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Yellowstone National Park
The park is located in northwestern Wyoming
Yellowstone National Park is a great park for family vacations, great campgrounds, fly fishing, wilderness adventures in back packing, climbing, and hiking, unique bird watching opportunities, exciting kayaking trips, and outstanding wildlife viewing! The geothermal marvels and majestic natural beauty will provide plenty of superb photography and video options that you and your fellow explorers will treasure for years to come.
Uniqueness
Long before any recorded human history in Yellowstone, a massive volcanic eruption spewed an immense volume of ash that covered all of the western U.S., much of the Midwest, northern Mexico and some areas of the eastern Pacific. The eruption dwarfed that of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 and left a caldera 30 miles wide by 45 miles long. That climactic event occurred about 640,000 years ago, and was one of many processes that shaped Yellowstone National Park –a region once rumored to be “the place where hell bubbles up.” Geothermal wonders, such as Old Faithful, are evidence of one of the world’s largest active volcanoes. These spectacular features bemused and befuddled the park’s earliest visitors, and helped lead to the creation of the world’s first national park.
Fur trappers’ fantastic tales of cauldrons of bubbling mud and roaring geysers sending steaming plumes skyward made their way back east. Several expeditions were sent to investigate, opening the West to further exploration and exploitation. In 1871, Ferdinand Hayden led an expedition that included artist Thomas Moran and photographer William H. Jackson. They brought back images that helped convince Congress that the area known as Yellowstone needed to be protected and preserved. In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law declaring that Yellowstone would forever be “dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people.”
Evidence of glacial activity is common, and it is one of the keys that allow geysers to exist. Glacier till deposits underlies the geyser basins providing storage areas for the water used in eruptions. Many landforms, such as Porcupine Hills north of Fountain Flats, are comprised of glacial gravel and are reminders that as recently as 13,000 years ago, this area was buried under ice. Signs of the forces of erosion can be seen everywhere, from runoff channels carved across the sinter in the geyser basins to the drainage created by the Firehole River. Mountain building is evident as you drive south of Old Faithful, toward Craig Pass. Here, the Rocky Mountains reach a height of 8,262 feet, dividing the country into two distinct watersheds. Yellowstone is a vast land containing a landscape that is continually being shaped by geological forces.
Yellowstone National Park, encompassing 2.2 million acres, is one of America’s premier wilderness areas. Most of the park is backcountry and managed as wilderness. Over 1,100 miles (1770 km) of trails are available for hiking. Spring hiking in Yellowstone is a great way to both see and enjoy the park. This time period allows the unique opportunity for non-motorized use of certain park roads. Hiking, bicycling, jogging, roller blades, roller skis, and similar means of non-motorized travel are permitted between the West Entrance and Mammoth Hot Springs only from about mid March through the third Thursday in April. The opening day in March is weather dependant.
There are opportunities for horseback riding trips in the back country, backpacking trips, cross-country skiing, snow shoeing, snowmobiling, climbing, river kayaking trips, scuba diving, visiting all the geothermal sites, camping, bird watching, boating, ranger-led hikes, touring Historic Fort Yellowstone, and Mammoth Daily Specials-talks for children and adults that range in topics from wildlife, history, and explorers to geology; making it a great family vacation spot. In addition to geyser viewing, the almost 3 million visitors a year will also see waterfalls, rivers, forests, and wildlife, in the form of grizzlies, elk, bison, gray wolves, big horn sheep, eagles, and osprey. Yellowstone has been called the wildlife wonder of the continent, the American Serengeti.
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