There’s a programme currently being shown on UK TV about this park and a truly fascinating documentary it is.
Part 1 started out with winter in Yellowstone and last Sunday, part 2 ,showed the park in summertime. I expect the final part will concentrate on Autumn.
What I never realised was the fact that it can snow in June, there are wolves, bears, deer and all manner of creatures living there ekeing out a living.
Forest fires are a regular occurance but after a fire the whole park springs back to life.
Have any of you guys visited the park, do you have pics?
It’s an amazing place, I went camping there for the first time last year with my buddies. Sadly I don’t have any pics onhand.
Tons of wildlife and plenty of opportunity to get up close and personal - this is not necessarily a good thing, people get severely injured and killed all the time because they don’t realize that it’s not a petting zoo and these are not domesticated animals. Bison, elk, deer, bears and so on can be aggressive and territorial. Pretty much everything there is bigger, tougher and faster than people. The smart folks watch from a distance - we got up at dawn to track wolves and so forth. We had bison walk right through our camp (we got out of the way).
Bring a pair of binoculars, spotting scope or a telephoto lens.
One thing I didn’t like so much was that my friends wanted to see “everything” in a few days which means we spent a large amount of time in a car driving around, rather than getting out and hiking, soaking it all in. But magical nonetheless.
There was a very large fire there a few years back. Nature is quite resilient (in fact some trees use fires as a method of spreading seeds) and what was blackened landscape a little while ago is regrowing rapidly - seedlings popping up, grass and shrubs everywhere, etc.
For the lower 48 states, I think Yellowstone Park and Yosemite Park (California) are considered the top 2 for scenic beauty. In my mind however, Yellowstone edges out Yosemite.
Off the top of my head, I’m not sure of an area in Europe that has comparable landscape. Iceland looks interesting but there are no trees.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve been there, but I still have some vivid memories. It’s a beautiful place, and my wife and I have discussed going back when our little one is old enough to appreciate it.
My clearest memories: I watched Old Faithful (which isn’t the most spectacular geyser in the park, just the most predictable) erupt continually for a full five minutes, which apparently is as long as it can go.
It’s a little strange to slow down because there’s a bear in the road ahead.
One of the neatest things I remember were the mud pots, which are big simmering cauldrons of water and (I think) super-fine volcanic ash. They burble and belch constantly, and the mud looks purer than any beauty product you’ve ever seen. There are also hot spring all over, and it’s worthwhile to seek out the ones that have particularly colorful algae growing in or near them, because they can be quite beautiful. The Sapphire Pool is stunning.
And yeah, regular forest fires are a big part of the process of renewal for the park; the ash fertilizes the new growth, and every begins afresh. The fires don’t sweep across the entire park all at once, of course, so you needn’t worry about something like that if you visit.
These statements are pretty true for the entire range of the Rocky mountains. Nature is a pretty amazing place. Granted, not all places have wolves and Grizzlies, but coyotes, black bears, elk, deer, antelope, etc, they have to live somewhere.
I don’t think that there’s anywhere in the world that quite matches Yellowstone. In addition to the extensive wildlife and geological features (mountains, canyons, waterfalls, etc.), it’s also got the most spectacular geothermal features anywhere. Especially don’t miss Yellowstone Canyon-- It’s not as big as the Grand Canyon, of course, but to my eye, at least, it’s a lot more impressive.
If you can, try to find out when Castle Geyser is expected to erupt. It only goes off about twice a day, but each eruption lasts for an hour or so, and can be seen from miles away. On the other end of the scale, there are also a couple of continuous geysers, which only squirt a couple of feet high, but which never end.
This is an important point to remember: The bison own that park; we’re just visitors. Hoofdestrians always have the right of way, no matter how frustrating it is to us mere humans.
There is another National Park in Montana which rivals Yellowstone in it’s sheer beauty, but it is much less crowded during the summer. Check out Glacier National Park. The mountains seem more majestic (a la the Grand Tetons) and the wildlife is almost as abundant, but be prepared for all kinds of weather. It is not unusual for there to be snow in July…
I went in the early 90’s, not long after the re-introduction of the Yellowstone wolves and and the big fire of '88. It was an incredible time. We got to see the wolves in the morning (you need to get up before sunrise and you really need a scope). We also saw grizzlies from a distance; all other animals we saw close-up. There are tons of trails, waterfalls, canyons, geysers, and hot-springs.
The park is really big and like Valgard, you can spend a lot of time driving around. Especially when you lodge outside of the park.
I went in late May, which is a great time to go. Prices were cheaper, it wasn’t crowded, and the weather was nice – it was a lot of fun to hike in and out of snow wearing shorts.
I really appreciate now (at 20) my parent’s policy of having summer vacations be road trips to National Parks. Hiking and camping can be a grind sometimes, but the scenery is seriously awesome.
Things have trailed off recently, but we may be going to Glacier again in the summer of 2010 - beautiful place, though I kinda have to say I’m a bigger fan of the SW arid parks, but that kinda depends on my mood really.
I was there in '75 and it is every bit as big and breathtaking as you see on TV. I was pretty freaked out by the bears scrounging around in our campgrounds, though.
There’s a lot less bear activity now. The park is very agressive about managing tourists in a way that doesn’t attract bears (and managing bears to discourage human contact). On the other hand, you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Bison. They’re everywhere!
It’s possible to go now and, perhaps, never see a bear.
I’m very lucky - Yellowstone is only a day’s drive from the Denver area.
I loved it up there. I was there in October of '08. I hit one snowstorem with really big, wet flakes when I was driving at elevation, but other than that it was clear - but cold.
The cheetah is fastest in short sprints, but a pronghorn can sustain 45 MPH or more for hours on end. Of course, almost any bird can beat either of them, but that’s not exactly “on earth”.
Myself, I’ve seen all of the Yellowstone animals except for the gray wolf and the moose. Both of the bears I saw (one each brown and black) were at a comfortable distance, but still recognizable for what they were. Bison, as mentioned, are everywhere, and it’s not too hard to find elk, whitetail deer, and mule deer. You can’t see Mt. Washburn without seeing huge herds of bighorn sheep, coyotes are often bold enough to make themselves visible to people, and you’ll occasionally find a bald eagle or three.
I haven’t been to Yellowstone, but Yosemite Valley tops anything I’ve seen here in Europe. It’s almost obscenely scenic. It’s like God or Slartibartfast or whoever decided “Hmm, I think’ll I put an impossible-looking mountain there, and, let’s see, a ridiculously implausible canyon there, and… ha! Yes, that’ll fuck with their minds.”
It’s completely off the scale.
I haven’t been there yet, but I’m only a few hours away, and I know who I want to take with me when I go; I have a coworker who used to work there and looooves it.
And Yosemite is one of my favorite places on Earth, though I could potentially work up quite a long list of favorite places (heck, right where I live is on the list!) if I find a way to travel more.
