Today we leave Yellowstone. We’ve spent five full days here and didn’t even begin to see everything. We could be here another two weeks and still not see it all. Yesterday I went fishing. I drove for three hours to get to the river and back and didn’t leave the park. Admittedly, some of that drive time involved “Yellowstone traffic jams.” This park covers 3,468 square miles and is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
I’m also fascinated by the diversity of the park. We saw woods to rivers to lakes and meadows, canyons, waterfalls and volcanic activity of all sorts. The landscape has been shaped by every method to include water, wind, glaciers, earthquakes and volcanic activity. Three major eruptions, the last, and largest, 640,000 years ago left a crater, or caldera, so large it covers a third of the park and can’t be recognized except from space.
I’m also impressed with the pristine condition of the park. When the word pristine is used here, it doesn’t refer to “clean.” Pristine, in the Yellowstone context, means untouched. If a tree comes down here, it stays down and stays right where it is. There are areas where trees were blown down by a freak wind storm in 1985. Those trees are still there. When the fire raged through Yellowstone in 1988, the areas that were burned were left alone. Today, almost 20 years later, the trees are coming back and areas that were brown and barren when I drove through in 1993 are now green. Nature has a way of taking care of its own and that is so very evident here.
Our only disappointment with our visit to Yellowstone is that we did not get to see a Grizzly Bear.
By 10:00 a.m. we’re packed up and on the way out of the campground. 80 miles later we’re in Cody Wyoming again. This time we stopped long enough to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. The museum is awesome. There are over 2000 firearms in the firearm section of the museum. Roger, I don’t think we could have dragged you out of there with 10 buffalo. Other sections include an Indian museum, museum of natural history and, of course, the section of Buffalo Bill Cody. Very cool!
We hit the road again at about 3:30 and landed in Buffalo Wyoming at about 8:00 p.m. In between we saw a lot of scenery and crossed over the Big Horn Mountains. At the top of the pass, we were at over 9,000 feet elevation.
I’m also fascinated by the diversity of the park. We saw woods to rivers to lakes and meadows, canyons, waterfalls and volcanic activity of all sorts. The landscape has been shaped by every method to include water, wind, glaciers, earthquakes and volcanic activity. Three major eruptions, the last, and largest, 640,000 years ago left a crater, or caldera, so large it covers a third of the park and can’t be recognized except from space.
I’m also impressed with the pristine condition of the park. When the word pristine is used here, it doesn’t refer to “clean.” Pristine, in the Yellowstone context, means untouched. If a tree comes down here, it stays down and stays right where it is. There are areas where trees were blown down by a freak wind storm in 1985. Those trees are still there. When the fire raged through Yellowstone in 1988, the areas that were burned were left alone. Today, almost 20 years later, the trees are coming back and areas that were brown and barren when I drove through in 1993 are now green. Nature has a way of taking care of its own and that is so very evident here.
Our only disappointment with our visit to Yellowstone is that we did not get to see a Grizzly Bear.
By 10:00 a.m. we’re packed up and on the way out of the campground. 80 miles later we’re in Cody Wyoming again. This time we stopped long enough to visit the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum. The museum is awesome. There are over 2000 firearms in the firearm section of the museum. Roger, I don’t think we could have dragged you out of there with 10 buffalo. Other sections include an Indian museum, museum of natural history and, of course, the section of Buffalo Bill Cody. Very cool!
We hit the road again at about 3:30 and landed in Buffalo Wyoming at about 8:00 p.m. In between we saw a lot of scenery and crossed over the Big Horn Mountains. At the top of the pass, we were at over 9,000 feet elevation.
2 comments:
What a great idea to keep everyone up on your trip. Are you going to Mt. Rushmore and Deadwood? Branson was great. Micky Gilley puts on a very good show. We stayed in a nice R.V. park north of town. If you want the name I will try to look it up.
Have a great trip.
Dan & Judy
Hi Ann and Bob!
Your website is AWESOME! What a GREAT idea as your travel! And you two look great! And Ann, I also LOVE Scrabble! I buy Scrabble games on eBay. I collect them. I have a green version from England. Some day when we see each other we will have to play the game. I have your website saved and will be keeping up with your trip and leaving comments. Enjoy yourselves!
Kathy :)
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