Wendy Corr:
Well, hey there folks, welcome to The Roundup. We are a Cowboy State Daily podcast, and we focus on interesting people in the Cowboy State. And I am so tickled to be able to have a conversation today with this gentleman who not only grew up just outside the Cowboy State, but he is living his dream career in Yellowstone National Park, and we're just going to have a great time today.
First, I want to let you know that we have other wonderful podcasts that are homegrown right here in Wyoming, and one of them is very, very important for people who are business people, it's the Wyoming Business Alliance business from the basement podcast. I highly recommend checking out their podcast - if you are a business person, if you are thinking about becoming a business person in the cowboy state, check out the Wyoming Business Alliance and their business from the basement podcast for great resources and great conversations.
But first, don't go there yet, because first we have to talk with Mike Keller. Mike is a general manager for Xanterra, which is the concessionaire for the restaurants, the lodges, things like that in Yellowstone National Park. If you've gone to Yellowstone and you've stopped at a store, if you've had lunch, if you have stayed overnight, you have worked with Xanterra, and they're wonderful people, and Mike has been there...
Well, I'm going to let Mike tell you the story, because he's got a great story about his association with Yellowstone and with Xanterra. Mike Keller, it's a beautiful day in Yellowstone National Park, isn't it?
Mike Keller:
It is. Wendy, thank you very much. It is such a privilege to be here and speaking with you today. Thank you for the opportunity.
Wendy Corr:
Oh my gosh, no. This is great. I was telling Mike before we got started that he has been high on my list of people to get for this podcast, and so I honestly didn't think I'd be able to get him in the summer season, when things are so busy, but here he is, able to carve out just a little bit of time for us to tell us about his amazing work at Yellowstone, and the people he works with, and the people he gets to be, and the wildlife right outside his door.
Mike, you've got the best office in the world - if you're outside of the four walls anyway.
Mike Keller:
Yeah, even when I'm stuck indoors, I'm still in a great, awesome place to be, for certain, exactly. So yeah, for sure.
Wendy Corr:
So Mike, tell us about, we'll start out with the present. Tell us about your job right now, your general manager, and especially over the lodges, right? Tell us about what your job is there at at Yellowstone for Xanterra.
Mike Keller:
Thank you. It literally is, is everything you know, just you know, when we have, you know, over four and a half million visitors a year coming into Yellowstone National Park, and we're assigned over 850 buildings in this park to operate on behalf of the National Park Service.
So we're responsible for making sure we have the lodging taken care of most of the dining outlets in the park, retail outlets. We have marine operations on Yellowstone Lake. We have the horse operation at Roosevelt. We do all kinds of summer and winter transportation for visitors, whether it's bus tours or snow coach charters in the wintertime or the snow coach tour for mammoth faithful and back.
It's a large operation here. You know, we have about 2300 guest rooms. We do over 2 million meals a year in the park in the summertime here. You know, kind of situation, we have about 3500 people we hire to fill our seasonal operation here in the summertime as well. Yeah, so it's a significant operation here.
Wendy Corr:
I want to make sure that people know that there's a difference between what Xanterra does and between the, you know, we've heard all about the staffing problems with the National Park Service and all that, but that's different. Xanterra is a private organization. They're a private company, so, yeah, so that's going to be a different issue. So people are concerned, oh, they're, they're low on staffing, but not with Xanterra.
Mike Keller:
That is right, you know, we are, we are not. We're a concession that works in the park on behalf of the National Park Service. We are not a government agency or a private entity. So our recruiting, our hiring, everything that we do to operate, our operations, has not been, in fact, not been affected by what's been going on in our broader national conversation.
Wendy Corr:
You have people that return every year because this is just their dream job. They may go off someplace else in the in the world, in the United States, and have a winter job, but they come every year.
Mike Keller: 04:32
Yeah, we have multiple different kinds of employees that work for us. Some of us are year round, full time, like myself. In fact, Steve Fuller, who was our maintenance manager at Canyon, was there for 52 years. He just retired, you know, so that was his, like, he came to be in Yellowstone for a summer and it became his career.
I have a lot of people who work for us that came to be in Yellowstone for a summer, and this became their career. But we have a lot of people who work for us in the summertime and either go to another national park in the wintertime, or they just become snowbirds and they travel in the winter time. We definitely fill those kind of niches.
We have another program, which we call helping hands, where we have people come in and work for us in the shoulder season, the spring or the fall, where they work for us for about five or six weeks, just helping us out on those times of need when we're kind of at a little bit of a lower staff.
And then they get to recreate in the park for that period of time, and then go off and do whatever, like you say, what they're doing, touring nationally, whatever they like to do with their lifestyle beyond that point.
Wendy Corr:
I mean, just a jigsaw puzzle of getting staffing and stuff like that. That's a big job. Mike, you, though, you've had experience doing this for many years. I just think it is fascinating that you are a hometown guy. I mean, you grew up just right outside Yellowstone. Tell us about growing up in the shadow of Yellowstone National Park and what that meant to you.
Mike Keller:
Absolutely. Even before then, when I was, I mean, from my first memories, when our families went on vacations, we always went to national parks. I was born in Southern California. We lived there. We frequently went to Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia National Park. So I'd have all these memories just going to national parks.
We eventually moved to Denver, and we vacationed a lot in Rocky Mountain National Park and here in Yellowstone. And then when my father retired, we moved to Livingston, Montana. So I moved to Livingston and started working in Yellowstone when I was 14 years old in 1984.
So my first four years I was with the National Park Service. Actually, I was doing geothermal research, assisting the park geologist at Norris Geyser Basin. And then as soon as I turned 18, I decided to come work for the concessioner, who, at that time was TW services, who is Xanterra today, we just changed names over the years, you know, kind of a deal. But began working in the winter of 1987-88 as a room attendant at Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Cleaning your rooms.
Wendy Corr:
Wow, you really did, then, go from the ground up in this organization, that is so great. I love the fact that you found your way, your family found your way to Montana, and that this is - the geology, though, that was something that interested you when you were a teenager, right? Is that what still gets you about being in Yellowstone?
Mike Keller:
Absolutely, you're living in an active, breathing volcano - on top of, actually, not in - but it's just great because you see, you see geology here that this is not common in the world. You know, there are volcanoes around the world. There's geysers in very few places around the world. And just, just everything that goes on in this park. It's not just the geology, the biology of this park. It's a massive ecosystem here.
You know, as I frequently tell our employees, when you go for a hike in Yellowstone, when you're in the back country, you're not on top of the food chain anymore. You know, you need to be prepared. You need to recognize we are privileged to live in a place that is, you know, wild still, it is natural still.
That is something that just touches me every time I'm around this park, because that's part of what draws me here. It's like, this is what, this is what the world was like once upon a time, you know, before evolution and everything else happened. You know, where we've, kind of humans have kind of taken over the world space. This is still like it was once upon a time.
Wendy Corr:
And so to be inside that every day has just got to be, I just can't imagine that would ever get old, right?
Mike Keller:
No, it doesn't, absolutely doesn't, you know. And you know, you talk about living nearby, I've, in essence, been a Wyoming resident for 40 years because I've lived in Yellowstone park itself. So, in the best state in the union.
Wendy Corr:
Yes, yes. I love that. Very good. We're proud to have you. We're proud to have you. Mike, your job is so unique because you have to, you kind of outlined all the different things that Xanterra does. What part of your life and your career and your work prepared you for this? Because, you worked for Xanterra, you worked for the National Park Service. You went away for a while. You've worked in other parks, but did you always know that you wanted to work inside the park or the national parks and be associated with that?
Mike Keller:
Yes, yeah, that that is, it's hard to describe. It's just, you know, a sense of place. This is home. And I've always just, I've loved being here. I've loved being in national parks - again, as mentioned before, it's a privilege to be in them and to work in them, and so to be responsible for the upkeep and preservation of them.
And it's something that is very near and dear to me, and it's something that we try to do as a company as well, in terms of, you know, teaching our staffs and training our staffs about sustainability, and, you know, leave no trace. And want to make sure that, you know, this park remains as viable 200 years from now as it is today for us, for the people who came here 100 years ago, you know, kind of a deal.
So, that just, that sense of, you know, we have a responsibility here to do the right thing and to preserve this park short term and long term is special, and it's something that has just resonated with me my whole life. And to be able to be in a position to do that is great.
You know, working in national parks, when you first begin, you know, it's a seasonal operation, typically. So you're coming in, usually in April, May or June, you work for a period of, you know, five to 15 weeks. You get to the fall season. A lot of our employees then go off to college. That's what I did for a while. You know, kind of a deal. But you meet people from around the world, whether it's your co workers or the visitors who are coming into the park, and it's an experience you just don't get if you stay in your small town.
If you just stay in one place your whole life, you're not given that exposure to the diversity of what the world has to offer for you. And everybody comes here to see this place because it's so special, and it definitely allows you an opportunity, like I said, to meet connections and just meet people and experiences and share stories and just kind of be in that space that you don't necessarily get if you just stay in one place and don't get out there and kind of, you know, see the world, come see you.
Wendy Corr:
It sounds like a place that I should, you know, I would love to go work - not just yet, not just yet, but someday I could go there and, you know, be one of those work campers, and we could go do that. That sounds like a great time, because, for all those reasons.
But your experiences before you got there to Yellowstone, before you got to this job, really helped you to hone all the skills that you were going to need to take over as a general manager for Xanterra in Yellowstone. What, where were some of the places that your career took you, Mike, that then prepared you for this?
Mike Keller:
You know, so did the, you know, came here, worked in the park, like I mentioned. Was going to college, you know, as a young, idealistic, you know, 18 year old, 19 year old. I was going to be the, I wanted to be the next Geologist of Yellowstone. I was, that was going to be my career path, and go in that direction.
And, you know, when you want to do something and you begin to apply yourself towards it, I kind of realized it may not be the career path I wanted to follow, but I loved hospitality. I love meeting people like I talked about, and be able to have memorable experiences for guests and visitors and my co workers, etc. So that kind of was the draw that got me into hospitality.
And as I started working more and I was getting promoted, it's like, we need to give you some, you need to start getting some real just on hands experience. So I left Yellowstone for a couple years and worked in Seattle, which was fantastic. It was a great experience. Got to really deal with high volume, you know, major hotels and a large urban center. And loved it.
Took my girlfriend there, at the time, we got married, who's my wife today. We had a wonderful time with that. But we woke up one morning. We're just like, we miss Yellowstone. We want to go back, you know, again, that sense of place, that calling. And so we came back to Yellowstone.
Continued to work in management for several years. And then when I decided I wanted to become the general manager at this park someday, we had the conversation around, you probably need to go get some GM experience elsewhere. So left again. In 2016 for a couple years, ran Crater Lake, went from Crater Lake to Grand Canyon, ran Grand Canyon for a year. And then in 2017 this opportunity presented itself, and I came back.
Wendy Corr:
Crater Lake and Grand Canyon, wow, those are major places.
Mike Keller:
Yes, absolutely. You know, Crater Lake is the only national park in Oregon, and it is a gem for that state. And it is a beloved Park. And then that region, and by the locals and again. So I'm walking to another national park, another volcano, and, you know, working,, just building relationships to work with that local team, and understanding, you know, how the visitors feel about that park.
In Crater lake, we get about 800,000-2 million visitors a year. So it's not quite as busy as Yellowstone, but it's still very popular, like I say, it's very special in that region. So I learned a lot of things there, met a lot of great people in that space.
Went to Grand Canyon, which actually has more visitation than Yellowstone, typically, on an annual basis. You're on the I-40 corridor. You have Los Angeles just a few hours away. You have Phoenix just a couple hours away, a lot more urban proximity than you have here in Yellowstone, you know, and again, so just high volume, working with a lot of people, different experiences in that park.
But again, just, just great partnerships and people. And again, it's a beautiful, awesome place. And you just, you're on top of the living on the rim, and being right above, you know, this massive, massive - It is mind blowing for people who've never been before. You look at it almost feels like, it almost feels like a painting. When you're looking at it, just doesn't seem real. It's so vast and so big.
But again, taking that experience, applying what I could there, learning a bunch of stuff, and then bringing it back here, to Yellowstone.
Wendy Corr:
Now tell me about the major differences at Yellowstone, what makes being the manager, the general manager there and the hospitality at Yellowstone, what's different? What's unique about Yellowstone compared to these other places that you've worked? What specific skill sets do people need to have in order to work there and succeed and and thrive, instead of just being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of visitation every year?
Mike Keller:
You know, no two days are alike, and so you need to be quick thinking, flexible, fast on your feet, you know, kind of understanding what happens. We get about 3.5 to 4 million of those visitors, I mentioned before in about a 150 day window.
So we kind of go from, winter ends and we're kind of spending a little bit of time, the Park Service is plowing the roads again. It's ready to open our operations, and then suddenly it's game. On that last weekend of April, the roads open to the public, and there's already demand at that time of year.
And then over the next seven weeks, pretty much every single weekend, we're opening another location or two in the park. In fact, you know, Roosevelt lodge opens today, which is our next to last location. Roosevelt is a very popular location in the northeast corner of the park, but, you know, by next weekend we'll have everything open, and we're on that full scale operation, like I talked about.
So a lot of planning, a lot of organization to to prep everything, to get ready for those opening dates. Then from that first weekend, second weekend of June, until Labor Day, we're just in that day to day, act and react kind of mode. Visitors are coming. We know the volumes we have to do to feed people, to have rooms ready for people. Have campgrounds ready for people.
So just, just get into that daily routine of getting everything cleaned and maintaining standards and making sure that everything is, you know, just representing Yellowstone and Wyoming as well as we can. And then as you get into the fall, it's the process of starting to shut things down.
So Labor Day, we close Roosevelt, and then that first, that last weekend of September, first weekend of October, every weekend, we're shutting one or two locations down. And that, in itself, is another challenge here in the park, because most hotels, you know, you don't open for a period of time and close for a period of time.
These are old historic buildings. A lot of them were built, you know, in the late 1800s, early 1900s, there are national historic registers. They are crown jewels in the National Park Service. And to shut a building down completely, blow all the pipes out, take everything out of the hotel, shut it down, and shut it down, and kind of do that stuff. It's a task.
We do it well because it's muscle memory. We've been doing it for a number of years, and have the experience doing it, but it's still, there's a lot of work and effort that goes into it, so that by the time you get to about Thanksgiving, we've kind of got everything, kind of put to bed, as it were, shut it down with the snow, start flying, get ready for the winter season.
And then in the first, about the 15th of December, we open Mammoth and Snow Lodge, again, that winter routine that goes until the first weekend of March. So for managers to work here in the park, you know, it's fast paced. You need, you need to do a lot of job of planning, but you also gotta be ready to change that plan, like that, given whatever may happen in the park.
If we have a forest fire, if there's a major traffic incident, if it was, whatever, we don't want forest fires or but, you know, any of those things that can happen here that will cause, you know, disruptions. And we had the flood a couple of years ago, which is an example.
Wendy Corr: 1
I was going to ask you about that for sure. How did that throw a wrench into everything? And not just from a logistic sense for you folks there, but also from a perception for the rest of the world. I know I was covering all of that as it was happening, and trying to get the word out - Yellowstone is not closed, people. It's okay. You can come.
But like, Mammoth, Mammoth had to close down because the sewer system was compromised, and that took a long time. Tell us about that, it was a huge job to get that back up and going, right?
Mike Keller:
And even just before I even begin to that, I cannot express enough how much, how thankful I am to the leadership that was demonstrated by the National Park Service, by Cam Sholly, our superintendent, by the state of Wyoming and Governor Gordon, and everything he did to help support, or from our congressional and, you know, Senate representation.
It was, it was just impressive, and just, you know, humbling to see how fast people worked together to bring Yellowstone back to life after the events of that flood and, you know, and just to watch it happen. So kudos to all those folks for what they did.
But yeah, you know, we're kind of, you know, in the moment the flood’s happening, the road washes out between Mammoth and Gardiner. The sewer system washes out between Mammoth and Gardiner. We have about 1200 people in Mammoth, between the visitors, between the National Park Service, staff, between our staff, etc, and, you know.
And like I said, thinking fast, the National Park Service really quickly realizing, you know, we can't have people living here. We can't have people staying here. How are we going to relocate guests in the meantime?
And we have rising waters all around Yellowstone. I mean, a lot of the videos and stuff that you were seeing, a lot of the damage took place out in the Lamar Valley or in the road between Mammoth and Gardiner. A lot of the interior, while waters came up and rivers were high, there wasn't the same kind of damage like you were seeing.
And especially Montana, took a lot more of the brunt of it than Yellowstone, here in the park, you know, Paradise Valley, Red Lodge, those areas got hit very hard. And a lot of the images you were seeing in the media were those areas being affected by the flooding.
But of course, people translate that to Yellowstone's flooding, thinking that's in the park. And a unique thing about Yellowstone, at least in the Mammoth and areas, we're not near the rivers, the water that's like downhill and below from us. So, like, the Mammoth property itself was never in threat of, like, being flooded out, like you were seeing in some of these images.
But the road was gone. And how do you now have this major road that connects, you know, Mammoth to Montana, in essence, and it's gone - not just slightly washed out, like completely washed out of the 30 feet of the hillside beyond.
This was something, I'm kind of paraphrasing here, but I remember Cam coming back from an early flyover, and it's like, that road's not getting, that road's not reopening, because it was completely taken out. And the later images showed that to be the case, you know.
So we had this old stagecoach road that was, you know, built about 1894 between Mammoth and Gardiner that still existed. It was kind of a one way road that you would take down, a lot of people like to bike it or hike it. It was just kind of, a little off the beaten path kind of a thing to do. And literally, in five months, we took that narrow two lane thing and built a modern two lane highway, paved it and completed it right before the temperatures got cold and the snow began to fly the first of November.
It was just awesome to watch that come together.
Wendy Corr:
Miracles happen.
Mike Keller:
Yeah, miracles happen. Yeah, yeah. And just again, when the combined efforts and forces of all these people in executive leadership positions for our country put their, decide to say, we're going to get this done, it happened. It was just a great thing to see. So, wow.
Wendy Corr:
So those are just some of the things that have to deal with, and just thinking on your feet and troubleshooting and stuff like that. I want to go back to something you said, though, about the historic buildings, and when you were talking about getting them ready for winter and things like that. Now, we were talking about this as a staff just, I think it was yesterday. And is the Old Faithful Inn, is that, like the largest historic, and oldest historic log cabin in existence? Because it's just such an iconic, iconic building.
Mike Keller:
It is. There are some very large lodges up in Alaska that are definitely impressive. But it is my favorite building in the entire National Park Service system, of all of the hotels, of all the lodges, for me, it's just the place, you know, kind of a big deal. It's massive. You know, it's definitely bigger than almost anything you're gonna find in the national park in the lower 48 for sure.
There's some large, older, historic hotels on the East Coast that are that are equal in size, maybe a little bit bigger, but they were not built in this remote, mountainous region like Old Faithful Inn is, you know what I'm saying?
Wendy Corr:
It's just such an, again, an iconic place with the flags flying up above. And when you drive - I think that that when people picture Yellowstone National Park, and they're coming in from any of the entrances. They're like, but how can we be in Yellowstone? There's no Old Faithful yet. You’ve got to go clear into the interior of the park to get to that iconic image there.
But like you say, there's so much involved in that. Do you have to have a minor degree in, you know, architecture and history in order to really appreciate and know what you're doing when you're maintaining these properties?
Mike Keller:
We have a well tenured, long term, experienced engineering team that just specializes in this space, you know. We have our own dedicated Historic Preservation crew that is trained to do not just general repairs, but his repairs to historic buildings, you know. So when we do a repair at Old Faithful Inn, we're keeping it in the period, in the time frame and the feel of when it was originally constructed.
You know, it's that fine line where people want to have modern touches and modern amenities, but they still want to have the historic feel. And you can't really kind of do both here, you know, in a remote location like we have here in Yellowstone, you know, like Old Faithful Inn.
The Inn still doesn't have Wi Fi on the property. You have to go to Old Faithful Snow Lodge across the street for that, but it's part of the historic charm of that building, you know. And you know, the National Park Service believes it is best to keep it in that space. So we're going to support that decision, and we're going to keep our operation as it is.
Wendy Corr:
So that is, again, it is part of the charm, and it's something that people coming in should, should is a bad word, but expect, because when you come to Yellowstone, you're not going to Disneyland, you're not going to Universal Studios. Here you are coming to be remote. That's part of the charm of Yellowstone.
But that also has to be kind of an irritation for those of you who are trying to work in a modern age, right? And and you probably have to have some concessions for that.
Mike Keller:
We do, you know. And you're like, you know, cell service is allowed within the developed area, so whatever, every other location you have cell service, but as soon as you leave and get within a couple miles of there, your cell phones no longer work. You know, kind of a deal.
And that's just, there's lots of portions of Wyoming, you can say where you go to portions of the state. It's like, I suddenly have no cell service because I'm in a remote area. But you know, if people are coming for that experience, that's what they experience, that's what they want, you know?
And there's been a lot of feedback over the years from visitors who don't want to have cell service blasted everywhere. You know what I'm saying? Where I can never get away from, you know, technology, whatever else. So, yeah, yes. Do your research before you come.
Wendy Corr:
That's right. That's right. Now we're talking about technology. Let's talk about teenagers. Let's talk about your children. You've got two girls, right? You've raised your girls at Yellowstone. Tell us about raising a family in Yellowstone National Park.
Mike Keller:
You know Gardiner, which is five miles from where I am in Mammoth, they have a school down there, so our kids would go to school in Gardiner. That school is kindergarten to 12th grade, so it's one school that kind of has it all within that space, the classes are small, you know, eight to 15 kids in a class.
Everybody knows everybody here, because all the parents know everybody in this community, you know. So there's, there's this constant connection where everything goes on in the school is really kind of the anchor that really brings the whole community together, because it's the commonality with everything.
But, you know, like, our kids grew up and they learned at a very young age, before you just run outside into the yard, you look left and right for elk, you look left and right for bison, for a bear, whatever else. We take them into the city, they'll run into a street without thinking twice, because there's no worry about wildlife.
But it was a very different priority of where do you, you know, growing up around and, you know, experiencing what could be around you, that kind of stuff. So that was always interesting. And you know, you are remote, you are limited in your services. So like sporting events, we're all taking, you know, as parents, you're all taking turns, and you're taking the whole team up to one place to come back from other places.
It's just all part of, what would you do here in this situation, to be here? My kids loved it. They loved the fact that it was a small school, and they got to have, you know, really good, you know, limited classes with teachers.
A lot of their field trips would be with a park biologist or scientist coming into the park and learning about wolves or bears or geology or something else. So the field trips are really cool for doing that stuff, because they're getting, like, real, like, hands on science experiences.
But as they got older, of course, and they’re like, oh, I want to live in a city. I want to live in these places. I want to have all these opportunities available to me. Both of them are in college now. They're both over in Oregon. One of them is loving it. Is staying there. And they're like, Yeah, this is what I want to do.
But another one is like, after their first year in college, they're like, I miss Wyoming. I miss the remoteness. I want to come back. So that is something, I think the seed got planted with that.
Wendy Corr:
That is great. I love that they had that experience growing up, because it's such a unique way to be raised, and a unique environment in which to be raised that just, it doesn't happen anymore. There's no place in the United States that you can have that kind of of upbringing.
Mike Keller:
And one more thing, at both of their orientations, they are kind of like introducing yourself to your fellow students and both students. And both of them said, when I said I'm from Wyoming and I lived in Yellowstone, like the entire classroom was, like, in awe of them. It's like, you got to grow up and live in this place? That's incredible, kind of a deal.
Wendy Corr:
They would be rock stars. I'm sure they would be rock stars. That is so awesome.
Mike, we're getting close to the end of our time here today, but I want to ask you, what is your favorite time of year? Is it this time, where everything is so busy, or is it the winter? Is it the winter when everything is quiet and covered in snow and you have the place to yourself? What's your thoughts?
Mike Keller:
You know, I love the park year-round, but there are a couple of times here, this time of year right now is actually awesome, watching the park wake up. We have baby animals all over the place right now. The elk are calving in Mammoth. The Bison just had their, you know, their calves. You'll see, you have the bears out with cubs. It's always great to watch this park wake up in the spring. Everything is green. You know, it's just, it's just lovely right now.
But personally, my favorite time of the year is like the last couple weeks of September, the first couple weeks of October, in the fall. By then, you know, the elk are bugling, you're getting into the rutting season with that, the trees have turned, there's just a little bit of Christmas in the air. I love hiking in the back country that time of year. That's probably my favorite kind of that four week window there.
Wendy Corr:
That’s wonderful. One last question - for people who are planning their trips to Yellowstone who haven't gone yet this year, because the park’s just waking up, what are your, what's your best advice for us who haven't been to the park yet? What should we be looking for this year? What's standing out this year? What's new and fun? I mean, I know you can't go to biscuit basin.
Mike Keller:
Right, exactly. But that's new and fun from a geology standpoint, I think that's right, yeah. So, you know, this park is very big, and you hear the narrative about, it's overcrowded, it's overrun. There's too many visitors. There is so much to this park that, you know, everybody goes to one place.
They want to see Grand Prismatic Spring, okay, so you bring this large crowd into there, but in the meantime, Hayden Valley, Lamar Valley, Lewis River Falls. You know, there's all kinds of places in this park you can go to that don't necessarily have the same amount of crowds. So again, do your homework. Look at the park. Kind of understand the layout of Yellowstone.
And when you plan to go around the park, there's no longer - even going to an amusement park, don't be criss-crossing the park all the time. Go to one place and explore that entire area. There are so many hikes and opportunities in Yellowstone. You go a quarter mile to a half mile into the backcountry, and there's no crowds. You are out there in the wilderness, and it takes just 10 minutes to get there, you know.
And waterfalls, to see animals, to see geothermal features, to see, there's opportunities throughout this park to go see and explore. So stick to the roads if you want to just do the basic things. But if you really want to understand and see Yellowstone, get out there in the backcountry and explore your park. Explore your park.
Wendy Corr:
Speaking as somebody who has lived there and worked there for so many years, what about one - I keep saying one last question - what about, speaking specifically for Xanterra, how are the bookings this year? I mean, do you guys have openings? Because I just know, for years, it's like you had to book the year before in order to reserve a room. Are there openings this year? Can we get a last minute reservation?
Mike Keller:
Absolutely, you know, it's one of these, the urban myths, you know, kind of a thing. The last two weeks of August and that first week of September, we kind of go through this phase where the summer family vacation ends and people are going back to, you know, they're getting back to take their kids to take their kids to school wherever else.
But before that fall visitation really kind of kicks off, that is a great time of year to come to Yellowstone. We typically have availability at several locations. Right now, this time of year we are still kind of opening up. We have some opportunities, and we're about two to three weeks away from getting out of that space. But, you know, in campgrounds, there's almost always, you know, some kind of availability at a campground if you're looking for something.
So people think, Oh, I can't go. That is actually not correct. You know, we do have opportunities here. Mid July, early August, that's the toughest. You know, historically, about the first to the 10th of August is the busiest, the highest level of visitation in Yellowstone. So that's kind of the peak of the season.
But even as you get into the fall, end of September, early October, there's opportunities in Mammoth hotel now, we keep it open all the way through until March, so it doesn't close in the fall anymore. So if you want to come in October, November, it's a great getaway as well.
Wendy Corr:
That’s perfect. You've answered all the questions that have popped up in my brain in the last five minutes. So thank you very much, Mike, this has been such a grand, grand conversation, and I'm excited to get to the park. We're hoping to go next weekend, so I'm very excited about that.
Thank you for your years of service. I know how much stress your staff has to be under with all the visitations. So we are grateful for all that you do to make our experiences in Yellowstone very, very memorable. So please, on behalf of all of us who love Yellowstone, thanks to you and your staff for all the work that you're doing.
And I love how much you love your job. That's just so great. We're glad that you were able to carve out some time for us for today. Appreciate it.
Mike Keller:
Thank you very much, Wendy.
Wendy Corr:
You bet. And folks, thank you for tuning in today. I hope that today's conversation has inspired you to take a trip to Yellowstone this summer, because it's the place to go, it's the place to go, and I'm so excited about getting in there and doing some exploring myself.
Thanks for tuning in to today's Roundup. Stay tuned next week. We've got more great guests coming up. We've got a lot of guests in our archives. So if you have missed any episode of The Roundup, go back and maybe click on one of those. It's like, you know, I don't know who that person is, but if they're on the Roundup, they must have a story to tell, and that's the truth.
So check us out. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks, Mike. Folks, have a wonderful week.
