Your Yellowstone Guide
helping you map out your YNP adventure
+ encouraging you to navigate life by faith
If you want to visit Yellowstone someday–whether in person, online, or through the pages of a book, you’re in the right place.
If you’d like some guidance as you plan your Yellowstone adventure, you’re in the right place.
If you’d like some encouragement to navigate the ups and downs of everyday life by faith, you’re in the right place.
I’m Natalie and I’m glad you’re here.
Let’s go to Yellowstone.
Recent Posts
When to Make Reservations for Yellowstone
When I worked the desk at what was then called the Old Faithful Visitor Center, there were two questions I dreaded. First, "Are there any campgrounds with openings?" The second was related. "Are there any hotel rooms available?" While there was never a particularly...
How to Be Prepared: Don’t Leave it Behind
“You’ve got a griz!” The call came from the picnic area below—just seconds after I had discerned that the brown shaggy head and shoulders cresting the hill twenty-five yards to my left was not, in fact, a bison. It was a bear. Wherever it was headed, we were in the...
4 Must-Have Items You Need in Yellowstone
No one really wants to take time from what we want to be doing in Yellowstone to shop for something we didn't think to bring along. To save you that headache, here are a few must-have items you'll want to put on your list of things to pack: Sunscreen Yellowstone’s...
Gifts and Graces | Spring 2023
When it comes to navigating the landscape of life, I find it dishearteningly easy to drift toward reacting in fear or finding my way by feel rather than walking by faith. Maybe you know what that’s like. One practice that helps me stay on course is to pay attention....
How to be Prepared: Make Noise
“It’s time to turn around,” my husband said. Relieved, I pivoted on the spot. J and I were in Yellowstone’s Bechler Region, a remote area with no roads, plenty of waterfalls, and its share of bears. It took the morning just to drive there. After spending the rest of...
Hiking with Kids in Yellowstone
We started hiking with our kids in Yellowstone while they were still babies. Because of that, we've embraced some mindsets and strategies to foster a pleasant hiking experience for everyone. We want them to be happy, safe, and motivated to keep going. (And we...
Picnicking in Yellowstone: What You Need to Know
“He’s a good big brother, helping his little sisters like that,” said an older woman as she walked past us on her way to her picnic table. “Thanks,” my husband and I mumbled together, remembering. Our kids were playing quite happily together along the shore...
How to Be Prepared: Be Alert
Crossing the gravel parking lot, Dad and I turned toward the Gardner River. Worn by wildlife and fly fishermen, the narrow path that paralleled it wasn’t an official trail. We knew it only because of the hours three generations of our family had collected here at...
Gathering Winter’s Saving Graces
For Yellowstone's bison, it's the end of this season that's most dangerous. They've spent the winter foraging for frozen foliage by swinging their heads back and forth through the snow like a bucket on an excavator. After a long winter of burning their reserves...
Where to Hike in Yellowstone: 5 Short Hikes
By temperament, I am hard-pressed to choose a favorite anything. Ask for my favorite food, color, or book and I’ll give you two. Or maybe three. Sometimes more. So here are not one, two, even three favorite short hikes in Yellowstone. Here are my favorite five,...
Are You Prepared?
My husband and I were just approaching the trailhead when I saw the sign. Again. WARNING: BEAR FREQUENTING AREA. The weight of impending doom settled on my soul and my mind launched in with its barrage of questions. How many bears? Is it one or a mama with cubs? How...
How We Prepare Him Room
Zipping my jacket to my chin, I picked up speed in hopes of generating more body heat. Before long it would be warm—possibly even hot—but that would be later. For now, the October sun hadn’t been up long enough to chase away the overnight chill. Earlier, when the...
“There is a great deal of good to be learned from what we see every day, if we would but consider it.”
~ Matthew Henry