Sunday, April 18, 2010

We entered Yellowstone National Park from Gardiner, Montana, which is the northern entrance, under a stone arch built in honor of Teddy Roosevelt. Just inside is the visitor center that used to be the Army Headquarters in the 1800s. The army was placed there to keep the peace between the Indians and the fur traders. They also built most of the original roads. Deer and elk are grazing on the sides of the road. When we went past the Visitor center there was a clinic and a male elk was just standing there posing for pictures. The female elk was off to the side grazing. When too many people were getting really close, the elks started walking away leaving good-sized deposits as they left. About a mile inside the park there was a 45th parallel sign; which means this is exactly halfway between the equator and the north pole.
John Colter was 1 of the Lewis and Clark expedition that stayed in Yellowstone when the rest came back. He wanted to explore and found some unusual things. When he went back east and thold the people he saw hot water boiling out of the earth and mud pots; nobody believed him. He called it Devil's Hole- hell coming up to the surface. These hot spots really stink, like sulfur. It's worse than watering our yards with the well water.
You drive around a curve and there is a buffalo grazing right on the edge. Daddy almost hit him. 2:50 PM- Then a little further up there are even more buffalo; only this time they are standing in the road just staring at you. Nothing seems to upset them or startle them. They stand there and just stare at you with these huge dumb eyes. Sort of like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh- oh, woe is me! It's a stand-off between 12 buffalo and cars going both ways. You wonder who is the most stupid!
About a mile before arriving at Old Faithful we saw a 125# wolf digging under the snow. He would stare and cock his head listening for noises, then dive nose first into the deep snow. One time he came up with something in his mouth, which he immediately ate. We assume it was a mouse.
4:49 we watched Old Faithful go up! Yellowstone has 4 types of hydrothermal occurences: geysers, hot springs, fumaroles and mudpots. There are 2 types of geysers: fountain and cone. Hot springs are related to geysers, but aren't restricted enough to build up pressure. Fumeroles have the hottest surfaces which vent only steam. What little water they have is converted to steam right away; so they are always steaming. Mudpots are acidic hot springs with limited water supply. Hydrogen sulfide comes from deep in the earth, is converted into a smelly gas and sulfuric acid which breaks rocks into clay. The gases escape thru the wet clay and it bubbles and plops. The volcano with molten rock called lava is 3 - 8 miles under ground. The rain and snow trickles down thru the soil and gets heated up at 3000 feet under. This is what comes up as steam. You need three things for a hydrothermal eruption:1. lava with heat, 2. water with heat, and 3. underground cracks and fissures. Yellowstone has all of these.
6:25 We saw a grizzly bear eating alongside the river. A National Park ranger was there too, to be sure nobody goes near the bear. Grizzlies are the most vicious.