Recently, I was contacted by my friend Douglas Scott, the principal of Exotic Hikes, the premier guide service on the Olympic Peninsula about his new book, Seattle to Yellowstone Road Trip. I've known Douglas for a while, and while I enjoy bantering about the silly things with him - whether bigfoot is real, how to avoid mountain goats, and silly reality outdoors shows, I also know he is an person who knows about the totality of the outdoors. When we had him on our podcast, IIAWT, Douglas dazzled us with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Olympic region, including some little known facts about about Port Angeles.
Because of his great breadth of knowledge, I was interested to read his new book, and compare Douglas' knowledge with my own. In the early 2000's, I was on one of my epic road trips, and was fortunate enough to drive the route that Douglas describes in detail in his book. Unfortunately, I did not have Douglas' book at the time; and after reading his book, I now see that a follow-up trip is in order to see the things that I missed. Truly, Seattle to Yellowstone Road Trip is a great A to Z resource for anyone contemplating a trip from the Pacific Northwest to two of our iconic National Parks, as the book also covers Grand Teton National Park in addition to Yellowstone.
While the book provides great tips for novice road-trippers - how to play the license plate game, find food, and the game of three - it also has great tips for veteran mileage eaters such as myself. Douglas has provided some great insights into areas along the way, such as Higgens Point, Wallace, and the 50,000 Silver Dollar Bar - just to name three spots, that appear to be great spots to see that are off the beaten path. The road trip component, is only half of the book. The other half of the book is about Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and how to see the parks, camp in the parks, and experience the parks.
While these tips may seem self-evident, Yellowstone is a unique place. It is a place that requires patience - because of animal traffic jams. It is a place that requires one to take precautions - because of Grizzly Bears and other animals. It is a place also, that requires one to deal with their fellow man as well. In the book, Douglas does a fantastic job of identifying how to address these problems and more, and provides a great comprehensive guide with directions, distances, driving times, and in terms of camping - the best and the worst spots to reserve. Finally, Douglas also provides excellent details about some of the most popular - and not popular hikes of Yellowstone, with his usual attention to detail and entertaining side facts.
This is a book that I would recommend to anyone, novice or veteran thinking of a trip to Yellowstone either from the Pacific Northwest, or as part of a larger summer road trip. Best of all, it is very accessible - and light as it is an eBook, which means that it takes up next to no room, and has great photos to accompany the written content. So, if you're heading into this area, I think my recommendation is apparent: buy this book to get the best tips and descriptions of what to do, how to do it, and where to do it.