After years working in Yellowstone National Park, Cody native Tonya Mathews finally got to swing open the gates nearest to her hometown in her new assignment as East Entrance supervisor.

It brought back sweet memories of summer days spent in the park with family; her mother and grandmother packing the cooler for their full days looking for wildlife.

“We'd have picnics up in the park of potato salad and fried chicken,” she said as she looked out at multiple vehicles excited to get inside with their family and friends.

As a child, Mathews was inspired by kind campground rangers who shared their experiences while they made their temporary homes along the North Fork of the Shoshone River. Those experiences made her want to be a ranger when she grew up. That dream finally came true. Mathews has worked for the National Park Service since 2001, employed as seasonal help for seven years before getting a full-time gig. Now, 15 years later she was finally able to move back home.

“It’s a dream come true that I'm at my hometown entrance,” she said. “I can be close to my family.”

Moving into the main house at the entrance, Mathews spent two weeks preparing and had surprise visits from pine martens, red fox, a bison and grizzly and black bears near the gates. But she wasn’t surprised Thursday to see cars lining up for opening day more than 12 hours before the new crew raised the American flag Friday morning to start the party in the park.

Mathews decided to walk down to visit those waiting in line with her rescue dog Lucy, a black and tan coonhound she adopted through Cody’s 3 Dog Rescue. She had heard stories of a family who had been first in line for the previous five years, often arriving for the annual event with plenty of food, blankets and pillows to help them make it through the cold nights.

“I thought, I'm going to go down and visit with them and see if that's who it is,” mentioning Stacy Boisseau and her daughters Kiya and Hailey McIntosh. “It was them and they sent me home with a piece of carrot cake for dessert!” she said.

Boisseau said their sixth year is bittersweet as this is likely the last year Hailey will be able to join them. The 18-year-old is heading off to college at Laramie County Community College to study to be an ultrasound technician.

Her oldest child, 22-year-old Kiya, was the first to miss out on the family’s opening day tradition. Now it will be up to Grace, 12, to decide if she wants to carry on. If so, they have another six years trying to be first before Grace heads off to college.

The women always listen to Sergei Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf” composition while waiting and look out into the dark for wildlife. It’s mostly a sleepless night of conversation and laughs, Boisseau said while tucking away her pillow.

This year they decided to bring treats for those in line, toting dozens of containers holding big squares of cake to give to everyone.

Powell’s Sherring Burke was the first to receive the tasty treat. She was thrilled by the generosity on a tough day for the 79-year-old in her enormous truck.

“I used to come here with a very close friend. We would do this every year. But she passed away recently and so this trip is in honor of her,” she said.

She purchased the heavy duty Ram truck with aggressive tires so she would never have an excuse to not make the trip to Yellowstone. She’s been putting on the miles recently as she did a “bucket list” trip last September to Connecticut, where she was born, and Maine, where she raised her family. She decided to make Powell her home after her kids were grown.

“You know, life changes,” she said, sitting high above the pavement in the lifted truck and looking off across the river.

Third in line was Cody’s Daniel Bradford, who was surprised by a mountain lion crossing the road near the park sign as he arrived just before sunrise.

“I caught it in my headlights. I stopped to watch it as it just walked across the road and kept going,” he said. “It was the first time I’ve seen a live mountain lion.”

Promptly at 7:50 a.m., the East Entrance crew raised the flag as visitors started their vehicles. At 8 a.m. Mathews was in the fee booth with Lucy and looking forward to receiving her first customer in her new position.

The day was surprisingly nice despite snow in the forecast. The amount of snow in the park for opening day was surprisingly low. Mathews said they had snow on the ground several days before the opening, but it melted off quickly.

In the afternoon an untagged grizzly sow, known as Jam to some frequent visitors, seemed to be stymied by the melting lake ice as she walked back and forth on the ice between the Nine Mile Trailhead and Steamboat Point. The small bear with icy fur would test the edges, not wanting to take the plunge and swim for shore.

By the time she finally found a solid exit point there were dozens of thrilled visitors with massive cameras and cellphones capturing the scene. Seemingly unfazed by the hours on the ice, she began overturning large bison “chips” and searching for bugs to eat like popcorn until she was too close to the spectators for comfort.

Officials on the scene ordered everyone to go to the safety of their vehicles as the bear continued to feed next to the East Entrance Road, seemingly oblivious to her fans.

While waiting and watching, visitors shared stories of opening day wildlife sightings and only turned away from watching the bruin when a coyote on the next hill began chasing Sandhill cranes, causing them to make a ruckus. Many said they have plans for multiple trips to the park this year, but they love opening day because traffic is light and the animals are frequently at low elevations and close to the road.

Mike Thomas had just retired from his job as a park superintendent in Hemet, California, purchased a nice camera and long lens and made his way to the park for opening day festivities. Most services are closed until later this month and a few roads are still too dangerous to travel, but he couldn’t wait.

“I've always wanted to be here for an opening day,” he said. “This is my first time.”

He said he may help a friend in Laurel with some lawn work, but he planned to spend many days in the park after “37 years and nine months” running multiple municipal parks.

“Now I just want to not work,” he said before heading off to find another spectacular vista in the nation’s first National Park.

The South Entrance through the West Thumb and Craig Pass should open later this week, weather permitting. The only road generally open year-round to regular vehicles is from the North Entrance at Gardiner, Montana, through the park to Cooke City, Montana (via Tower Junction). Most park roads are closed to regular vehicles from early November to late-April, and are open to limited oversnow travel (commercially-guided snowmobiles and snowcoaches) from mid-December to mid-March. When open, roads are not gated at night and people may enter/exit the park 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to park officials.

Yellowstone has five entrance stations, (three in Montana and two in Wyoming) and it takes several hours to drive between them. Anticipate possible road closures and check the road status of the entrance you intend to use before traveling.

Dunraven Pass and the Beartooth Highway should open by May 24, again, weather permitting.