Yellowstone National Park

by Mike Graf

  Three animals trotted across a distant hillside. Smaller than deer, they had white and brown patches on their bodies and little pointed antlers on their heads.

  “Pronghorn!” Mom called out.

  Dad pulled over and stopped the car. They watched the pronghorn until the animals bounded over the hill and out of sight.

  “Let’s walk up there to see if there are any more,” Mom suggested.

  While climbing, James saw a curved white animal bone in a small nearby ravine. “Whoa!” he called out. “Follow me.”

  At the bottom of the ravine, James walked up to the skull of a bighorn. He bent down to grab the horns.

  Mom stopped James. “No. Wait. In national parks, we’re supposed to leave everything just as we found it.”

  “Take only pictures and leave only footprints,” Morgan reminded her brother.

  James backed up a bit. “How long do you think it’s been dead?”

  A gust of wind picked up. It gathered strength and blew James’s ball cap right off his head.

  The ball cap tumbled along past the bighorn skull and up the other side of the hill. It kept rolling until it finally got stuck on a small bush. The cap shook as if the next big breeze would blow it away again.

  “I’ll get it,” James announced. He scrambled after the hat, but it broke free and rolled farther away.

  Finally, James caught up to the cap, grabbed it, and put it back on his head. Then he stood up and took a quick breath.

  Just across a clearing, James saw a black bear clawing at a fallen tree. It put its front feet on the log and tried to roll it over. After several tries, the tree finally shifted and the bear dug underneath it. I don’t even think it knows I’m here, James thought.

  Mom saw the bear too. “Come on, let’s head up to James and watch!”

  Morgan, Mom, and Dad joined James.

  Dad checked his bear-spray canister.

  “It’s not a grizzly, is it?” Morgan asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Mom said. “It has pointed ears, and it doesn’t have a hump between its shoulders.”

  A CLOSER LOOK

  It is not always easy to tell the difference between a grizzly and a black bear. But there are some things that can help. Grizzlies are generally larger (if they are adults). They have dish-shaped faces, shorter and more-rounded ears, and a distinct hump between their shoulders. Black bears have a straight face profile, more-pointed ears, and don’t have a shoulder hump. Grizzlies are often lighter in color, but not always. Black bears can be black, brown, or cinnamon colored, so color can be misleading.

  “That doesn’t mean it isn’t dangerous,” Dad warned.

  “But it is at least 100 yards away,” Mom estimated.

  Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad slowly backed up. The bear left the log and meandered away from them, across a plateau. It turned and glanced back at the family. Then it stood up on its hind legs and sniffed the air.

  The Parkers stayed close together while backing away from the bear.

  The bear stared at the family for a minute, then lumbered away.

  “That was pretty cool,” James commented.

  “And the bear was far away,” Dad observed. “But I have to admit, I was a bit nervous.”

  They finished driving to Mammoth Hot Springs. Dad parked the car and everyone piled out.

  Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad walked along the boardwalk that skirted the Mammoth terraces.

  They came to Palette Spring. This unusual thermal feature was full of colored, steaming terraces and flowing water.

  “It looks so soft and cushiony,” Morgan described.

  “I think it looks like a Roman bath for gods and goddesses,” Mom said.

  “I think it looks like overflowing soapsuds filled with melted hot chocolate with marshmallows on top!” James blurted out.

  “You’re getting hungry, aren’t you?” Morgan asked James.

  James nodded.

  Morgan took several pictures of Palette Spring. The family left the terraces and walked by Liberty Cap, a large, dry, solitary cone near the base of the hot springs.

  “That sure is a bizarre formation,” Dad said.

  They crossed the lawn in front of the Mammoth visitor center and walked toward the parking lot.

  James noticed all the people with cameras standing around. “I wonder what’s going on.”

  As Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad approached their car, they saw a herd of elk lying down on the lawn.

  A ranger was standing between the visitors and the elk.

  “He’s trying to keep people away,” James realized.

  Morgan started taking pictures. “I can’t believe we’re seeing these animals so close up!”

  “There are sixteen of them,” James announced.

  They walked around the crowd and back to their car.

  “It’s been quite a day,” Dad stated. He pulled out of the Mammoth parking lot and they drove to Indian Creek campground for the night.

  6

  After breakfast, the family packed up camp and headed south toward Norris Geyser Basin and Artist Paint Pots. Along the way, they passed a giant, steaming hillside by the side of the road.

  James looked at his map. “That must be Roaring Mountain.”

  “It looks like a large factory,” Mom said.

  “Just another of Yellowstone’s amazing thermal features,” Dad said. “There are more of them here than in the rest of the world combined.”

  Morgan rolled down her window and tried to take a picture.

  James stared at the steaming hill. “I wonder what the early explorers thought when they saw that.”

  “Probably the same thing we’re thinking,” Mom said. “‘What in the world is causing something like that?’”

  Dad drove past Norris Junction. A few miles later, he took the turnoff for the Artist Paint Pots trailhead and parked the car. James grabbed his journal as he got out.

  “What’s that for?” Morgan asked.

  “You’ll see,” James replied.

  After hiking a short distance, Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad came to a wooden walkway. There were areas of boiling, hissing, and steaming water nearby.

  “Being in Yellowstone is like being on a nature television show,” Morgan said.

  The Parkers followed the trail up a hill. They approached a circular wooden fence surrounding what looked like a large hole in the ground.

  A weird sound came from inside the fence.

  James got there first. He stopped and looked into a pit of plopping mud.

  Dad joined James and stared into the pit.

  The Parkers watched one splat of mud after another shoot up into the air and plop onto the ground.

  “Mud pots are amazing!” Dad commented.

  James took out his journal and wrote.

  Geyser Gazer Feature #1

  The Artist Paint Pots Mud Pit

  I’m standing here looking at the Artist Paint Pots mud pot. The mud is making a “bloop, bloop, bloop” sound every few seconds. The mud is thick and gooey and looks like gray paint. I guess that’s why it’s called “Artist Paint Pots.” The mud is shooting up about ten feet in the air and splattering all around the hole. This whole thing is about the size of a small swimming pool.

  I want to jot down notes about some of these thermal features. That way, when I come back years from now, I can check my notes and see if they’ve changed!

  Reporting from Yellowstone,

  James Parker

  “It’s neat that you are recording this,” Dad said.

  James looked at his father and smiled.

  Mom drove the family over to Norris Geyser Basin. “Let’s do a little more sight-seeing while we’re in the neighborhood,” she suggested.

  FEATURING: THE THERMALS

  The molten hot rock beneath Yellowstone is as close as one and a half to three miles below the ground. That’s because the Earth’s crust beneath Yellowstone is so thin. The worldwide average is more than forty-five mil
es. Water in Yellowstone seeps below the Earth’s surface and gets heated there. As the heated water moves back toward the surface, it passes through minerals, cracks, and various soil conditions. This is what causes the variety of thermal features at Yellowstone:

  • Mud Pots: These are acidic hot springs that contain very little water. The mud in mud pots is caused by organisms in the Earth changing gas into an acid, which breaks down rocks into clay. Then, wet, gaseous mud often bubbles up as a mud pot.

  • Hot Springs: These hot pools of water can be seen throughout Yellowstone’s thermal areas. Colors in these pools are created by light infraction, organisms in the water, and minerals. Grand Prismatic Spring is 250 by 380 feet, about the size of a professional baseball field. This makes it the largest hot spring in the park and one of the world’s largest.

  • Geysers: These are hot springs with constricted plumbing. The tight cracks that the water travels through underground cause pressure to build up. Once the pressure is too much to contain, the eruption starts. Yellowstone has more than 300 geysers, with Old Faithful being the most famous (but not the largest or the most predictable).

  • Fumaroles: Water vapor and other gases escape from holes in the ground, creating steam vents called fumaroles. Sometimes the steam is so forceful that the ground nearby trembles. Fumaroles also can make loud hissing or roaring sounds.

  The family passed an information station. A sign labeled Norris as “the most active thermal area in the park” and “a steaming landscape of small geysers and colorful hot water features.”

  The Parkers walked along a wooden path. They soon came to Steamboat Geyser. They gazed at the area of devastation surrounding it.

  James read the sign. “This is the world’s tallest geyser!” he said.

  “Should we wait for it to erupt?” Morgan asked.

  Dad also read the sign. “Apparently, that could be a long time.”

  TALL AND STEAMY

  Steamboat Geyser can be dormant and not erupt for decades, making eruptions difficult to predict. Usually before an eruption, Steamboat has periods of increased splashing in the cone. Sometimes these turn out to be only a minor eruption of ten to sixty feet. But, if you are lucky, you might see Steamboat shoot out water over 380 feet into the air, making it the world’s tallest geyser!

  “Promise us we’ll try and see at least one more geyser erupt before we go,” James pleaded.

  “Promise,” Dad replied.

  The family finished hiking through the Norris area. They passed other named thermal features such as Echinus Geyser, Green Dragon Spring, Porkchop Geyser, Pearl Geyser, Vixen Geyser, and Minute Geyser.

  “You’ve gotta love these names!” Dad said.

  Eventually, they approached Constant Geyser.

  The small geyser shot up a spray of water ten feet into the air.

  “There it goes!” James called out.

  “I guess it lived up to its name,” Dad said.

  Morgan smiled. “There’s your ‘one more’ geyser!”

  “I meant one more big geyser!” James explained.

  The family trudged back to the car.

  7

  “Okay,” James announced. “Here we go.”

  The Parkers were at the beginning of Uncle Tom’s Trail.

  After walking down some concrete steps, they came to the first of a series of steep metal stairways fixed into the side of the cliff. They stepped carefully onto the stairs.

  CLIFF HANGER

  Uncle Tom’s Trail at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone might be the most unusual trail in the park.

  “Uncle” Tom Richardson built the trail between 1898 and 1903. He led visitors down it and included a bridge crossing and picnic as part of his original tour. The trail used to include 528 steps and rope ladders. Now there are 328 steps down to the viewing area near the bottom of the canyon. But it can be quite strenuous climbing back out.

  Dad looked down. “This is a lot of steps.”

  “Are you thinking about the hike back up?” James asked.

  “A little,” Dad replied.

  The family finally came to the end of the stairs. Straight ahead of them was a perfect view of a wide curtain of water crashing down to the canyon floor.

  “Lower Yellowstone Falls,” Dad announced. “Just look at all that water.”

  “Where’s Upper Yellowstone Falls?” James asked.

  “I believe around that bend and out of view,” Dad replied.

  “There are people above the falls!” James called out.

  “I think there’s a viewing area there too,” Mom said.

  The Parkers hung around for a few more minutes. Morgan took several photos, including one of her whole family with the falls in the background.

  Lower Falls

  “Shall we head up now?” Mom asked.

  “I’m going to count all the steps on the way up,” James informed his family. “I want to see if the sign at the top is right.”

  Morgan looked at James and smiled.

  “What?” James asked.

  “I’ll tell you when we get to the top,” Morgan answered.

  The family began climbing the stairs.

  Partway up, Dad stopped and took a deep breath. “What elevation are we at, James?” he inquired.

  James thought for a second. “I think around 8,000 feet.”

  “No wonder this is so difficult,” Dad replied.

  They continued climbing the steep stairs. Every once in a while, James announced his count: “100 … 150 … 200 …”

  Mom stopped to rest next. “The way up always seems longer,” she commented.

  Soon they reached the top of the metal stairs. The concrete steps weren’t as steep.

  “That’s 300 steps so far!” James announced.

  On the last step up, James stomped down on both of his feet.

  “What’s the official total?” Mom asked.

  “Three hundred twenty-eight, exactly!” James replied.

  “That’s just what the sign said,” Mom remembered.

  “So what was that smile for, Morgan?” James asked.

  “I counted the steps on the way down,” Morgan replied. “But I must have missed some. I came up with just over 300.”

  “Should we go down again and check our count?” James asked.

  Dad smiled. “I don’t think so.”

  The Parkers walked back to the car and drove to Artist Point.

  They got out of the car and approached a small group of people gathered together at the overlook.

  Morgan recognized the ranger speaking to the group. “It’s Tom, the geyser gazer!”

  Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad stopped to listen to the final words of Tom’s presentation.

  “So, you see, folks,” Tom explained, “in the 1800s, the western United States was thought of as a place to be tamed. People wanted to explore it, build ranches and farms, mine, log, and develop the land. Few people thought that vast areas of wilderness should be protected at all. So, in that sense, it is remarkable that a place like Yellowstone was preserved in 1872 as the world’s first national park. Now,” Tom built up to his conclusion, “Yellowstone is one of the last true wildernesses left. All the beauty and plants and animals that are here today were here when the first explorers arrived. And that is what the national park idea is all about: preserving fantastic places like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for future generations to come.”

  Tom finished and the crowd clapped.

  Then Tom walked up to the Parkers. “Hey, it’s my geyser gazer pals.”

  “Are you also a ranger?” James asked.

  “Only in my spare time,” Tom joked. “Actually, I’m a volunteer ranger, or a VIP, as it’s called. My wife and I are retired. She volunteers as a campground host while I do this. We’ve always dreamed of living in a place like Yellowstone. And now, we finally get to!”

  “It sure is a great place,” James acknowledged.

  “My favorite of all the national parks,”
Tom stated enthusiastically. “But I can’t say that Glacier, Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Olympic, Zion, or any other park isn’t as beautiful. By the way, have you seen any more geysers?”

  “Lots,” Morgan responded. “But we haven’t always seen them erupt.”

  “Time and patience is all it takes,” Tom stated. “But sometimes they’re active even when they aren’t erupting. So they’re worth seeing at any time.”

  Another visitor walked up to Tom and asked him a question. Tom waved good-bye to the Parkers.

  Morgan, James, Mom, and Dad walked up the steps to Artist Point. From there, they had views of all of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

  “Now I see why this place is called Yellowstone!” James exclaimed. “Look at the yellowish color in the rocks.”

  “There are red and orange rocks too,” Morgan pointed out. “And look at the falls!”

  COLORFUL CANYON

  Other canyons may be deeper, and many canyons are longer, but no canyon in the world is quite like the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

  It all started with a volcanic eruption 640,000 years ago. The eruption covered the land with volcanic soil. The volcano eventually collapsed into the caldera, or giant crater, which is shown on the Yellowstone park map. Smaller eruptions and lava flows have occurred since, filling the region with volcanic rhyolite soil. Thermal features heated the rhyolite, baking it into a very weak, highly erodible material. Later, glaciers blocked water upstream from the canyon. When the glaciers melted, floodwaters wiped out the ice dam and washed away the weak soil, creating the canyon you see today. The colors in the rocks are from chemicals emitted by the thermal features in the canyon. Over time, these features cooked the rhyolite soil in the canyon. The easily eroded canyon walls expose the cooked soil to the air. This process has been “rusting” the rocks in the canyon into the colors you see today. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is located in the caldera and is an active geyser basin.