Friday, June 12, 2009

A National Treasure—Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone
Emerald pool in Yellowstone National Park.

The park is located at the headwaters of the Yellowstone River, from which it gets its name. The park spans three states, stretching from Wyoming out into Idaho and Montana, the largest area is in Wyoming. The park allows animals to run free and undisturbed. There are bears, elks, bison, birds and more. Travelers can drive or walk through the park at their own will.

In 1872 Ulysses S. Grant set aside as a park for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. However within twenty years financial support begin to dwindle, because of the lack of the ability of the common man to see the glory of Yellowstone Park. With the luck the railroad began to cater to the common tourist, bringing money and visitors to Yellowstone. Also, due to the mass production of the automobile the visitors to the park quadrupled. In 1970 attention strayed away from the History of the park and became more interested in conservation.

Camping is a favorite activity and hiking the many trails. There is camp grounds, such as, Slough Creek Campground, this is a major favorite spot in the park. The Other favorites are, Old Faithful Inn Hotel, fits beautifully into its surroundings and it is completely built of logs and is located within the park boundaries. The Lake Yellowstone Hotel is also located within the park boundries, it is a modern get-a-way, has enormous fireplace. You had better make hotel reservations well in advance for these popular hotel's, due to their central location. In 2004 Yellowstone Inn celebrated its 100th anniversary, with a year long celebration.

Yellowstone Park is the largest park in all the states. It has some of the most famous park features, such as Old Faithful, the Grand Canyon and freely roaming herds of buffalo's, its the largest wild life preserve, an enormous lake, the Continental Divide and over 1,000 miles of trails.

Over 600,000 years ago the central portion of the park exploded and collapsed, leaving a smoldering caldera 28 by 47 miles in size. There is evidence that the area was used by hunters for at least five thousand years. The first white man to visit the park area was probably mountain men and John Colter an adventurer who wandered throughout the area and also trappers. The Hayden Geological survey of 1871, piqued public interest and the work of painter Thomas Morgan.

Yellowstone Hot Spot is a section where the thickness of the earths crust is extremely thin, the magma below the crust is less than two miles. The planet's internal heat is closer to the surface here than anywhere. Water seeps down through the ground here, until it is superheated, it begins to rise and eventually returns to earth as a geyser, this trip from surface to surface may take 500 years.

There are many creeks and rivers in the park. Firehole River flows toward the Upper Geyser Basin and this river is warm all year round. Lewis River has a falls named after it, this river is in the south central portion of Yellowstone Park. Yellowstone Lake is in the central portion of the park, it is the largest lake in the world, over 7,000 feet, the coast of the lake is over one hundred miles in length, this lake was once twice its size.

Yellowstone Hot Springs
Steam rises from volcanic hot springs in Yellowstone.

There is so much to write about, this park is so fascinating and full of history. There are rumors that the volcanic part of the park could erupt, but scientist do not know when it might happen. They have sensors all over the park, monitoring thie activity of the magma. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did posting it, but this only touches on the information about the park.

20 comments:

Renie Burghardt said...

Hi Margaret,

Yellowstone National Park is a National Treasure! Ulysses S. Grant did a wonderful thing to set aside this park for the people's enjoyment. There are so many wonders in this beautiful park, and we are lucky to have it. I have never been there, but would love to visit it one day, before I get too old to enjoy it. Thank you for the report on this beautiful National Treasure.

Happy weekend!

Renie

Barbara Martin said...

Margaret, thank you for your visit on my blog.

Your post on Yellowstone National Park brought back memories of a wonderful trip I had there with my mother in the mid 70s.

Anonymous said...

You know Margaret, I just love blogging because I find out fascinating things like this post from a personal point of view. I have never had the pleasure of going to Yellowstone although I have seen it from the air and it's magnificent. I am glad you liked my beach post. It's my favorite beach in the world. Someday I would love to have just a little bitty cottage there. :) Have a wonderful weekend. xo Lynn

Juliana said...

Hi!

My first time to visit here. Your blog is great, easy read. I'm sure to be back again.

Joseph Pulikotil said...

Hi Margaret:)

Greetings:)

This is a very interesting and informative post. Many thanks for this brief but beautiful post written with great clarity and lucidity.

Have a nice day Margaret:)
Joseph

Patty said...

Very interesting post We've never been to Yellowstone National Park. We've seen it on TV.

It was funny this morning, our 9 year old Granddaughter was talking to her Grandpa about going to Yellowstone for the festival and he said, don't you mean Yellow Springs and she said yes, we didn't explain to her what Yellowstone is. The street festival was being held at Yellow Springs Ohio

Not raining today, but keeps clouding up. Have a good evening and a wonderful Sunday.

Gigi Ann said...

Hi Margaret,

I enjoyed reading about the National Treasure. My husband and I visited Yellowstone Park a few years ago. But, all we did was drive thru it. It took most of an afternoon to drive around in it. Thanks for bringing back some fond memories we have of the park. The day we visited there was a forest fire in the park. But it was almost under control. But, we did see buffalo as we drove thru, and a few other animals, but we didn't see any bear.

Femin Susan said...

this post brought back memories of a wonderful trip...... Hope you enjoyed...

Merle said...

Dear Margaret ~~ Great post about a National treasure - Yellowstone Park.
I know quite a bit more of it after reading your post. I hope you have recovered from your fall, Margaret.They shake us up as we get older. Glad you enjoyed the jokes and poor Colin who got pushed in with the crocodile. Take care my friend, Love,Merle.

Judy said...

Great, informative post, about this park. I would love to see it some day. Have a great week.

DeniseinVA said...

Wonderful post Margaret. I was fortunate to visit Yellowstone a couple of years ago and it is a memory that is still so vivid. Hopefully we will go back again one day. Have a great week.

Anonymous said...

It is a monumental place and several times now I have seen stories about it sitting on top of a
"super volcano." It has blown its top at least twice and the last time was 650,000 years ago. The program said it was past due for another blast which would block out the sun long enough to extinguish all life on earth. Not a very nice prediction but at my age I guess it doesn't matter.

I suppose you can do some research on it and learn more.

http://www.secretsofsurvival.com/survival/yellowstone_supervolcano.html

Puss-in-Boots said...

Yellowstone Park, it sounds a fascinating place from what I have read about it. One day, one day, I'll get there!

A New Beginning said...

Thats a great description Margaret and I really look forward to the garage sales churning beautiful poems:)Keep up the grest work!
It felt as if I visited the park through your words:)

Margaret Cloud said...

Thank all you friends for coming by. Glad you enjoyed a litte history of the park. Have a great week.

The Misadventures Of Me said...

This is one place I have not visited yet. It looks so beautiful there.

Laure

The Cat Realm said...

Thank you for coming to Bora Bora for Karl and Ruis' first anniversary! They sure appreciated that!
Mrs. OZ

Merle said...

Hi again Margaret ~~ I am so glad you enjoyed my post and especially the old farmer with the crocodile in his pond. My week is going well and I Hope that yours is too. Take care and be safe
my friend. Love, Merle.

Anonymous said...

Back when I was just a youngin our family went camping in Yellowstone in the late 60's early 70's...I mostly remember the bears and the smelly sulfery gysers. One morning we awoke to a odd scratching clawing sound and when daddy got up a while after that he went out side and around to the back of our small trailer. It was an aluminum trailer and he showed us some clawing marks on the trailer right where he had put a decal of a large trout he'd cut out of reflective tape. For the longest time I believed a bear was after that fish, but we were young and impressionable and common sense tells me he was pulling our leg. The scratches and the decal remained on that trailer for a good many years till daddy sold the trailer for scrap. Thank you mom and dad for filling our world with camping and tall tales...I sure miss em both.
=^..^=

Kathleen said...

Thanks for posting this, Margaret! My house is in Cheyenne, and although Yellowstone is across the state from it, I love the place. It's been years since I visited, though.

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