Dina Mishev - Road Trip Yellowstone: Adventures Just Outside Americas Favorite Park

As experts in national park travel, we started National Park Trips Media to make it easier for people to plan their dream vacations to national parks. From hiking along awe-inspiring trails, floating down beautiful rivers, and people-watching at historic lodges, we believe national parks and the attractions along the way truly offer something for everyone.

Every year, we help more than 6 million travelers plan a national park vacation of a lifetime. Our detailed trip-planning websites, National Park Journalmagazine, park-specific trip planners, social media channels, and newsletters are packed with insider tips on what to do in and around the parks, including the best places to eat, sleep, and explore. We also have developed epic road trips with daily itineraries that highlight fascinating natural and cultural attractions and fun outdoor activities along the way.

Creating this book was pretty similar to one of our road trips. It was packed with anticipation, research, planning, and adventure. Wed like to thank publisher Rob Wood and Lyons Press senior editor Holly Rubino for their vision in seeing this project as a vital guide for Yellowstone travelers and as an inspiring storybook for anyone who has traveled to Yellowstone and fallen in love with the vast natural and cultural ecosystems that surround the park. Rob also hit the road last summer with his camera, crisscrossing the parks East and South Entrances to take portraits of some of the incredible people profiled in this book.

Without our writer Dina Mishev, this book would still be just an idea. We want to extend a huge thank-you to Dina for her creativity, boundless curiosity, and powerful storytelling skills. She reveals the heart and souls of the communities that make up the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, inviting readers to be active travelers rather than passive tourists.

Digital producer Gloria Wadzinski offered crucial guidance and suggestions for this book, as well as conducted critical photo research to fill these pages. She also took a number of photos on her travels to and from Yellowstone that appear in here. Editor in chief Tori Peglar wrote and/or compiled the information that appears in the Yellowstone Primer section and worked with writer Dina Mishev and Lyons Press senior editor Holly Rubino on editing this book as it evolved from an outline to a robust insiders guide. She tracked down a number of the photographs in this book, taking a few herself while driving the breathtaking roads leading to and from Yellowstone last summer. Photo intern Nikita Mamochine jumped in to assist, traveling in and around Grand Teton National Park last summer with a camera to photograph some of the areas iconic places and people for this book.

We are extremely grateful to talented professional photographers Grant Ordelheide and Nick Cote whose stunning photographs fill this book. They bring to life the West in ways few can. We thank them for the enthusiasm they poured into this project and for their persistence in driving the extra mile (or 250) to get the best shots. Both traveled through rain, snow, and blue skies to capture the vibrant people and places that make the Yellowstone region one of the countrys most fascinating.

Lastly, we work under the umbrella of Active Interest Media in Boulder, Colorado, and are thankful to the wonderful community of outdoor professionals and enthusiasts with whom we work with every day.

If it werent for Harrison Ford, I would have moved to Colorado or maybe Utah when I decided I wanted to spend my first year as a college graduate learning how to ski. But, since Indiana Jones lived in Jackson Hole at the time, and because Jackson Hole had a world-class ski resort, I moved to the northwest corner of Wyoming. Even though Im long over my coed infatuation with Indiana Jones, he still gets a big thank-you for leading me to the amazing valley that has been my chosen home for 20 years and that has so shaped who I am today.

Before Indy though, were my parents, Beth and Boyan Mishev, who raised me to be the kind of independent, adventurous (sometimes much more so than they would like), confident, and brave woman who would move to a tiny town where she knew no one, but did know her favorite movie star lived there. I cant thank my mom and dad enough for all of their love and support and awesomeness, and also for giving me such an amazing brother. This was not always the case, but today Rob Mishev is one of the people I admire most in this world. He and his wife, Gaby, are the parents of my two nieces, Maggie and Lila. I created a few of the road trips in this book with the hope we could one day do them together.

The residents and communities in and around the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem were as helpful in the writing of this book as they are interesting. Everyone who suggested someone for me to include, and everyone whom I included, gets a thank-you as big and as solid as the Tetons. Derek Stal gets a special thank-you for being my happiness magnifier.