Except, maybe folks have just become crazier or more narcissistic
This morning, December 31, 2025, I was the first to arrive on Round Prairie and spot some dark brown butts out amongst the frozen willows. I pulled into the pullout to get a better look and not a minute later a guide from Wildlife Profiles out of Gardiner MT drives past and slams on the brakes, stopping in the road. She backed up a little, wiggled a bit and I feared she was going to go off the edge of the road and so got my phone out to film the event. As you can see, no one was parked in front of me and no one behind. This pullout can fit a big tour bus and a few cars easy.
Instead of continuing on to the Pebble Creek Campground where she could turn around, the guide chose to watch the moose from the road. It wasn’t until another vehicle came from the other way that she tried backing up again, coming very close to the edge.
And, then she did the most bizarre thing – she pulled into the wrong lane and actually drove about 50 yards before getting into her lane.
I decided to capture some video of three bull moose that still had their paddles, way out in the frozen willows and so got out and set my tripod up right at the end of my car and was filming when the guide returned. She pulled in right next to me, for some odd reason because she could have just pulled in and parked right behind me. “Excuse me,” she said several times. I was busy, knew she had plenty of room to park, didn’t have much sympathy for her since she had already parked in the road, and just kept filming. She was a persistent bugger though and had the audacity to ask me to move my car even though she had room to park. See image below.
I told her no, that I wasn’t interested in moving my car – dropping everything because she did not know how to drive. She told me that I was parked rudely and moving was the courteous thing to do. I have the conversation recorded on my camera because I was filming the moose. I told her that no one else was around when I parked and that since she had special privileges she could just go park in the road. She dead panned, totally serious and said, “Oh no, I can’t do that, it is illegal.” I nearly choked. “Then why were you parked in the road?” Oh, I was trying to get a parking space, she said. LOL. No, she was sitting there watching moose – the first several images on this post are screen shots from the video that I took. It pisses me off when these folks look right at you and deny doing what you just saw.
About that time the truck in front of me (it pulled in about the time she decided to get out of the road) left and she said, see, look at them, they are leaving and they are doing the right things. Seriously lady, you think those folks are just leaving because of you? She told them thank you and proceeded to go park (“in her own little part of the world”), parking exactly like I was parked. Parking in the exact rude way that she had just admonished me for. I nearly choked!
Now, I will admit, I was parked rudely but, there was no one else around at the time. And, I am usually one of the first to re-park when folks start coming along and it is possible for me to make space. I just wasn’t interested for this person since she had already parked to watch in the road and, most importantly was that whole space behind me. I just think, from what I observed, she is a really bad driver.
Anyway, this young guide had lectured me on being courteous and how best to park (all valid points) and then didn’t follow her own advice. How rich is that?
Normally, I wouldn’t mention the guide company in a situation like this but the owners of this particular company have been publicly derogatory about me, in very hypocritical ways, over the years and so I have no interest in protecting them. Their crap doesn’t stink, but mine does and the only difference in the act is who is doing it. I’ve seen them parked in the road many times over the years while they are busy bad mouthing others so they can use a little reality check.
I think that this event, while it is no big deal, perfectly illustrates the guide activity in Yellowstone – the hypocrisy, all about me, excuse me get out of my way because I can’t drive very well. They see everyone else’s actions but don’t see their own, or feel like theirs are justified. I honestly believe it is about time the park quit letting these folks gang up on those who are not part of the cult and start paying attention to individual actions because no one out there is innocent but they sure know how to deflect onto others so no one notices them. It is okay to bad mouth those who don’t pander to these folks but it is sure not okay to bad mouth them back, telling the truth with evidence.
I hope she had a nice day. If I had been her client, I would have been terrified of the way she was driving, and I think he was old enough to see exactly what she was doing.
