Recommended Reading for Yellowstone, Tetons, Beartooth Vacation?
 

DH & I will be making this trip in September--first time as empty nesters. I already have some great guide and hiking books for these areas, plus I just bought Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx. Can anyone recommend some excellent novels and/or non-fiction we might enjoy which would set the stage for this trip?

Thanks!

I really liked:

A Falcon Guide "Hiking Yellowstone National Park http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/156...840711?ie=UTF8

and Frommer's Yellowstone and Grand Teton's Guide. (suggested to me by HorwardR in my post asking about Grand Teton Hikes http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34805516)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/076...e&n=283155

I checked both out of my local library and took them both with me. Neither book had all the info we needed so they both came in really handy.

Utahtea

Thanks, Utahtea. I will go to my library tomorrow to see if I can reserve those for my trip.

You will have a great trip! One book that kept pulling me back to it, morbid as it may seem, was "Death in Yellowstone". It was actually rather interesting reading and was amazing to see how foolish some people can be. I have enjoyed the early Nevada Barr books from a NPS standpoint - several of hers are set in western parks (not Y'Stone or G. Tetons, tho)...her later books are a little too gritty for my enjoyment. You might also try to pick up something that has excerpts of John Wesley Powell's diaries on his expeditions of the area - if I recall correctly, many of the sites in that area were first seen by his group of men. (However, I might be confusing that with the Grand Canyon....)
You can also try some Yogi Bear comics! :)

I have thought about getting Death in Yellowstone, but I read the Death in the Grand Canyon book a couple of years ago, and that's still pretty fresh in my mind. Love the Yogi suggestion! ;-) Thanks!

Can anyone comment on <i>Yellowstone Treasures</i>? It's recommended online as a good guide to have.

Bayou Gal,

Lost In My Own Backyard by Tim Cahill. Mountain Time by Paul Schullery. There are also a number of good books about the reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowstone if you are interested in that type of thing. I've read a number of them, I just can't remember the names or authors right now.
Have a wonderful trip!
Lily

Thanks, Lily! :) All of those, including the one about the reintroduction of the wolf to Yellowstone, sound like exactly what we're looking for.

Yellowstone Treasures is the best book I found on Yellowstone. We went several years ago and I purchased a number of books but the one I took with me to Yellowstone was Yellowstone Tresures-by far the best. I recommended it to a friend who just got back from Yellowstone. She purchased the new edition and said it was the best book she found.

I read Death in Yellowstone before we went but wish I had waited until I got home so I would have been more familiar with the areas mentioned in the book.

Another great source of Yellowstone info is The Total Yellowstone Pages web site-especially the chat pages.

We're retired and recently visited that area for the first time, too, in late May and early June. We chose &quot;off season&quot; (similar to your planned time), and I think you'll find it much nicer then, with far fewer tourists, lower room rates, etc.

We flew from Vermont to Billings, MT in late May, rented a car and drove around Montana, Wyoming and some of South Dakota for 2 weeks. We planned our trip as follows, if it helps!

1) Contact each state you plan to visit and ask for their &quot;official&quot; information just for openers.

2) Look through that material and make a list of interesting-looking things and places to visit, depending on what kinds of things interest you. Get on line and poke around, too.

3) Now check mileages between the selected places and make up an itinerary of sorts that fits your &quot;schedule&quot; -- planned length of stay, desired miles to drive each day, etc.

4) Depending on your tastes, we suggest that you look into B&amp;B's wherever you're going, instead of motels. Quieter places in which to sleep, nicer rooms (usually), fabulous breakfasts, and often actually less costly.

As an example of a unique B&amp;B we found, we stayed at &quot;The Howlers Inn&quot; near Bozeman, MT. It is a lovely place (and the innkeepers are a sharp couple) with their own 3-acre enclosure surrounding a pack of six wolves right next to the house! It was a totally new experience to see those interesting animals up close.

Wherever you go, be sure to plan a couple of days for Yellowstone. This is definitely a &quot;jewel&quot;! However, the Tetons (south of there) are absolutely gorgeous, too.

Feel free to post more questions or email, if you choose!

Vermonter

By the way, have you ever traveled to higher altitude areas? Here, we live on a ridge at 1200 feet or so. However, out there, I found out about &quot;altitude problems&quot;!

We stayed one night in West Yellowstone, at 6,600 feet, and I thought I was having a heart attack that night. I could not get to sleep unless I sat up, when I was able to at least doze. I found myself gasping for breath, which led to a panic attack, and eventually ended up literally lying awake all night! (I had NOT struggled during the day, walking around -- only at night, trying to lie down and sleep.)

I had a smiliar problem at another stop at 6,200 feet. However, at one place at 4,700 feet, I slept like a baby, and did so everywhere else below 5,000 feet.

Just mentioning this....

I hope you enjoy your trip!

Vermonter