“Yellowstone is symbolic of “America’s Best Idea.” Its wildlife is a sight many Americans travel many miles to see. Its geology represents both the creative and destructive forces that have shaped the Earth and its life the way it has been shaped. And its beauty is food for the soul. It is difficult to visit there without a thought of the spirit of the wolf or the bear stirring within. Admire it, enjoy it, and be grateful for it.”
- Stan Burman - Former Administrative Officer at National Park Service of the United States (1998–2008)
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this wonderful park. Stupidly, I felt I knew about it already. Years of watching nature documentaries, films, and televisions shows I somehow felt I had been here already.
I could not have been more wrong. One thing I have learned with all of these travels is how much I do not know about the world and how, particularly as Americans, our education has been distorted by mass media.
There is still so much to learn.
Consider these facts -*
Yellowstone encompasses 2,221,766 acres which makes it larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
There are more than 10,000 hydrothermal features in Yellowstone. The four types of thermal features are geysers, hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles.
Yellowstone is home to more than 500 active geysers (more than half the world’s geysers).
Yellowstone Lake has 131.7 sq. miles of surface area and 141 miles of shoreline. It is the largest high elevation lake in North America.
Yellowstone is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states (67 species).
285 species of birds can be found in Yellowstone (150 nesting).
There are more than 1,800 known archaeological sites within the park.
About 290 waterfalls can be found throughout Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres.
Yellowstone houses more than 720,000 museum items, including 30 historic vehicles, millions of archived documents, and more than 20,000 books (many rare), manuscripts, periodicals.
There are approximately 1,000 miles of hiking trails in Yellowstone.
Source - yellowstone.org
For our last day we drove around the Northern part of the park. We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs. This is a huge hill of terraced Travertine, a limestone material unique to hot springs.
Over the millennia, super heated water has bubbled up here and then cooled in the atmosphere creating an alien landscape of eerie beauty.
This is the area of the park that was struck by flooding earlier this year. It has mostly recovered but some Northern roads are still blocked.
We saw Bison and Elk and enjoyed commanding views as we worked our way back the the Grand Prismatic Spring. I showed this site earlier from higher viewpoint and it is so large it is probably best seen from that angle.
But I wanted to see it from ground level, and through the endless steam, a few good pictures emerged.
These days it is easy to make a strong case against all the many ills of this country. Your arguments would be persuasive.
But there is a opposing view. You walk back to a shelf where you keep your treasures. There is a box wrapped in forest green paper with flecks of gold and lavender.
You walk back and present this closing argument. You open the box and out tumbles the wonders of Yellowstone. They glisten and shine in the light.
Any country that can save such a treasure for everyone to see has merit. More importantly, it shows the best of what we can be when we try together.
There is hope.
You rest your case.
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