Often over-looked, perhaps because of its short distance or the many other opportunities to be found in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, the Observation Point Trail offers a quick, low-effort hike that rewards you with a grand view of the Old Faithful Geyser.

What would you think if your travels in Yellowstone National Park's backcountry were being watched by rangers via a remote webcam? It's not out of the realm of possibility under a Wireless Communications Services Plan that the park adopted last spring.

A tall stoic man stood at the back of his pack, consumed by his own thoughts. He had been listening to an instructor from the Yellowstone Association. For a couple of days, he squinted into roadside spotting scopes and absorbed eloquent discourses on natural history. He was there with family members who arrived to watch wolves together in the Lamar Valley of Yellowstone National Park.

For years the Buffalo Ranch in Yellowstone National Park's Lamar Valley has been the field headquarters for the Yellowstone Association Institute. Well, the association is expanding with the opening later this year of an 80-acre campus north of the park near Gardiner, Montana.