Nature Is Real: Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park Entrance Sign

Yellowstone National Park - Worlds First
Nature Man, who has explored Yellowstone National Park on two different occasions, brings to you the worlds first national park, designated in 1872, the result of great foresight on the part of many people about our eventual need for the solace and beauty of wild places.

Yellowstone's Geography and Wildlife
Sprawling across 3,400 square miles, Yellowstone is larger than the combined states of Rhode Island and Delaware. Dotted with 10,000 geysers, hot springs, and boiling rivers, it has more rare geographical phenomena than are encompassed on the rest of the planet. Graced by senescent pine forests, thundering waterfalls, jeweled blue lakes, and peaceful, verdant valleys, Yellowstone evokes the same surreal wonderment today that it did for the first visitors ten millennia ago. The pretty scenery, however, is merely a backdrop to one of the most spectacular gatherings of wildlife anywhere on Planet Earth. During the mid 1990's, with the successful reintroduction of gray wolves, Yellowstone achieved a kind of ecological completeness that other parks in the lower 48 states cannot match. Consider jut a few of the species of Yellowstone's wildlife-watching checklist: grizzly bears and black bears, grey wolves, mountain lions, coyotes, bison, elk, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, moose, mule deer, trumpeter swans, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, river otter, and a famous namesake fish, the Yellowstone cutthroat trout.

Bull Elk

Respect Wildlife
Viewing wildlife should be done with sensitivity for the animals. Generally, if your presence causes any animal to change its behavior, you are too close. Every year, park visitors are injured and sometimes killed by wild animals that only appear tame. I highly recommend keeping a respectful distance from any animal before taking pictures. Feeding any wildlife is illegal.

Location
Yellowstone National Park crosses the boundary of three states - Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Unlike most national parks, Yellowstone has five entrance stations. You can drive to the park from these five gateway communities - Red Lodge, Gardiner and West Yellowstone (all in Montana), or Cody and Jackson (in Wyoming). In addition, you can enter the park at the Bechler River Ranger Station in the far southwestern corner of the park, accessed from Ashton, Idaho. The roads to the park are well-maintained, but only two lanes, and during peak months often crowded in traffic, including slow-moving vehicles. You can fly into two small airports at Jackson, Wyoming, or West Yellowstone, Montana, but most park visitors fly into larger airports at Salt Lake City, Utah; Billings, or Bozeman, Montana; or Idaho Falls, Idaho. Nature Man and his wife and their friends Walt and Mary flew into Jackson, Wyoming and traveled the short drive through Grand Teton National Park to Yellowstone South Entrance during the first 10 days of June in 2009. We enjoyed overnight accommodations at the Signal Mountain Lodge in the extreme northern Grand Teton National Park. Access to Yellowstone through the Southern entrance would have been easy and painless from Signal Mountain Lodge if it was not for the road construction delays that year. Nature Man highly recommends using the Jackson Airport and Lodging/Camping somewhere in Yellowstone National Park.

Visitors
More than half of the 3 million annual visitors come in July and August. In September and early October the weather is good, the visitors few and the wildlife abundant. In May and June, you can see newborn animals, but the weather may be cold, wet and even snowy. Between about November through April most park roads are closed to vehicles. During the winter season, mid-December to mid-March, Yellowstone becomes a fantasy of steam and ice; facilities are limited but sufficient. Only the road between North and Northeast Entrances stays open to cars, but snowmobiling is permitted on some groomed roads. Heated snow-coaches offer tours and give cross-country skiers access to about 50 miles of groomed trails.

Yellowstone Highlights:

Old Faithful

Geysers and Mammoth Hot Springs
Old Faithful Geyser is the world's best known geyser. Its eruption intervals have varied from 10 to 126 minutes. A main route to Old Faithful is from the south by way of Jackson, WY and the south entrance. This route passes five geyser basins--West Thumb, Upper (Old Faithful), Midway, Lower and Norris on the way to Mammoth Hot Springs. Sampling the world's largest concentration of geysers, you follow the Firehole River (my friend Walt and I employed a half-day fishing guide from Arrick's Fly Shop in West Yellowstone and each caught numerous rainbow trout on the Firehole River) and Gibbon River. A visitor Center at Old Faithful and museums at Norris tell aspects of the park's stories.

Lamar Valley

Lamar Valley

Lamar Valley, accessible all year, is winter range for elk and bison. This is a good area to look for
predators (wolves, bears, foxes and coyotes) and their prey. Tower Fall, tumbling 132 feet was named for the adjacent volcanic pinnacles. Tower Creek flows into the Yellowstone River. South from Tower Fall, as you drive up Mount Washburn, look east, downslope, into prime grizzly bear country on Antelope Creek. To provide bears refuge this area is closed to human travel. There is a great trail on Mount Washburn that takes you to a mountain-top observation station. The main road next crossed Dunraven Pass (8,859 feet elevation) amidst broad-topped whitebark pines and spire-shaped subalpine fir.

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Canyon Village And Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
Begin your visit at the Canyon Visitor Education Center, which features exhibits on Yellowstone's supervolcano. North Rim Drive, a 2.5 mile one way road, leads to views, including Inspiration Point on a spur road. I highly recommend this short and very scenic drive. Next is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone which plunges 1,000 feet. Hot water acting on volcanic rock created the canyon's colors. The canyon was downcut rapidly more than once, perhaps by glacial outburst floods. Grand View gives spectacular views of the canyon.

Lower Falls

Upper and Lower Yellowstone River Falls
Lookout Point affords a vista of the 308 feet Lower Falls, and a steep trail descends to a closer viewpoint. This is a spectacular view of the Lower Falls. Back on the main road, turn left in .3 mile to view the brink of the 109 foot Upper Falls. On the main road again, go .6 mile south of South Rim Drive and cross the Chittenden Bridge to Uncle Tom's Parking Area. Trails here offer close views of the Upper and Lower Falls. South Rim Drive leads to Artist Point another classic view of the Canyon and Lower Falls. This spot is a spectacular place to take long lasting photo memories.

Hayden Valley

Hayden Valley
The road follows the Yellowstone River's meanderings across a former lakebed. Soil here permits little tree growth, and the shrub-and-grass land valley plants are used by grazing animals -- from rodents to large ungulates like elk, moose and bison -- that in turn attract associated species, from carcass beetles and butterflies to bears, coyotes and wolves. Waterfowl, including white pelicans, are abundant in marshy areas. Stop at Mud Volcano and see the varied thermal features here.

The Yellowstone Lake Area
Near Yellowstone Lake a spur road leads to Lake Butte Overlook for a view of this huge body of water. Yellowstone Lake occupies only the southwest quarter of the Yellowstone caldera. As you drive along the lake's edge, you can see Steamboat Springs, a hot spring remnant on a line of faults or fractures in the Earth that also passes through Mary Bay and Indian Pond to the northwest. Exhibits at Fishing Bridge Visitor Center feature birds and a relief map of the lake bottom. Fishing Bridge itself spans the Yellowstone River, the lake's outlet. The bridge, closed to fishing in 1973, now offers one of the best wild trout spawning shows anywhere for most of the summer. White Pelicans feed on native cutthroat trout.

Yellowstone Lake is North America's largest mountain lake. The lake is 20 miles long, 14 miles wide and 430 feet deep at its deepest point. It averages 140 feet deep. Average August surface temperature is 60 degrees F. Bottom temperature never rises above 42 degrees F. Swimming in discouraged even where not prohibited: such cold waters can cause potentially fatal hypothermia or hyperventilation within mere minutes.

In Summary
I can assure you your visit to Yellowstone will be a rewarding one. Nature Is Real can be found at every corner of the park. Please be sure to be respectful of plants, animals, your National Park Property and certainly of other visitors. Following these simple guidelines will make your visit as well as others more enjoyable. Remember National Parks - America's Best Idea!

Nature Man Photography proudly brings you the following:

Buffalo Calf