[Geysers] Tour guiding

[TSBryan at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/11/2005 10:40:10 PM Mountain Standard Time,  
email.sheri at verizon.net writes:

Scott -- How is it driving 'tour van'?
Do you enjoy it...? Are you  able to share your wonderful knowledge of 
geysers with the customers?  ...  Who are your 'typical'  tourists?   elder?  entire 
families?  first  timers?



I shall answer to all, which I suppose I should have done some time ago,  
given the number of people who have asked me while in the  park...
 
I am driving anything from one to four days per week, for Yellowstone Tour  
Guides. I drive only (so far) the Lower Loop tour, which itself takes about 8  
hours. Of course I share geyser information, but it is easy enough to sense 
that  some people care a whole lot more than others. Which also controls just 
where we  stop and for how long. And the geyser basins are not more than half (
sometimes  not more than a third) of the day. Often we drive the loop 
counterclockwise and  have about 1 1/2 hours at Old Faithful for the geyser, for 
shopping and for  lunch; but if driving clockwise around the loop, lunch is at Lake 
and there's as  little as one hour at OF. Whickever, we also do the lake, 
Hayden Valley, and the  canyon along with however many wildlife photo-op stops -- 
from West back to West  is 126 miles.
 
It actually isn't all that easy -- you have to be attentive to the people  
and alert to the surroundings at all times.
 
There is no typical tourist except that with few of the people have  been to 
Yellowstone before. There is no typical tourist. I've had families with  
little kids, grandparents with grandkids, a Mexican wildlife biologist, two guys  
from Peoples Republic of China, a childish honeymooning couple most interested  
in making out in the back seat. Etc.
 
Scott Bryan
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