A Powell group became threepeat champions in the race to the front of the line for the annual spring opening of Yellowstone National Park’s East Entrance.

Each year the gate swings open on the first Friday in May (weather and pandemic permitting). Stacy Boisseau and her crew — Kiya, Grace and Hailey McIntosh and “the fourth sister” McKenzie Clarkson — set out on a dedicated quest from Powell to arrive hours before hundreds of other vehicles. The long line was packed with mostly local folks — and a few dogs — excited to get reacquainted with the nation’s first national park.

The group at the head of the pack refused to reveal their winning strategy. “It’s a secret,” Boisseau said.

Yet it was clear the group had been in position in front of the large, steel arm of the gate for several hours.

“They love watching the stars — the quiet of the night,” Boisseau said just minutes before the gate swung open. “We love the park. And last year with the pandemic was a great year to come because they were all out of school.”

Boisseau said the group is always excited to see the abundant wildlife in the park, but the key to their dedication is time together — outside of cell coverage.

“There’s no service here, which is great,” Boisseau said, adding, “Everybody has to talk to me.”

Not everyone was fond of the way things went in the park last spring. The grand opening was delayed until May 25 due to COVID-19 concerns. Every part of human contact inside the park was changed to mitigate the virus — from the front gates opening late, amenities remaining closed (some for the entire season) and only 25% of the normal 4,000 employees working inside the park.

The changes are still evident today, as the East Gate employees all donned masks and rubber gloves for day one of 2021.

When the time arrived Friday, East Entrance supervisor Brian Perry made his way to the women for what is becoming a traditional group picture. Of course, social distancing was observed for the shot, with Perry in the middle and the “four sisters” split, two on each side about 10 feet away. Perry said the success of vaccination programs are encouraging to the staff. 

“We’re hoping that, as time moves forward and we get a handle on the COVID thing, we can maybe relax some of the COVID mitigation requirements and move forward from there,” he said.

Reservations at gateway community hotels and inside the park are filling up quickly as people are eager to travel this summer. Despite the lack of the usual thousands of international travelers, Yellowstone Superintendent Cam Sholly is predicting a record attendance year. 

Perry agrees.

“We’re gonna have a really great season,” he said, adding, “I’m a big lover of Yellowstone and the National Park Service. I want people to come and visit Yellowstone, but I especially want our local people to take pride in this place. It’s our backyard. This is the most awesome place in the world.”

Prior to coming to Yellowstone four years ago, Perry worked at Presque Isle State Park in northeastern Pennsylvania. Despite it being only 3,200 acres (compared to Yellowstone’s 2,221,766 acres), the park on the southern tip of Lake Erie averages about 4 million visitors a year — roughly the same as Yellowstone. 

Perry also noted that the word Wyoming originated in Pennsylvania. According to the Wyoming Secretary of State’s office, “The name Wyoming is a contraction of the Native American (Algonquin) word mecheweamiing, or ‘at the big plains,’ and was first used by the Delaware people as a name for the Wyoming Valley in northeastern Pennsylvania.”

So, at least semantically speaking, Perry has now made it full circle in his career.

Once inside the park, visitors noticed the lack of road construction between the entrance and Fishing Bridge. The new bridge over Pelican Creek is smooth and work to return the landscape from a construction zone to the more natural surroundings is complete. However, the road between Tower-Roosevelt and Canyon Village is closed for the 2021 season.

Friday morning was perfect weather for a visit, but as the day wore on a cold wind picked up as a storm system moved in. Spring in Wyoming is a series of challenging weather patterns, no matter where the word originated.