Art's Personal Photos Pages
SUMMER 1978
Yellowstone National Park
My parents drove me from Cleveland to Yellowstone, where they took a little vacations.
We stopped in the Badlands of South Dakota. I had been in both places in 1975 for an SSTP program,
earning college credit with the University of Iowa. I'm wearing the custom-made leather sandals
that I wore all the time at FIT. They were soon replaced by hiking boots.
Jonathan Piper and I both started off working as "Kitchen Help" in the Old Faothful Lodge.
He was from Priceton and we had a lot of common interests in music and adventure.
We went on several short hikes together early in the summer before backpacking later
in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and in the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone.
I met Jay Ripley "Rip" Wolfington in the employees lounge, where he had managed to sneak in and play some pool.
He was visiting with his parents, but wanted to stay in the park all summer, so he somehow
found a job as a night watchman at the Old Faithful Inn. And we ended up getting a room
in the "New New Dorms".
I met Jenny through Rip, who had been invited to come on a jeep ride to Jackson.
Somehow Rip got me invited, too.
That's Rip, John (who owned the jeep), Evelyn (Jenny's roommate and good friend), me,
and the other guy at an overlook on the way to Jackson.
That's Jenny in the white jacket. She was wearing these cool mirror shades, sitting
across from me, looking like dynamite. She was just out of high school, only 18 years old.
I was 20.
We had so many interests in common, like acting, slide photography,
and our favorite Disney movie (the Jungle Book - we sang Bare Necessities together on the ride).
It was a wild ride all afteroon in the sun on the winding mountain roads.
The view of the Tetons was spectacular all along the way. That's Rip with his feet up
and me standing.
We stopped to gawk at the buffalo on the way to Jackson. That's me and Rip.
My first really long hike that summer was Hayden Velley. The only ones I remember are Steve (in red) and Cathy (in yellow).
The Valley was empty of wildlife at first but after hiking all day
we came across huge herds of buffalo. They were very skittish, grunted a lot, and ran like pigs with
their front legs and rear legs together.
Taking a rest in Hayden Valley, while following one of the many buffalo-made trails through the forest.
I think we hiked 20 miles that day.
My first backpacking trip that summer was down into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with Jonathan.
The spot was called Seven Mile Hole. It started with a beautiful hike through meadows
along the rim.
Jonathan taking water from a stream. We didn't bother to filter or treat water back in those days.
After a steep climb down, we camped by the Yellowstone River, caught cut-throat troat, and ate them
for dinner. It was hell climbing back out in the hot sun.
I found these great elk antlers just are we were nearing the end of the trail.
Jenny invited me to see South Pacific in Jackson at the Teton Theatre. We drove down with Evelyn
in her tiny little Fiat.
The day after seeing South Pacific, I backpacked the SkyRim trail alone.
It's in the northwest part of the park.
I somehow got four days off in a row, and left next day to go
backpacking to Squaw Lake with Carol, who was from Ohio (I think).
One of the best backcountry geyser basins was there, with no guardrails or trails.
Lots of mosquitos, though.
Jenny in my dorm room.
Me in Jenny's dorm room.
Rip and I backpacked across the Gallatin Range through Bighorn Pass, bushwhacking most of the way.
This is Rip at the start of the trip.
This is me atop Bannock Peak (10,292'), which we day-hiked off trail.
I was feeling pretty triumphant that day!
Climbing down, Rip nearly killed me by knocking a rock loose that bounded down to mea and knocked
me off a ledge on a steep, treacherous slope.
This was posted at the end of the hike.
The sign says "WARNING - All Travel Beyond This Point RESTRICTED TO Groups of Four or More or Horseback Parties
- All Parties MUST STAY on Establised Trails".
In the Ranger Station this area was designated "Heavy Bear Warning".
In spite of all of our off-trail hiking, we never saw a bear though we noted some signs of bear activity.
A week later, I hiked across the Gallatin Range again into Heavy Bear Warning territory.
This time I was ALONE. My goal was climbing Electric Peak,
the highest peak in the range (10,969'). I remember dark clouds came in as I bushwhacked my
way up to the top, and it started to snow!
When I finally reached the summit of
Electric Peak, I ran into some other hikers, who took this picture.
Here is the only picture of me in my waiter's shirt, taken just before I left.
The two guys on the right had the room adjacent to me and Rip, connected by the shared bathroom.
They were intense partiers. That's Steve, Paul McCarthy and John Healy, all friends
of each from the L.A. area.
This was one of the final bashes before we left. I supplied the tunes, with my little
tape deck and stack of cassettes. They supplied the other materials.
Short cut-off jeans were fahionable back then, even for guys.
Just as myteriously as Rip showed up, he left by backpacking across country, occasionally
sending me postcards during his travels around the world. He later was a groomsman in my first wedding.
I was able to catch a ride with a girl who was driving back to Chicago or Toledo,
and another girl came along, too.
I think we drove
30 hours straight.
We ran out of gas
in the middle of night in Montana someplace. Luckily someone in a farmhouse helped us out.
I think I went the whole way wearing nothing
but my cutoff jeans with the Stones Lick.
Some Girls came out that summer, and I had a cassette tape of it that I played
in my dorm room all the time.
"Miss You" was playing all over the radio waves and in the discos when I got back to Cleveland,
constantly reminding me of Jenny.
I bought every conceivable version.
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