Yellowstone National Park

Last month, I headed out with family to Yellowstone National Park for a week long vacation. I had never been to Yellowstone (that I could remember at least because there is a photo of me as a child in front of a geyser, so who knows?)

Now, I have often frequented the closest national park to me, Yosemite, and it has a special place in my heart. So naturally, I ended up comparing the two parks as I travelled along Yellowstone despite knowing they are different in nature.

First, I must say that Yellowstone and Yosemite are two very different national parks with two very different "personalities". Where Yosemite is just GRAND on a Paul Bunyan scale, Yellowstone is grand just in the terms of *vastness* and differing types of landscape.

Yellowstone, itselt, covers several million acres and parts of two states, and in order to see most of it, you *have* to travel by car or motorcycle, especially if you were to try to see all of it in one week. There's just so much there, that unless you were to spend more than a few weeks/months or made Yellowstone your annual two week vacation for a lifetime, you can't even make a dent in seeing it. Spending a week here gave the smallest taste (a sampler platter if you will) of what this park has to offer for a visitor. (We're already making plans to return to see parts of Yellowstone in much more detail.)

Because of the sheer size of Yellowstone, there are different 'landscapes' ranging from plains to mountainous regions and the transition zones in between. I didn't quite understand the scope of size, until we drove from the mountainous region to Lamar Valley, which is dubbed the "Sereghetti of North America". Once upon a time a few million buffalo roamed the plains of Yellowstone, and upon seeing Lamar Valley for the first time, I could understand why.

This plain was so vast, that the buffalo were mere black dots in the distance. There were several herds grazing, and I counted at least 100 members in each herd, and there was AMPLE space between each of the herds.

Of course, Lamar Valley isn't the only place to see wildlife in their native habitat. Buffalo and elk are the most commonly seen from the road, and there are plenty of "buffalo jams" as tourists gawk at the buffalos and rubberneck, or the buffalo decide the road is a great place to stand for a while.

Other wildlife are a bit harder to see, unless you're lucky or travelling in the back country. Wildlife range from moose, to coyote, to bears (both black and grizzly), to wolves, to foxes, to prong horns, to big horn sheep, and many more. I had the luck to observe coyotes, bears, prong horns, sheep, and wolves. Unfortunately, some weren't obliged to pose for me (or it was too dark to use the camera effectively at a distance.

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About 10 or so years ago, a huge forest fire raged across Yellowstone, burning acres and acres of forest. However, now, there is a lot of new tree growth. A lot of very young pine trees are making the start of a very impressive forest. You see a lot of the old growth, charred and burned. There's a lot of ash on the ground in many areas. And, you see a juxtaposition of dead tree trunks and those young pines growing up around the dead trunks. In less than 10 years, this place will look a lot different than it does now; the trees I saw are going to be a lot taller and a lot more mature.


The forests of Yellowstone aren't the only ones undergoing change. As I discovered, Yellowstone is one big caldera. Consequently, the geo-thermal activity in Yellowstone is quite active. From geysers to hot pools, Yellowstone is a changing landscape. Geyers that erupted for years, might turn around and remain quiet. Geo-thermal areas that didn't exist 50 years ago, exist now. A section of the forest might die off if a new thermal area springs up, as the hot water and calcium/minerals slowly kill off the trees.

Insofar as the geysers, just watching one erupt is simply amazing. And, there's no lack of geysers. The Lower and Upper Geyser Basin is wrought with geysers. In the Upper Geyser Basin, there are at least 12 geysers, including....

Old Faithful

In addition to the geysers, there are a numerous hot springs that dot the landscape. The hues of these pools match the colors of a rainbow, as well as cook any living being within 5 minutes (temperaturs can range upwards of 200 deg F). However, algae and bacteria live in the differing temperatures of the pools, and giving each pool its breathaking colors.



Without a doubt, Yellowstone is probably one of the most scenic, beautiful, and grand places within the United States. A place worth visiting repeatedly and seeing in more detail.

We've already made plans to return.