A National Treasure—Yellowstone National Park

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.

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.