Monday, April 19, 2010.

Yellowstone is 2.2 acres of such unbelievable scenery. The Imax does not do it justice. So many people in the past campaigned hard to be able to save this scenery for future generations. Albright invited John D. Rockerfellar, Jr. and Teddy Roosevelt to view this creation. John Colter described to people what he saw in Yellowstone. Nobody believed it until the railroads came here.
The Yellowstone Volcano erupted 600,000 years ago. It's the largest volcano in the world. The area has over 4000 geysers, hot springs, mudpots amd steam vents all within the Park boundaries. The caldera of the volcano is hard to notice, but the geologists have marked its boundaries. It encompasses a very large area. Wherever you see a falls, it is a sign of a geologic event. 480,000 years ago the lava rose up and because it cracks very easily, cracked into zigzag patterns. The Yellowstone River flowed into the cracks and wore away at the softer rock over millions of years. This formed the gorge, similar to the Grand Canyon Gorge. This area is called the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We saw the lower and upper falls of this Canyonland. The upper falls flows down 109 feet. The Liberty Cap actually looks like a skull with a cone head; but it is a dormant hot springs cone.
We watched a pair of ospreys building a nest on top of a huge vertical boulder. You could only see them through binoculars. The elk in the Park only live an average of 15 years because there are so many minerals in the groundwater. Elk that live outside the Park can live 25 years. In the Park the minerals destroy their teeth and they die because they cannot eat.
Driving into the Canyonlands you pass a bridge that has washed out this winter. They are repairing it and that means some long lines waiting. But, it has to be done before Memorial Day because that is their big opening day. This week is the only week that is free to visitors; who are mostly the locals. The Core of Engineers built a wooden trestle bridge here in the early 1900's to save 1 whole day's travel over the summit.
In the late 1800's when the fur trappers and buffalo hunters were in Yellowstone all of the buffalos were almost killed off. By 1926 all of the wolves were gone because the ranchers killed them off when they attacked their cattle. Wolves are hard to keep within a certain area. They are natural roamers. So in 1995 they brought in 14 gray wolves from Canada. It has been really successful. They are breeding and they are top in the food chain. When the trappers were here, the ecological system was changed and not for the better. We have learned by our mistakes. The wolves breed in February and the pups are born in April. The gray wolves can range in color from light silver to dark gray.
The adult Red Fox weighs 15# and is 46" long with very catlike eyes, the better to see at night when they prowl. The adult coyote weighs 20# and is 4' long and 30"tall. It can leap up to 12 horizontal feet. The adult Bobcat weighs 30# and the adult Mountain Lion weighs 17 and 8' long. The adult Elk doesn't usually get attacked by any of these others because of his size. If he is dying and weak the scavengers sense it and hastens his death. The female Elk leaves the herd to give birth and hides the calves in the brush until they are 2 months old. Their fur just blends in with the shrubs, almost the same colors as fawns. Once back in the herd the wolves will not go after the babies because they are protected by the whole herd. The Elk are social creatures.