MORE FACT OR FICTION
One of the nice things about writing fiction is that the author conveniently gets to make things up. While most things that I’ve described within Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks are real, I have created a few locations and modified some existing locations to move the stories along.
All of the books in the FBI Yellowstone Adventure series have settings that are described as inholdings within Yellowstone National Park. The locations of the Prophet’s church compound and Luke Bordeaux’s 40 acres are both referred to as inholdings. While the vast majority of national parks and national forests in the U. S. have inholdings — lands within the boundaries that are owned by an entity other than the government — Yellowstone National Park does not.
The second novel in the FBI Yellowstone Adventure series, A Sacred Duty, focuses a great deal on Yellowstone’s thermal features. I’ve written a separate blog that goes into more depth about the park’s thermal features, but I do want to say that all of those magical features, including the geysers, steam vents, and hot springs do exist. Two of the settings of some of the action within that book are at fictional locations: Maxwell Springs and Tindell Springs. I made up the names and locations of those springs to keep curious folks from wandering off into the wilderness to find them. Yellowstone is filled with both emerging and dormant thermal fields which are both fascinating and dangerous. Stay on the marked trails and boardwalks!
The Midway and Biscuit Basin thermal areas are sittings within two of the books.
A Just Cause also has scenes set within a remote thermal field, Washburn Hot Springs. The description of the area of the springs is accurate, but one of its features that is mentioned within the book, Inkpot Springs, is not as dramatic as described. The terrifying-looking spring that I’ve described in the book does exist nearby, but it is officially un-named and the real Inkpot Springs is rather gentle-looking by comparison.
Dragon Mouth Spring in the Mud Volcano area is a setting for a scene in A Sacred Duty.
All three books have some hiking trails that are modified or fictional. In A Noble Calling, the road and the trail into the mountain overlook south of Mammoth was modified to fit the story. In A Sacred Duty, portions of the trails leading to the two fictional thermal features, Maxwell and Tindell Springs, were renamed and/or modified. In A Just Cause, some of the trails surrounding the Canyon Campground have been modified by distance or name, and two geological features, Whispering Falls and Dawn Point, are fictional. The numbering system for the park’s primitive campgrounds within the Seven Mile Hole Trail system have also been modified to suit the story.
Most of the park trails described within the books are out there for you to explore!
You don’t want to meet this couple on a hiking trail in Yellowstone! Always carry bear spray!
Many readers have asked me about the “Russia” parts of my second book, and no, I didn’t get the opportunity to visit Kamchatka, but Google Earth Pro is a wonderful research tool which allowed me to view locations, videos, and travelogues of that area. While air travel between Alaska and Kamchatka was discontinued due to the Pandemic in 2020, my descriptions of Win’s trip, which is set before Covid, is correct. The Eastern Russia settings for A Sacred Duty are real, and based on the comments I’ve gotten from former FBI counterintellegence agents, the book’s descriptions of the espionage scenes and scenarios within the book are realistic and plausible.
The three books in the series are set prior to the devastating floods that impacted so much of Yellowstone National Park in June of 2022. The descriptions of the Boiling River swimming area and the northern park entrance road at Gardiner, Montana are all based on how that area appeared prior to those floods.
The Yellowstone River roars toward the Canyon waterfalls in June 2022. I can’t imagine it’s ferocity and power during the historic flood that occurred two days after I took this photo.
The third book in the series, A Just Cause, is set within both Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The locational descriptions within Grand Teton National Park are all accurate, including the isolated gravel road that parallels the west bank of the Snake River.
Beautiful arrowleaf balsamroot flowers frame the Grand Teton Range. This is near the spot where A Just Cause begins — in front of the mountains along the Snake River in Grand Teton National Park.
If you have any questions about the books — fact or fiction — or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me on my contact page. I’d love to hear from you!