Yellowstone

We arrived in Yellowstone late morning on Saturday. Almost immediately upon entering the park, we spotted our first bison. We nearly fell out of the RV taking pictures of it. Little did we know that we would see hundreds of bison before our visit to Yellowstone was over! We always thought that bison traveled in big herds. While we did see one or two herds of bison, generally the bison were in small groups of 2 or three. They look very placid, but there are signs all over Yellowstone warning visitors not to get too close, so I guess they aren't too friendly. They are very majestic looking, though, and we were excited every time we spotted one.

We entered the park through the northeast entrance and drove 30 miles through Lamar Canyon toward Roosevelt Tower where we stopped for lunch. All through Lamar Canyon we spotted bison grazing in the lowlands. The canyon was surrounded by beautiful mountains with rock faces that looked gold in the sun. Guess that's why they call it Yellowstone!

Yellowstone was the first national park in the world, established by President Grant in 1872. It is located primarily in Wyoming, though parts of it extend into Montana and Idaho. Yellowstone is known for its wildlife, but it also has more geothermal features than any other place in the world. It's really sort of like two parks in one. We vastly underestimated the size of Yellowstone. The park comprises 2.2 million acres!

Though Native Americans have lived in Yellowstone for 11,000 years, organized exploration of the region didn't begin until the late 1860s. Yellowstone has lakes, canyons, rivers and mountain ranges. Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent. Lava flows from volcanic eruptions cover most of the area of Yellowstone.

Hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles live in Yellowstone. During our two-day visit, we saw many of them, including: bison, elk, mule deer, eagles, osprey, antelope, trumpet swans, coyote and bears. We never did see a grizzly bear, but we saw a few black bears running in the forest. A park ranger told us several grizzlies were seen around Old Faithful early in the morning before we arrived. We looked really hard for the wolves, but we didn't see them, either.

Like the rest of the country, Yellowstone was having a heat wave. The highs were in the low 70s! Over night it got down into the 40s, so we were grateful for the warm clothes we packed. After driving through Lamar Canyon, we headed off to Roosevelt Tower to eat lunch.

In 1806, John Colter, a member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition left to join a group of fur trappers headed for Yellowstone. After splitting up with the fur trappers during the winter of 1807-1808, Colter observed on geothermal area in the northeastern section of the park. He gave a description of a place of "fire and brimstone" that was dismissed by most people as delirium. Over the next 40 years, numerous reports from mountain men and trappers told of boiling mud, steaming rivers and petrified trees, yet most of these reports were believed to be myth. We didn't believe it, until we saw it, either!

We spent the afternoon in Mammoth Hot Springs which is the administrative center of Yellowstone. Mammoth Hot Springs is located at the top of Lamar Valley and has rows of historic wooden and stone buildings which originally housed the U.S. Calvary from 1891 to 1918. Today the buildings serve as administrative offices for the National Park Service and a visitor center. Also located there are a hotel and a few shops and restaurants. Besides the magnificent views, the primary attraction of Mammoth is the terraced hot springs. Viewing the hot springs required a bit of a strenuous uphill hike, along boardwalks. The springs are brilliantly colored, but they emit a strong sulphur odor which the boys did not like at all. Emily enjoyed the hike from the luxury of Steve's backpack. The terraces are quite elaborate. Several key ingredients combine to make the terraces: heat, water, limestone and a rock fracture system through which hot water can reach the earth's surface. The activity in the springs today is a link to past volcanic activity. A partially molten magma chamber, remnant of a cataclysmic volcanic explosion 600,000 years ago, supplies the heat and the water comes from melting snow and rain. The cold ground water seeps into the earth where it is warmed by the heat radiating from the magma chamber and rises back to the surface. The terraces are made of thick layers of sedimentary limestone, deposited millions of years ago by vast seas which covered the area. An hour of hiking around the terraces tired everyone out, so we called it a day and went off in search of our campground in West Yellowstone, Montana.

West Yellowstone is located just outside one of the park exits. It is a small western town created primarily to accommodate visitors to Yellowstone. It has about 25 different campgrounds and a strip of western-style restaurants and shops. It also has a pretty park, an Imax theatre and a grizzly visitor center. You could walk up and down every street in the town in about 90 minutes.

On Sunday morning, we drove off toward Lake Yellowstone. We stopped along the way to take a hike along the West Thumb Geyser Basin. This group of geysers is located right along the banks of Lake Yellowstone. The weather was gorgeous (breezy, 69 degrees) and we walked around outside admiring the geysers and the lovely lake and mountain views for a couple of hours. We could see lots of bison hoofprints in and among the geysers. A park ranger told us that the bison like to hang out near the geysers when it gets chilly. Unfortunately, the sulphur that emits from the springs is bad for their health. The bison who spend too much time near the geysers suffer from tooth decay and shorter life span.

We had a picnic lunch along the banks of Lake Yellowstone where it was windy and quite cold. Then, we went off to see Old Faithful. Luckily, we arrived about 5 minutes before Old Faithful erupted. It was quite an impressive site! There were crowds surrounding Old Faithful when we arrived, which we had heard was a sign that it was due to erupt soon. After we saw old faithful, we decided to hike around the area and look at the dozens of lesser known (and still incredible) geysers that were nearby. The hike was about 4 miles. We saw many interesting geological sites and enjoyed the views while we hiked. Unfortunately, the sun was shining very brightly and Ellen and Steve both got burned to a crisp! Somehow, none of the kids got burned at all, though, which was very lucky. We wrapped up our visit to Old Faithful with a quick visit to the Old Faithful Inn and gift shop. The Inn is really quite impressive. A gigantic, rustic structure teeming with people. The centerpiece is the lobby, which has the feel of a giant tree house made of dark logs. A fireplace several stories high and made of stone is a main gathering spot. Emily spotted cowboy hats in the gift shop and immediately started trying them on. She really wanted a pink cowboy hat, but, alas, there were none. Fortunately, that evening we found a teeny pink cowboy hat in West Yellowstone and she was thrilled. She has barely taken it off since we bought it!