What to expect if you plan on bringing your DOG to Yellowstone Park!

This short podcast discusses the rules about bringing your dog with you to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We discuss and read off the rules straight from the park website which basically tells you you have to keep your dog next to your vehicle or you will get a big ticket. 

We then got over some stories about how some dogs actually got their owners killed in the park and the main reasons for all the strict rules about brining your pet to the parks and how they could adversely effect the park wildlife. 

We also tell you about some great boarding places near the West Entry gate where we take our dog when we go into the park as well as some great hiking spots just outside the park boundaries where you CAN take you dog with you on a great hike including one where there will be dozens of other dogs on the trails with you and your pet. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hey, this is Teddy Garland with Explore Yellowstone Like a Local and the Yellowstone Drive Guide app. And this is our podcast and YouTube video page called Yellowstone Weekly. And that's where you guys send us questions to Explore YellowstoneLikeALocal at Yahoo.com, and then we answer them on the Yellowstone Weekly podcast as well as the Yellowstone Weekly YouTube page. And for those of you that actually watch this on the Yellowstone Weekly YouTube page, not only will you see us talking to you, you'll also see the highlights and pictures of the things we're talking about. Like we're going to talk about Silicon Spring and taking your dog into the park and stuff on this one. So you'll see actually those pictures and stuff of what we're talking about going along. You'll see links to different things that you guys might need to improve your trip to Yellowstone Park. So if you have a chance, watch the Yellowstone Weekly YouTube page and you'll get a lot more fun information. However, if you're just driving to your car, then you're going to hear me blab along. But just remember the quality's not very good because we recorded this in Paris trying to keep the Yellowstone quote unquote weekly somewhat weekly. So and we had a request for some people in Utah who are bringing their dog Rex with them, and they wanted to know what the rules were for a dog in Yellowstone Park. So that's what we're going to cover here. And I just wanted to give you guys a preface that the sound quality is not nearly as good as it normally is. But anyway, let's get started with this podcast for Yellowstone Weekly. And this podcast will cover all the information you need to know about bringing your dog to Yellowstone Park and the rules and fines and all that fun stuff. So let's get rolling. Here we go. Okay, this is Teddy Garland and Lisa with Yellowstone Weekly. And I'm also the author of the number one selling guidebook for Yellowstone Grand Teton National Parks, explore Yellowstone like a local, and host for the best downloaded driving app for the park, Yellowstone Drive Guide. And today we are recording a new upload for our YouTube page and podcast podcast page called Yellowstone Weekly. And we are obviously not in Yellowstone Park. We are in Paris, and that's the Socrates Court Church. And I'm sure I just butchered that name pretty good behind us out here. And but we thought we'd try to keep this somewhat bi-weekly at best. So we had a request from Dave and Debbie and Rex from Utah about bringing your dog into Yellowstone National Park. And we take our little dog with us when we go up there because we stay for months on end, obviously. But we don't take our dog into the park if we're going to be doing a lot of hiking or away from the car. So let me just first off read you guys the rules spelled out on the Yellowstone Park app that kind of tells you what you can and can't do because a lot of people get up there with their pets and they come through the park and they take their dog with them on a little walk or something like that, and they end up with a big ticket. And they'll give you multiple tickets. And if you get three tickets, then you get to go in front of the magistrate on a video call, and uh you can you can really get in trouble trouble. So the fines are 150 bucks a pop, but they increase exponentially, and then you got to pay court costs and all that stuff. I mean, it is a real surprise for a lot of people with that. You cannot go hiking on any trail or or anything else in Yellowstone or Grand Teton National Park with your pet. So let me read you the rule real quick. Okay, pets are only allowed in developed areas, so no no on hiking on trails, and must stay within 100 feet of roads, parking areas, and campgrounds. Pets must be physically controlled at all times. They must be in a car, in a crate, or on a leash no longer than six feet. Pets may not be left unattended or tied to objects. That includes in your car. Owners must uh bag and dispose of pet wastes. And so here's the the last little caveat about all that. These policies exist to protect pets from being killed by predators like bears and coyotes and wolves, to protect them from being burned or killed in hot springs, to prevent the exchange of diseases between domestic animals and park wildlife, and to allow others to enjoy the park without disruption of pets. And so, yeah, let's get into that a little bit. So uh I tell a couple of um stories where pet owners have been killed, and they're these are both in the guidebook. I tell the story about the guy at Silex Spring, which is just north of Old Faithful, about 10 miles, and he's sitting out there in the middle of October, there's hardly anybody in the park, and he has a lab in his truck, and it's early in the morning. He walks up there to enjoy Silex Spring, with it, and he's standing there next to this guy just looking at the spring. Silex springs and the pictures in the guidebook and all that stuff. It's really, really pretty, pretty spring. And so he's standing there, but somehow, someway, that dog gets out of that truck and he comes bombing up that boardwalk. He's probably about 200 yards away from his owner, and the first thing that lab sees is that blue water of that pool. And he doesn't know it's hot, you know, so he just takes off the, you know, gets close to his owner, makes a dead right turn, and goes flying into that hot pool, thinking it's just water. He's a lab. And so the dog just comes up just yiping. The Silic Springs about 190, 200 degrees. And see, here's the other thing about hot springs is they're super acidic. You know, if you get in a hot spring and fall in it and go to the bottom of it, they're basically gonna pull out some bones and clothes and stuff. And I'll tell the tell you another story here in a second. They're very acidic. I mean, there's a few of them in the park that are right about the level of battery acid. So, yeah, you'd you'd you want any part of a hot spring that derives its old water source from underground? So that dog comes up yiping and halling. Well, he immediately pulls his sh jacket off and shirt off and kicks his shoes off, and the guy standing next to him goes, Hey man, you can't go in there. You gotta go get that dog, and then he goes, I gotta help my dog. So he just goes around the rail, dives headfirst into Silex Spring, brings the dog up over his head, immediately realizes he's in deep cacao, drops the dog back over his head and tries to swim for shore. The other guy comes down there to help him get out of the spring, reaches down, grabs him by the arms, and pulls him out. But when he pulls him out, his skin comes off all the way back to his elbows, like he's wearing a pair of latex gloves. The guy just throws all the skin down on the ground, reaches down and pulls the guy out, and the guy's in terrible shape already. I mean, he's been in there for 15 or 20 seconds. So they're they get him out and they walk in down there, the dog's gone, he's already sunk to the bottom. And so they're walking back to the uh parking area, and um the guy puts his jacket around him and everything else, and he's got the guy's just that jumped in, was going, Oh my god, I can't believe I did that. It was so stupid. Why in the world would I ever do that? He goes, God almighty, he goes, I feel so bad. And the guy goes, Man, we got to get you some help. And he just said the guy was just beat red like a lobster. Walking him down the boardwalk, and the guy just kind of quit talking, and then he kind of just stopped walking, and he and the guy looks over, he's got his arm around him, and he looks over at him, and he looks up at him, and he said that the color in his eyes just went out, he died standing on his feet. They just guy just laid him down on the boardwalk, pulled a jacket over him, and they told some tourists that they were coming up the boardwalk to go to Old Faithful and get a ranger. So that's just one story. And to tell you how acidic those pools are, the uh there's a story that's not in the guidebook, but it's in the Yellowstone Drive Guide app that I tell as you're doing a tour of Norris. And when you get to this but one spot back over in Norris, there's a blue icon that tells you that you know you're in a spot where you need to listen to a story. And there was a uh boy and a girl, a man, a man and a woman, their sister and brother. And they were, he was actually a ranger at Smoky Mountain National Park or something like that back east. And they wanted to go swimming in a hot pot. And so they had got on Google Earth and found a hot pot back over in the trees about 50 or 100 feet along the Norris Trail. Kind of they thought it was kind of out of the way where they could get back there and get to it. So they go back there and he's over there, and they're wearing, he's wearing flip-flops of all things. So they go back over there and find they find this pool, and he's over there kind of getting undressed, and he trips and falls into this pool. And I I've never seen the pool, and I'm I'm not gonna go back there and look for it either. He goes back there and he falls in headfirst and immediately comes up and his skin is scalded and everything else, and his sister tries to reach over and grab him, but she can't, and he just sinks. And so she runs up to the Norris Ranger Station, they go get a range, they're back there within 15 minutes, and they drained, they had to drain, they couldn't find the guy. They drained the thing. They're out there, they're thinking he might have crawled out, and they're looking in the woods and everything, and they can't find anything about it. They found his flip-flops at the bottom of the pool. His clothes have been disintegrated, his his all his skin and muscle and bones. The only thing they found was his flip-flops about half degraded. That was it. Everything just got eaten alive by the acidity of that pool. That's how that's how dangerous those hot pools are in Yellowstone Park. We tell you guys about 17 or 18 places to go swimming that are legal and safe in Yellowstone Park. And basically, you're swimming in a stream or a river or something like that, where there's hot water pouring into the stream next to you, and the water gets diluted, and you control the temperature and everything by the natural runoff from a river or something like that. That's what hot potting is called in Yellowstone National Park. So, anyway, and the other main reason you don't bring your dog in is to you dogs carry diseases that they've been immune to for hundreds of thousands of years. But the animals in the park aren't immune to those diseases, and so they're not gonna take a chance that some dog has some disease and gets whatever, ringworm, to a big wolf pack, and they start killing off the wolf packs in the park, they're just not gonna take that risk. So, not only is your dog gonna get you in trouble like that guy at Silex Spring, and uh they also carry a disease and everything else. And there's another story I tell about uh how a little dog fell in Maiden's Grave Spring over on Fountain Flat Drive, and the owner again was standing there trying to get the little dog out of this little spring, which is right by the river, and she trips and falls over a log and falls in the thing, and you can Google up a picture of her girl that falls in Maiden Grave Spring, and man, she's got tubes coming out of her nose and everything else, and then you know, of course, the dog's dead, and her dad pulled her out and all this stuff. It's just not a good idea, man. So dogs are gonna get you in trouble, and um also you're gonna get a big fine. I mean, I can't, every time Lisa and I go hiking to Ferry Falls, where we see somebody carrying a dog on a leash. You know, they're walking with a dog on a leash. They are people love taking their dogs with them and they want to go hiking in Yellowstone Park, and you just can't do it. So they and so at the and somebody's gonna turn you in. I mean, there's all you know, a bunch of do-gooders in the park, and that's a good thing. You know, if they see somebody doing something illegal, they're gonna find a ranger, or somebody's gonna take a picture of you with your dog getting back in your car and take a picture of your license plate, and then they're just gonna send it in, and then you're gonna get a big ticket in the mail. So that's how that all works. So just you know, you just can't do it. So, all right, so like I mentioned at the start of this, we take our little dog pups with us all the time into the park, but we don't take him hiking. So, what do we do if we're gonna go into the park for an extended period of time? And but and but we want somebody to watch it, watch him, take care of him, want to just leave him at the house by himself. So we take him to Zoomy's in West Yellowstone, and it's a little dog care center in a residential area back over there. She's got five-star reviews across the board, and she is uh just top-notch, and she'll send you pictures during the day, but she's hard to get them because there's not much of a signal in the park unless you get the old Faithful or Canyon or something like that. But uh she'll she'll send you a picture, you know, shows him having fun, playing with other dogs and all that stuff. She's got a Facebook page, you guys can look at all the dogs having fun and all that, and it's really reasonable. And so, and she opens at 5 30 or 6 in the morning. So if you guys wanted to get in the park early, like we do, you can take your dog over there early in the morning, get it get him dropped off, and then she'll take care of him all day. And then when you guys get out of the park, go over there and pick him up. And he's had a blast all day, and you guys did too. And you guys got to remember if you guys are visiting July and August, like the majority of people do in Yellowstone Park, it is hot, man. It can get up in the mid-90s. So just you know, in your car, even if you've got the windows cracked and you got water in there, it it can get over easily over 100-125 degrees inside your car. It it can get really hot in July and August, and that's just no place to leave your dog. So if you guys got a dog with you on your Yellowstone trip, take him over to Zoomy.

SPEAKER_00 14:12

So be sure I I do recommend like reaching out to her quite a bit before your trip because I'm sure she fills up pretty quickly. So um it's a good idea to make those arrangements before you actually go so you don't get there and then don't have a place to leave your dog.

SPEAKER_01 14:28

Yeah, that's a good idea. And we'll post a link to her page and all that stuff on the back the YouTube video and the podcast so you guys can get all that information. So, all right, so where can you take your dog hiking in and around Yellowstone Park? Well, in the park, you're not doing it. Outside the park, though, there are some great trails right outside the park boundaries where you guys can take your pet. The first is Lava Lake Trail, and we've got that in the hiking chapter in the guidebook, and and it's on the Yellowstone Drive Guide app as you're driving along. We discuss where Lava Lake is. And I mean, people from Bozeman and Big Sky flock to this Lava Lake Trail like it's going out of style. And I mean, it's like a dog park trail, basically. You'll you'll see 30, 40, 50 dogs going up and down this trail all day long, and they just got and lava lake trail is a great trail, beautiful trail, hiking trail. And uh, I mean, that it's just uh the dogs are just having a blast. It takes three or four hours to do it. It's about a half-a day trail, up and back, and go up there and have lunch at Lava Lake. We'll post some pictures of that as well. And uh the other trail you can do, you can go, there's a number of trails in the Big Sky area itself: Ozell Falls, uh, Yellow Mule Basin, or Beehive Basin, Yellow Mules, and uh all of these you can all take your pet on. So if you guys are gonna spend the day at Big Sky one day, you can go to Lava Lake and go spend the day at Big Sky, do a bunch of other trails with your dog and have a great time. We have an entire chapter of all the fun things to do up the Big Sky area in the guidebook, and we do a little quick uh over overview of it on the Yellowstone Drive Guide app.

SPEAKER_00 15:59

So the thing about those trails too, it's not just because they're dog friendly, they're great trails. The Lava Lake Trail gets to a beautiful high country uh or high mountain lake that's absolutely gorgeous and worth worth the trip, even if you don't have a dog.

SPEAKER_01 16:13

Yeah, exactly. So, and then there's a bunch of trails right in the town of West Yellowstone. There's a ton of trails at the uh rendezvous trails, and there's a bunch of trails that you can go out of town to the Targahee Pass Trail, which is about six or seven miles outside of town, and uh you'll see people up there running their dog through that trail all the time. That's another really good just picture postcard, perfect trail for mountain bikers and people with pets to take their dog on a walk or a quick hike. And so, and then that's about it. So if so, Dave, Debbie, and Rex from Utah, uh you guys I hope you guys got this your question answered about where you can and can't take your dog. And basically, you just can't take your dog in the park. So, and don't take your dog in the park and have him burn up in a car or something like that, and don't risk getting a big ticket. Because remember, if you get three violations in one season in Yellowstone Parks, if you get three tickets for your dog in Yellowstone Park in one season or one trip, uh, you're you're gonna go in front of the magistrate via a video call, or they may summon you to show up in person. And so that they are they take everything very, very seriously there. You're gonna say, I was just walking my dog. Well, they don't care. You're gonna end up with a bunch of big fines and a bunch of court costs if you get three tickets on your Yellowstone vacation about taking your dog on a hike, so don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

Well, I would like to say uh one more option. Um, if you can't find lodging and you have to bring your dog on your trip, which we understand, you know, some people do, one person can, if it's a hot day, one person can actually stay with the dog at the car while the other members of the group go on a hike. That is also an option.

SPEAKER_01 17:52

Yeah, you can do that. Somebody, yeah, and then you know, switch off during the day. But but anyway, hope that helps you guys out. Anyone that's bringing your dog, and that's a bunch of you, and then you just get real surprised when uh, you know, somebody comes up to you and behind you with a you know ranger hat on and starts writing you a big ticket for taking your dog out on a walk around old Faefor or something like that. So, all right, you guys have a great trip. And remember, these videos are posted for YouTube, and we're gonna have a bunch of pictures in here as well. And then uh you guys can also listen to them on the ex uh Yellowstone Weekly podcast. And uh it's kind of a semi-weekly deal because we're obviously we're parents trying to record one of these that you guys asked us about. So, but anyway, you guys have a great time in the park. Remember, you guys can get the Yellowstone Drive Guide app on the App Store, which is narrated by me and tells you a bunch of fun stories, and you can get the guidebook from our website or from Amazon, but you can get the guidebook for only 12 bucks, and uh that's a great deal. You can get that from our website electronically, and it downloads to your phone instantaneously. All right, have a great time in the parks. We'll see you there. And not with our dog.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Au revoir.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

See ya.