The world's first National Park

Yellowstone:

Let’s have a National Park! It’s said this is “the best idea we ever had” but the concept must certainly have seemed odd in 1872. Grant was president, the civil war was just over the west was being settled. The idea of setting aside a huge chunk of land to do nothing with must have sounded bonkers. But it happened, and Yellowstone became the world’s first National Park. Not that it mattered much at first. There was no one to enforce any regulations. The idea was just a document and some imaginary boundar

ies until Teddy Roosevelt came along and created the Park Service complete with funding. Then the idea became a reality. A huge chunk of land that we would do nothing with (or to) but just enjoy, and what a chunk of land it is.

 The first unique aspect is the wildlife. Without hunting for 135 years   many of the animals have no fear of, or interest in, humans.  Bison and Elk will drift through camp. The bison in particular like to use the roads as pathways and will block traffic, sometimes for an hour,

 moving at bison pace.  Coyotes also wander by, a little more wary. Wolves and bears are out there along with the moose, otters, beavers, fox,  wolver

ine and couger . Antelope graze in the meadows.

 Eagles and hawks are seen wheeling overhead during the day and in the evening we are serenaded by bugeling bull elk and packs of hunting coyotes. The spell is complete; a wildness that is seen, heard and felt. 

We settle into a campsite facing a broad meadow  divided by a meandering stream. The meadow is visited by a variety of large animals to observe from our “porch”. During the evening we see elk, moose, coyote, heron, osprey. All from camp.

 We stay for over two weeks and have a base to explore by car, foot or bicycle. What a place to explore. Most of you have been here, and just as well. My attempt to describe the surroundings will no doubt be futile but I’ll take a shot at it. 

Yellowstone is an active volcano. The last eruption 600 thousand years ago blew 240 cubic miles of rock and debris into the air, covering much of north America with a layer of ash. and created a caldera 35 by 45 miles. The caldera is so large that its bounderies were not confirmed until we had sattalite images. The spine of the rockies in this area was simply blown away and the caldera sunk into a broad mesa. The area was covered by ice during the last ice age. Ice 4 thousand feet thick! The ensuing grinding and shearing created the contours of today. High broad valleys 7 thousand feet above sea level, some forrested, some covered by sage. A portion of the caldera was filled by water to create Yellowstone Lake, the largest mountain lake in the U.S. The Yellowstone river drains the lake first meandering through meadows the plunging and raging through the "grand canyon " of yellowstone. Of course the geisers( half of all the geisers on earth are in the park, including steamboat, the worlds tallest) , the steam vents the bubbling mud all reminding us that the activity is not over. The volcano has erupted three times at an interval of about 600,000 years and it's due again.....