Love & Brimstone: Yellowstone National Park Settings

People have asked me why I chose Yellowstone National Park as the major setting for "Love & Brimstone." Frankly, it wasn't originally planned that way. I only meant to set a very small portion of the story there, but it took a life of its own. Yellowstone, in a way, became a silent character in the book. I visited Yellowstone for the first time with my son in July of 2007 and fell in love with the park. Being a native Floridian, I was fascinated with the landscape. "Love & Brimstone" wasn't even in my mind when I visited the park, but I found a lot of material from my visit there.

In order of appearance (basically) are pictures of real-life locations in or around Yellowstone that were either inspirations for or directly used in the book. Some, of course, I took a little literary license with.



This is the real-life counterpart of the restaurant patio in Gardiner, Montana, where Matthias & Taz eat. (And yes, they have AWESOME buffalo burgers!)










The famous North Stone Arch Yellowstone Entrance.








One of the cabins in the Old Faithful area. This is the model for the room Taz and Matthias stay in. This particular building held three rooms. (And yes, the shower was just about half the size of a telephone booth.)










The cabin in the background was sort of the model for Rafael's cabin, but you can see from the one in the foreground how it is also at ground level.













This is the 3-D model at the Supervolcano exhibit in Canyon that fascinates Matthias. (It also fascinated my son!)










This is the Lower Falls, and the same view seen by Taz and Matthias on the overlook.












This is the bridge over the Firehole River, looking toward the Midway Geyser Basin complex from the parking lot side. This is what Taz and Matthias would see as they walked to where they waited for Rafael by Grand Prismatic Spring.









When Matthias takes Taz to Grand Prismatic Spring, they are sitting on the section of boardwalk you see far in the distance. (This is the view Rafael would see while walking to them.)










This is at Norris Geyser Basin, overlooking Porcelain. When Matthias and the others are trying to find Taz and he runs through the museum, this is the view he sees when he looks out over the basin before turning around to head the other way.










This is Abyss Pool, which plays a role. (Won't tell you when or where, because I don't want to spoil it.) This picture was taken at West Thumb Geyser Basin, looking east toward Yellowstone Lake.

(And yes, what Taz quotes from the guidebook is correct. If you have small children, hold them close to you around thermal features!)



So there you are, I hope this helps give you a better idea of what I visualized as I wrote the book. I had a lot of fun trying to bring some of these locations to life, and I hope I did them justice. Yellowstone is impossible to describe, in reality, because of its very nature. (No pun intended.)