What Living the "Yellowstone" Life Taught Me

10.11.2024 - 11:51 / cntraveler.com / Kevin Costner

“Don’t ever call this work, ok? Ever.” I can't help but think of this line, which Beth Dutton shouts to her husband, Rip Wheeler, in Season 5, Episode 6 of “Yellowstone," America’s most watched television series. They’re on horseback overlooking a golden Montana meadow, as he leads the team of ranch hands on a cattle drive, moving hundreds of animals across the mountain.

Cut to me, suddenly in their shoes. It’s raining and I’m on horseback, wearing a black, floor-length slicker while gently driving annoyed cattle (and their precious calves) to their pens, in a Montana valley surrounded by mountains. I tilt my head to the clouded sky, smile, and take a deep breath. I'm doing it.

How did I, a Black woman from Washington, DC, end up in what could be a scene from “Yellowstone”? The modern-day western drama starring Kevin Costner as John Dutton, a man determined to protect his family’s multi-generational Montana ranch from developers, has been incredibly popular among audiences since its 2018 release. Talk of its popularity seemed centered among viewers in gun-toting red states, though. I was fairly certain I wasn’t the intended audience—despite having been raised by an Alabama-born father, who religiously watched 1960s Western dramas like “Gunsmoke” and “Bonanza” while I was growing up, and a Louisiana-born mother who frequented the rodeos in her hometown.

Yet I was eventually drawn to “Yellowstone” out of curiosity, and from the first episode, with its aerial scenes of honey-hued prairies and pristine rivers; intimate look at the hardships on Native American reservations; and John’s daughter Beth's sassy, shit-talking attitude, I was hooked. What began as an unexpected obsession with the show (I binged the first four seasons during pandemic isolation) quickly took on the form of a sociological experiment, designed right from my couch. After watching 30 episodes in 10 days, I wanted to experience this world that was so foreign to me. Was I tough enough to barrel race? Or to bump my way through dusty trail rides? Could I, too, drive cattle and enjoy it so much, that I would refuse to call it work? I needed to find out.

Even though the show “Yellowstone” doesn't spend much time in the namesake national park, it has driven millions of viewers to visit.

And I wasn’t alone. According to a study produced by the Bureau of Business and Economic Research and the Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research at the University of Montana (commissioned and paid for by Paramount Studios), an estimated 2.1 million people visited Montana in 2021 because of the television show, spending $730 million. Not only has the show inspired trips, it’s sparked westerncore fashion trends and helped bring more than 4 million