Matt's Visit!

Sorry it took so long for me to upload a new blog...I was having some blogger issues. Now, they are all resolved!

Hey everyone! I just had some of the best days I have ever had in the Park. My boyfriend. Matt, came to visit for my days off this week. He got here Wednesday right when I got off work and stayed until Saturday afternoon when I had to go back for a dinner shift. We traveled all over inside Yellowstone and made a few excursions to neighboring towns too. One very cool thing is that Xanterra lets friends of employees rent dorm rooms for only two dollars a night, so Matt got a nice and cheap place to stay. Wednesday night we just chilled and had dinner at the Lodge and then sat on the porch and watched the sunset.
The next morning, we got up and hit the road. We went all the way to Livingston to go to a really sweet fly store called “Hatchfinders” and then came back and ate in Gardiner. Then we fished the Gibbon river for awhile, but had to quit because the weather was turning nasty and because we had dinner reservations at the Hotel. We went and had a fancy dinner where I work (which was weird being on the other end of the table) and sat on the porch of the Lodge again that night with my friends Chuck and Jacob.
Friday, we went to Norris geyser basin and hiked all over. While it would have been sweet if Steamboat went off while we were there, it was still amazing to see what I think is the best geyser basin in Yellowstone. After that, we actually went back to Gardiner for lunch but then got ice cream in Mammoth.


Then, (the best part of the weekend) we went fishing for an evening in one of the coolest places I have been in Yellowstone. We fished a part of Slough Creek below the trailhead with great scenery and tons of wildlife. We heard that it was high and unfishable, but decided to check it out anyways. It was still a little high, but was anything but unfishable. Matt and I both hooked into some nice fish. Matt caught 3 smaller rainbows and a cutthroat and I caught two nice cuts all on small dry flies. There was abundant wildlife and we watched a river otter catch and eat fish for almost a half hour. We saw signs of everything from elk to bobcats to coyotes and had a great time. By the time we got off the river and back to civilization, we barely managed to get food in Mammoth at10pm before coming back to Lake ready to crash for the night.
We saw some cool wildlife, including bighorn sheep (even a big ram), otters, elk in velvet and cows with little calves, and came across full coyote and bobcat skulls. Our evening of fishing was incredibly fun.
I had a hard time saying good-bye but can’t wait for him to come back!