the waterfall, but the mist was too intense for the lens, and we didn’t get any good pictures.  But as you put your head under the stream of water, the pressure from the falling water was intense.  It scared me a bit, as it nearly pushed my head under.  We spent the next couple of hours laying on rocks and talking.  It was so nice.  There was another car-load of Lake employees, and I got to meet a couple of new people, thankfully, sober  Maybe this time they’ll remember me.

We drove back in time to make it to our dinner shifts, and I managed to burn my white shirt with the iron just before leaving for work.  Wonderful.  I borrowed a good shirt from my roommate.

Tonight was my last training shift.  Tomorrow, I am on my own.  Apparently, people that came in the beginning of the season had 2 weeks of training.  They say I am lucky because I had less than a week.  I’m glad they see it that way.  I don’t.  I feel like I’m being thrown into the deep end without knowing how to swim!  I guess we can only wait and see how it goes tomorrow.