A Voyage of Discovery: Betsy and Bubba on the Road

I’ve written about baby animals and flowers, the pleasures of hiking and all that. There is a harsh side to this place, and its remoteness, despite the fact that more than 3 million folks visit here every year.

We have clinics at a variety of locations throughout the park. Basic medical needs and first aid can be addressed there, and the rangers are well trained in dealing with wilderness first aid. But real medical care, the kind we expect in our everyday 21st century lives, is not so readily available. Cody, WY, is the nearest “large” community to my location, only 87 miles away. (Put that in perspective, Newporters, who haven’t been to Fall River for 20 years, and hesitate to drive all the way to Middletown for a movie on a weeknight.) The road to Cody closes each night at 8, not to reopen until the next morning at 8. The next nearest community, Jackson, WY, is 101 miles away, but that 101 miles constitutes a 3 hour journey. In the event of a real emergency, the rangers can call for an ambulance (of course, the patient must pay the freight) or can medevac someone out in a helicopter.

This week, a woman from Michigan was standing on a small retaining wall at Calcite Cliffs in the Tower Roosevelt region in the northeast part of the Park. She stepped over the retaining wall to get a better photo, and slipped on loose gravel, then fell 500 feet to her death, while her husband and children stood by, helplessly. Rangers had to rappel down the cliff to recover her body.

A few days ago, a man on a tour fell and appeared to have internal bleeding. He was medevacked out and flown to Billings, MT for surgery. The helicopter could not take his wife; she was left to find a taxi(there are no rental cars in the park) at night for the four plus hour trip to Billings.

Last night, we received a call at the hotel from the rangers asking us to hold a room for a family in distress. They had rolled their van, and the grandfather with his three grandchildren arrived at the hotel at 9:30 to stay. The grandmother, children’s parents, and one child had been taken out of the Park for hospitalization.

On a daily basis, visitors tempt the fates by going way too close to wildlife. Frequently, the rangers are there to step in and try to herd the visitors away. This is most apparent in the frequent bear jams, huge traffic jams while visitors stop their cars in midstream to get as close as they can to a grizzly bear, who looks cute and sweet, probably weighs 300 pounds, and does not want to be approached. I was stopped in one of these jams the other day, and watched a woman carrying a child who looked to be about 2. The ranger repeatedly herded her behind the line, she appeared to pay no mind. Finally the ranger stood in front of her and sent her back to her car. At the same time, I was beckoned on into the roadway by another ranger. The woman still 10 feet to the side of my car, yelled at me for not stopping to let her across, I was jeopardizing her child’s safety. Hmmm…

Except for those of us who spend time at sea, our lives in urban or suburban America, do not expose us to these kinds of perils. We are not mindful of our place in the natural world, and seem to believe that we truly have been given dominion over the planet, to tread as and where we will. Yellowstone is a daily reminder for me. The risks are well worth it, to my way of thinking, but I’ve had to learn to change my ways. I don’t often hike alone, as I would without reservation in the woods and fields of southern New England. Even leaving the camper or walking out of work, I must be aware of my surroundings, and cognizant of the fact that there may be a bison or bear around the corner.