Husky watching the Prospect wolves on 12/24/2016
The following story is not for the faint of heart – those whose heroes run the roads of the northern range of Yellowstone every single day of the year, chasing wolves from the Blacktail to Soda Butte Valley. Heroes often have an evil side that cause great harm to innocent people – the kind of damage that does not go away with time. The kind of damage that alters the life and the heart of an innocent person, tearing goodness from their soul and replacing it with a life of constantly being on the defensive in an attempt to disprove lies told to destroy a reputation. The anger, frustration, loneliness – isolation – of being the victim of a master story teller/manipulator who never takes responsibility for his own actions, can destroy a life and a person’s passion forever – forever, unless they have the courage to stand up straight, put their head up, shelf that anger and defensiveness in order to be who they are. In order to be better than who they were, despite the stories still being told. Despite intense retaliation and isolation from what they love.
This is my story and it is true. The day changed my life forever and sent me down a road during which I suffered intense retaliation from federal employees who used literal lies to discredit me and cause harm. I won’t tell the whole story today, just the details of what happened on December 24, 2016 and the following two days, with a summary of the years after. 2016 to now, December 10, 2025, is a lot of years to suffer retaliation in a place that I love and cherish. A place that became my heart and soul and the inspiration of the wild that I had sought for my entire life. A place where I have remained because national parks do not belong to a few, they belong to all of us and all of us should be welcome. And, the wildlife in the national parks belong to all of us. When we enter a national park, we all have a right to feel welcome, and not one of us expects to encounter a cult of selfishness, greed and dishonesty – people who believe it is their park and who are willing to tell any story about those that they do not like.
They did not like me because I was not part of the cult of people who sought to exclude others – I was the truth teller and they needed to discredit me in order to cover up their own lies. That was my crime, nothing else. I never threatened anyone with a gun or otherwise, never assaulted anyone and sure as hell don’t go out hiking to find wolves and grizzlies on carcasses so that I can disturb them. I go out hiking because it feeds me to be out there and it is good for my health, physical and mental. AND, BECAUSE HIKING IS ALLOWED IN NATIONAL PARKS, EVEN OFF TRAIL. So is fishing, photography and many other activities. Yellowstone National Park was not preserved for wolf watchers.
That was a longer introduction than I intended. On December 24, 2016, the Lamar Canyon pack had an argument with the Prospect Peak pack in Soda Butte Valley. Wolves were running everywhere and the air was filled with howls. I didn’t know where to look first and could not keep track of the individual animals. As luck, or fate, would have it, I was driving past Hitching Post when I noticed this black wolf (Husky) running across the flats towards the road, in the direction of the Lamar Canyon den. I saw that the wolf was going to race across the road and so I stopped about a 100 yards back to give him room. The vehicle behind me sped around and raced up to Husky, intercepting him before he got to the road. Once Husky had crossed the road, I proceeded on and noted, as I passed, that Husky was on the hillside looking east. It was a breathtaking view of a beautiful black wolf but I didn’t dare stop in the road because the park service had decided that we could no longer do this during winter. So, I kept moving.
I went down to the next pullout, as did the other vehicle that had raced down to Husky and we turned around to drive back past. I told the other driver to go ahead of me and we proceeded down to where Husky still stood on the top of that hill. The wolf was totally focused on the Prospect Peak pack that was about a mile away on Dead Puppy Hill, and he was bark howling. Here is the video on YouTube, which has gotten more than 4 million views: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icDObrsrNr4&lc=UgzWq-mWyaDw27Z4RLh4AaABAg
The vehicle in front of me stopped in the road and the photographer proceeded to take photos. I stopped behind, since he was blocking my lane. Truthfully, having someone stopped in front of me was the absolute only way I could participate with others in this truly amazing event – it was breathtaking, body tingling – and who wouldn’t stop for something so beautiful. But, I was being held to a different standard than other visitors, due to untruths and commotion that had been spouted against me by folks who did not like my big mouth. I have been told by NPS that I used my first amendment rights to excess, which is something that I never knew was possible. So, I could not stop unless blocked by others. And, besides, the previous week when they had the Lamar Canyon wolves hunting a bull elk in Round Prairie, everyone, including the man who would single me out for trouble, stopped in the road to watch or take photos – and that man, Rick McIntyre, came up to me afterwards because I was the only person there who obeyed the law and parked in a pullout, and told me in a kind of confidential, conspiratorial manner, that he thought there would be exceptions to the rule about parking in the road “because who wouldn’t stop for something like that?” I’ll never forget those words from him that day and later came to realize that those exceptions were only for when he didn’t have a pullout to park in, and for his friends. Not for people he did not like because they told the truth.
And, as I sat there in my car, engine running, ready to pull forward as soon as the vehicle in front of me moved (he never did) I repeated Rick’s words – “who wouldn’t stop for something like this?” I can’t overstate how incredibly wonderful this time was and how unfortunate it would be the event that ruined my life. There were at least a dozen vehicles parked in the road to see Husky with some photographers out, standing in the road. Vehicles pulled ahead of us and parked. And, soon, Rick sent photographers/visitors down to the scene from Hitching Post where he watched, so that they could see the wolf, completely blocking the road. I know this because the photographer was trying to raise money to send Rick a metal print as a thank you for telling him to go down there.
I relaxed some – I’d been scared despite all of the other people who were parking in the road. For several minutes Husky bark howled at the Prospect wolves and he did not so much as glance at us. I was thanking my lucky stars that I got to see this. When, suddenly, Husky turned and noticed us (it was like he had been in a trance), he startled and jumped forward. Because, Husky was suddenly disturbed by our presence, I put my camera down and drove around the crowd (the other lane was no longer blocked) and went down to join my friend, Rick McIntyre, at Hitching Post. Two other photographers had watched the scene from that location and many were witness to the events of this day. Rick turned to me and told me that law enforcement was coming to get me. I pointed out that I was not the first one stopped in the road but was behind other cars. He said it didn’t matter. Apparently, he had forgotten what he said about exceptions only 7 days before. Rick was agitated and angry. He said that law enforcement was coming to get me but he had to go get everyone else out of there before they came, so no one else would get in trouble. I had to go to the bathroom and the one at that pullout had a line and so I drove out to Pebble campground to use the facilities.
On the way back, I encountered the ranger and we pulled over to talk. The ranger was furious. He was angry at me but he was very angry at Rick because he had refused to name any of the other participants in this crime of stopping to watch the most beautiful and intriguing wolf moment they had ever seen. Rick knew many of the people who were stopped in the road that day for Husky but he singled me out of the crowd and turned me into law enforcement. The ranger asked me for the names of the others and I refused to name anyone else to get into trouble for an obvious vendetta against me. What kind of person would I be to bring others into a war that Rick had obviously decided to pursue against one individual? I couldn’t do it because I have morals and ethics. Rick was wrong, dead wrong, to single me out but it got worse from there.
I was never ever able to participate in roadside sightings on equal terms with everyone else again, after that day. I was told that if I ever got stopped in the road like that and even if blocked, not to roll my window down and take pictures. I had to just sit there and watch everyone else. I was told that if I was ever caught stopped in the road again, I’d be going to court and it wouldn’t be a simple traffic violation. From that day forward I was scared to death. And, I became angrier by the day because every other visitor and guide in the park was continually stopping in the road, blocking traffic, causing traffic hazards and being a poor example to visitors, but me. Who wouldn’t be angry at this disparity in treatment over violations? Rangers said nothing to these guides who knew better and this has continued all of these years. It was only me that they cared about – I was being held to a higher standard and it was obvious. Even though in internal memos Rick’s boss, who had yelled at me and told me I deserved to be retaliated against, disputed the obvious fact that I was indeed held to a higher standard – a fact that everyone in Yellowstone knows without a doubt.
The ranger didn’t give me a ticket because Rick had refused to name the other participants. I apologized to him and told him to give me the ticket if he felt the need but this was a ranger with ethics and he was not going to participate in singling one person out for punishment.
I heard later that a wolf watcher, Doug McLaughlin, had yelled at Rick to turn me in. Interestingly enough, Doug never quit stopping in the road and in fact got me in trouble years later because he stopped to film wolves and blocked my path. They yelled at me, who was behind Doug (who had already been told to move before that) and never said a word to Doug. That is pretty typical – the raw blindness towards their friends.
Well, I was scared but I’m not one to let such events stop me from my legal right to be in a national park and to be protected by the law and constitution -that the law not be weaponized against individuals but applied equally and fairly. I kept on, resolved to find pullouts and still get shots, even though the photography playing field was not even and I was given a severe handicap. I went so far as to shovel pullouts for years, so there would be extra parking in winter. But, frankly, I’m disgusted by the young male guides who were more than willing to take advantage of my generosity but were unwilling to lift a single finger to help keep the pullouts shoveled so we would have have places to park. I am one who doesn’t often wallow in the problem but, instead, looks for solutions.
On December 25, 2016, the Lamar Canyons were on a hillside and it was obvious to me that they would cross the road. I drove down and found a parking spot in a tiny pullout very close to where the wolves would cross. Meanwhile, Rick stopped in the road and blocked traffic, well before the wolves crossed and well after. Those who were parked behind him were out of their vehicles, leaving doors open, with tripods set up in the road, enjoying their privilege of parking wherever they wanted. A photographer who got caught in traffic was worried he would get into trouble because of what happened to me. Only photographers were worried, not the wolf watchers. And, meanwhile, people were parking in the road near the pullout that I had legally parked in. They parked their vehicles and got out with camera equipment, despite the fact that I had gotten in trouble the day before. This was bewildering to me.
926 in the road on 12/25/2016
This is Husky crossing the road on 12/25/2016 the day after the bark howling event for which Rick called law enforcement on me, due to being stopped in the road behind other vehicles that had stopped. Rick refused to report others that were stopped in the road that day, only me. As you can see, vehicles are parked in the road and people are actually out of their cars to take picture. The lead car is Rick and he held traffic well before the wolves crossed and at least 5 minutes after, so that people could remain parked in the road to view the wolves. I was legally parked in a pullout and had walked further down the road so I wouldn’t be too close to the wolves.
Rick came down to the pullout after the wolves had been across the road for more than 5 minutes and managed to squeeze in. He did not tell the people who were parked in the road to move on and, in fact, Rick told one photographer to just park in the road. Rick put on his traffic vest and was talking to his friends, ignoring people in the road, even parked in the wrong lane. I could not believe my eyes and so got out my cell phone to capture Rick allowing his friends to park in the road the day after turning me in. I filmed him and have his voice telling people to park in the road. It was not until someone reported that a plow was coming that Rick told people to move – the plow driver would turn people in.
When a ranger arrived they asked Rick if all was okay and he said there was an issue earlier but it all got straightened out. He did not tell the ranger that he told people to park in the road. A little later I was walking down the side of the road in Round Prairie, my leg scraping against the snow pile, which was up to my thigh, when a ranger yelled at me for walking in the road. I looked at her and then stepped up into the snowbank, immediately sinking past my knee and asked her what she wanted me to do. She calmed down – maybe she suddenly saw my effort to be safe by staying at the edge. I was beyond frustrated and feeling betrayed. I had always thought of Rick as a friend and had trusted him to be honest but sure found out, in many ways, that my trust was not warranted. I told the ranger that Rick had allowed everyone to park in the road. She said she didn’t know that and I told her it was true. I know she believed me.
On December 26, 2016 (boy was it a great holiday season for me!) the wolves were in Little America but this time it was the Junction Butte pack. They were fairly close and I was able to get a parking spot in the pullout, thanks to Rick pulling over. Before long, the road was lined with people parked in the road and out with their tripods. I filmed them, which angered everyone. I told people that if Rick was going to turn me in for parking in the road and allow his friends to do so, I was not going to be quiet. Good ole Doug, who was parked in the road and out with his tripod, yelled that he was leaving because he didn’t like the company there, indicating me. Because, and it has always been true, the core group of wolf watchers do not expect to be held accountable to the rules in the same way that the photographers and their enemies are. I did not think of myself as an enemy. – I was quite willing to cooperate and work with everyone, as long as we were held to the same standards and they weren’t lying about people.
I knew after that third day that it was either me or Rick. If I did not stand up for myself in his effort to single me out then he would keep coming after me until he got me. That the rules for me were far different than the rules for him and his friends. I gathered my video and filed an official complaint. To the complaint about these incidents, I asked superintendent Dan Wenk to stop Rick from peeing in public at the pullouts and from dumping his Diet Pepsi on the ground at the back of his vehicle every single day. Rick peed in public because he did not want to lose his parking spot. The saving of parking spaces for the wolf watcher cult is another topic and it is highly inappropriate given that it prevents day visitors from enjoying the resources. But, I won’t say more about that now.
I sent this complaint directly to the superintendent. I did not pass Doug Smith on the way because previous complaints had not resolved anything and only landed me in more hot water when Doug told visitors that I was filling completely legitimate complaints. No, Doug let me know a year later how angry he was that I bypassed him on this complaint. That was when Doug told me that I did not deserve to be a guide and that I did deserve to be retaliated against for my complaint. I was the victim! My entire life had been turned upside down because Rick had decided to single me out while allowing his friends to continue breaking the rules. I was the victim, not Rick. When was this man going to take responsibility for his actions – I didn’t force him to go after me, he did that, it was his decision. And, I had every right to defend myself. This was also when Doug informed me that Rick would be retiring – this was in December 2017 and he was supposed to retire by the end of the year but it was actually several months later. I was shocked at this revelation, to tell the truth. I later learned through the grapevine but not through an official source that Rick had been forced to retire.
From that day in December 2017 when I had the heated conversation with Doug Smith – that was the day that I learned for certain that Doug was the enemy. He had been telling me over all of the years how Rick wouldn’t obey orders and how much he disliked the chaos and disruption caused by the wolf watchers. That was the day that I realized that he said those words but that he never ever backed them up with action and never took steps to resolve what was a horrific problem in Lamar Valley. What is still a problem today. Doug decided to make me the bad guy so that the wolf project would not have to take responsibility for abuses of power, like Rick giving special information and privileges to his friends and taking them into closed areas to see the wolves. I had been fooled the whole time and did not know that Doug’s attempts to get me removed from the park began in January 2013, 4 months after I arrived, and that he was believing the false stories about me in order to justify his actions. BTW, several people have now confirmed to me that they knew that the stories being told about me were lies. No one would ever allow me to disprove those lies, they just let them be the judge by which they colored my character.
Rick refused to let anyone speak to me in Lamar Valley any longer. No one could talk to me on the wolf radio and doing so was grounds for removing their radio privileges. If Rick or some of his friends saw me talking to one of them, they were yelled at. I was completely and severely isolated from the community because I had defended myself against Rick’s illegal actions. This condition persists today, nine years later. No one is allowed to talk to me and the wolf cult is very good at telling wild and crazy stories about me in order to turn visitors against me. They built my reputation and it is completely opposite from who I am. If they were to write my biography, I would not recognize myself. But, no one cared about the truth – they were very good at building the hostility.
And, Doug went on a terror to get my guiding permit revoked. He began in January 2018 and the permit was held up because of Doug’s complaints. A high level park meeting was held and it was supposed to be about me but turned into a problem solving session of what were they going to do about the situation in Lamar. I was given my permit and told that Doug Smith could never influence it again. But, only weeks later Doug was at it again, leveling false accusations against me about breaking into the wolf project office and saying that I was stopping by to talk to them more often. I read this in his email communications. I have literally thousands of pages of documents about me, from YNP and they read like a carefully crafted novel of how to discredit the whistle blower. What Doug said was a lie but he was after my permit again. And, he continued going after it. I got two tickets I never should have gotten and managed to survive those. Those thousands of pages tell a story of a very insecure man in a high position going after a lowly, single, broke, disabled older woman who just wanted to be there more than anything else in the world. A person who loved the wolves and the park with every fiber of her being and who knew that she had not done anything so terrible as to be ostracized like she was. She/I knew the truth and that enabled me to stay.
But, staying and being well – getting over this abuse of power – is a completely different story. I made plenty of mistakes in my efforts to defend myself against the lies and made myself look like the aggressor because no one knew what I was responding to. I was angry – so angry – and it wasn’t a good look. Mostly I was angry that all of the guides in the park were blatantly breaking the rules and parking in the road and the rangers were ignoring them. I was angry about their special privileges. I am still angry that certain companies are allowed to park in the road while others are now beginning to get tickets. People turn in videos of these companies parking in the road all of the time and nothing is done to them. The companies go on the defensive and blame the person who turned them in, instead of taking responsibility and putting a stop to their illegal actions. Like it is my fault they broke the law – that is how things work in the clique called Yellowstone.
That is the thing with me, one of the things that makes this so hard to fully recover from, is that Rick never took responsibility for his actions. He blamed me fully. What kind of man does that? And, the lies that are allowed to linger. New lies were recently made up and put in my file. Despite evidence that they are lies, they get to stand in my file. That is what they do – they take the complaints and don’t investigate them because the truth would hurt their case against me. They let the lies stand and never, ever question me. In retaliation I have had illegal investigations against me – my Facebook was locked down for their perusal due to a fictitious complaint by a well known liar who accused me of exactly what she was doing. I have endured so much. So much that would make the average person angry for life. But that is not what I want my life to be about. I care about the wild and that is why my life is – not the ugliness.
I have endured so much – but yet I put my head up everyday and live in the truth. I let go of my outward anger and began making steps towards keeping my public journey positive. I am very careful not to yell at anyone in the park, even when they are putting their self in danger. I decided to put a smile on my face and still find shreds of happiness in this place I love. You can love a place but not the people. The people don’t deserve my respect. I brought myself back from the edge of suicide and despair to a functioning and happy human being. I decided to be who I am – which is kind, empathetic, and passionate. People say I am too kind because I don’t give back what they give me. I can’t be like they are – it isn’t in me. But, I would like to tell Doug Smith and Rick McIntyre what horrible, dishonest people they are. They took away my faith in science. And, these two men may be your heroes due to your love for the wolves but this is a true story and well documented. Doug sending emails telling other park employees how much he despised me. How professional is that? And, why? Because I was a thorn who told the truth? Well, that isn’t supposed to be a legitimate reason for retaliation. And, I am not the only person in Yellowstone who has been ruined by the wolf cult.
Today, I don’t get to enjoy the wolves as I once did. Because of stories made up by wolf project members, I am not even allowed to speak to park staff and ask questions about the wolves. All of this is so illegal but this is not a time in our history to get justice. Every time I show up someone makes up some story that I was doing something wrong. They don’t like where I park or where I stand. I can do nothing right and they know how to create chaos around an individual. And, I’m already prosecuted so it is no stretch to keep telling stories. But, I enjoy the wolves from afar and I am fortunate because there is the whole rest of the park that these folks never see. I embrace everything in the same childlike way I did when first coming to the park. And, I never forget the truth, who I am and that the park was built for everyone – it is not a private wolf park. Eventually, people will pay the price for what they have done to so many. I will never get my apologies or hear these folks admit they lied and that will haunt me to the end of time. That will keep me triggered and unable to fully recover from what I have suffered. It is not fair for a disabled old lady entering the end of her life, but life is not fair and that is why I am responsible for making my own happiness and continuing to grow into the beautiful woman in my heart.
