Yellowstone is the freak show of nature.
Basically it is the world’s largest active volcano - but it’s mostly covered up by the ground. Wherever there is a gap in the ground there seems to be something slightly bizarre. Each different area in the park made its unique contribution to the freak show. There were bubbling pools of boiling mud. Caves with steam billowing from them. Whole hills with steam rising from them. There were all sorts of pools - some smelt of sulphur, some were bright green, others blue, or clear, or one that was ‘prismatic’ (it had all the colours of the rainbow). There was a boiling stream. There were geysers - big ones too. Each spot seemed to have won some record at the hot springs olympics - the world’s tallest geyser, the world’s tallest acidic geyser, the world’s largest ‘predictably firing’ geyser, the world’s highest concentration of hot springs (over 10, 000). We visited Old Faithful - the geyser that fires at predictable intervals. We took our seats with 100s of others, cameras at the ready, waiting for him to fire up. And erupt he did - 30 ft in the air.
But there is more to Yellowstone than the freak shows of nature. Most of the park is forest. A guide told us (or at least a group of people where we were earwigging) that the seeds inside the cones of the trees do not come out until they are burnt in fire. The life-cycle of the tree from seed to full grown to being dead to falling over to rotting is the same as the interval between major forest fires. ‘Funny that’ our guide commented. Just when the trees need to have new ones grow a fire comes along. The last major fire wiped out one third of the trees and twenty years on there are lots of new little trees taking the place of the old - and no replanting was done by man.
There are plenty of animals too. We had to slow down a few times because a bison was walking in the road. There were deer and elk in the area too. The best bit though was when we’d taken a detour to the nearby Tetons National Park. A brown bear jumped out into the road and walked along in front of us for a minute. We got a clear view from 12 feet away (safely inside the car). Our trip in the parks now felt complete.
We had travelled along every mile of road possible in the park and then left and made our way out to the wilds of Montana.
Basically it is the world’s largest active volcano - but it’s mostly covered up by the ground. Wherever there is a gap in the ground there seems to be something slightly bizarre. Each different area in the park made its unique contribution to the freak show. There were bubbling pools of boiling mud. Caves with steam billowing from them. Whole hills with steam rising from them. There were all sorts of pools - some smelt of sulphur, some were bright green, others blue, or clear, or one that was ‘prismatic’ (it had all the colours of the rainbow). There was a boiling stream. There were geysers - big ones too. Each spot seemed to have won some record at the hot springs olympics - the world’s tallest geyser, the world’s tallest acidic geyser, the world’s largest ‘predictably firing’ geyser, the world’s highest concentration of hot springs (over 10, 000). We visited Old Faithful - the geyser that fires at predictable intervals. We took our seats with 100s of others, cameras at the ready, waiting for him to fire up. And erupt he did - 30 ft in the air.
But there is more to Yellowstone than the freak shows of nature. Most of the park is forest. A guide told us (or at least a group of people where we were earwigging) that the seeds inside the cones of the trees do not come out until they are burnt in fire. The life-cycle of the tree from seed to full grown to being dead to falling over to rotting is the same as the interval between major forest fires. ‘Funny that’ our guide commented. Just when the trees need to have new ones grow a fire comes along. The last major fire wiped out one third of the trees and twenty years on there are lots of new little trees taking the place of the old - and no replanting was done by man.
There are plenty of animals too. We had to slow down a few times because a bison was walking in the road. There were deer and elk in the area too. The best bit though was when we’d taken a detour to the nearby Tetons National Park. A brown bear jumped out into the road and walked along in front of us for a minute. We got a clear view from 12 feet away (safely inside the car). Our trip in the parks now felt complete.
We had travelled along every mile of road possible in the park and then left and made our way out to the wilds of Montana.
1 comment:
SO wish i had been there. the bear, the bison, old faithful.. did you see yogi?
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