Grant Visitor Center — Attraction in West Yellowstone

This review is for the backcountry permit office at the Grant Visitor Center — Park Ranger Nina Fitzgerald was not only absolutely unhelpful earlier this week, but just downright rude. Prioritizing what sounded like a personal phone call over helping my family. Arrived @ 3:45 (well before closing) and was flat out told she would not be helping us because it was “too late” for her to do anything and because she was “busy on the phone” and that her call was “going to take a long time.” We left empty handed not being able to check in or pick up our permits. I have been to 48 national parks, back country camped in just about all of them, and have NEVER experienced anything like it. She literally told me to “get on my phone and figure it out, I can’t help you right now.” One major problem with that: there is zero cell service in Yellowstone. Absolutely ridiculous behavior and expected way more from a Park Ranger. We ended up sleeping in our car in a parking lot because by the time we could get to the next permit office, they...

This little oasis was really a disappointment when it came to lunch. The view was amazing in the dining room. It wasn't crowded but initially we were seated in a corner away from the view of Yellowstone lake. Why I do not know but we were re seated on our request. The food was not good. My dinner salad was likely prepared the previous evening. Even the cucumbers were wilted. It was cold like it was refrigerated all night and not prepped fresh. I had the ahi tuna with seaweed salad. The ahi tuna was gross. Very fishy because it had been previous frozen, then thawed, and frozen again, and thawed. This happens with fish. I understand that bringing food so far into the park is difficult. But the solution is don't bring items that don't keep and items that do. Poor quality, poor service, poor effort on the staff. I'm a t shirt and jeans kind of guy who loves food. Burgers, pizza, sushi, Chinese...you name it. But the food here and the effort here...

Backcountry office experience: I wanted to do a solo hike with as much unique Yellowstone things as possible (wildlife & volcanic stuff), preferably a loop. The stuff patiently explained me all the options, but also said this is closed cause of bear hatching, this is really not advised, the only open loop is this 70 mile thing, ... so ended up with Black Canyon of Yellowstone. The canyon itself was ok (but Black Canyon of Gunnison is way better), but seen a lot of wildlife, especially carcasses (like this half-eaten bison) which I found pretty unique.

Anyway, thanks to the office, my stay was enjoyable and safe at the same...