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| The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone with its stunning colors |
Yellowstone National Park was the very
first national park declared by the United States Congress, and possibly the very
first park of its kind established by any government or nation in the history.
The park was created as a federally protected area for public recreational
purposes that is free from major developments. The U.S government worried the
Yellowstone area would face the same fate as the Niagara Falls, where the
landscape and the natural environment were significantly altered by over-development.
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| Visitors standing on the edge of the Lower Fall at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
Yellowstone National Park, as well as the
Yellowstone River, which flows from Wyoming to North Dakota, obtained their names
from the color of the rocks along the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. The Grand
Canyon of Yellowstone is one of the park’s most awe inspiring places. This is the place where one can find waterfalls crushing the valley down in the
canyon from hundreds of feet above. The canyon did not get the title “Grand”
for nothing. Early explorers recorded in books that if you yell at the canyon,
you can hear the echo coming back to you shortly after.
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| The Lower Fall at the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
On each rim of the Canyon there were an intricate
network of trails allowing visitors to go all the way down and view the Grand
Canyon of Yellowstone from a totally different angle. The more the trail goes
down, the narrower the sky becomes. Eventually you will be surrounded by the giant
cliffs of the canyon, which could make the tallest person on earth feel humble
and small. At the bottom of the canyon, the Yellowstone River soars like a
mighty dragon, flowing rapidly towards the land’s end.
Yellowstone National Park is home to some
of the most unique and eerie landscapes in the world. Yet the reason for that
is because the region sits on one of the largest active volcanoes on earth.
Scientists have estimated that if the Yellowstone super volcano were to erupt, everything
within the 200 kilometers diameter will be completely destroyed and the ash
cloud could cover the area from Canada down to Mexico. The eruption history of
the Yellowstone super volcano has indicated that it erupts approximately every
600,000 years or so. The last eruption, which shaped everything you see in
Yellowstone today, was about 640,000 years ago. That means Yellowstone is
already overdue for another cataclysmic eruption.
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| Features developed as a result of volcanic eruptions can be easily spot throughout the park, like the stone columns on this hill |
The caldera of the Yellowstone super
volcano is located in the immediate area to the Yellowstone Lake. At an
elevation of 7732 feet, the lake is the largest fresh water lake in North America that’s higher than 7000 feet. There are
several geothermal areas right next to the lake, with some of them extended
even into the lake itself. As a result one can find not only some great
sceneries of a giant alpine lake, but also hot springs that constantly surging
to the lake surface from the geothermal vents down below. The lake, with its vast span from shore to shore, which were constantly washed by waves, could easily made visitors feel like they were standing in front of an ocean.
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| The Yellowstone Lake |
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| An Island in the middle of the Yellowstone Lake |
In his journal describing the lake, Lieutenant Gustavus Doane, one of the first pioneers to explore the Yellowstone region, wrote:
" The extreme elevation of this great body of water, 7,714 3/5
feet, is difficult to realize. Place Mount Washington, the pride of New
England, with its base at the sea level, at the bottom of the lake, and
the clear waters of the latter would roll 2,214 feet above its summit.
With the single exception of Lake Titticaeca, Peru, it is the highest
great body of water on the globe ".
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| A Mountain Range that backdrops the Yellowstone Lake |
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| The Yellowstone Lake and its shore |
Because of the volcanic activities in
the Yellowstone region, there are a large number of hot springs pools and geysers throughout the Yellowstone National Park. In fact, approximately half of all geysers in the world are located inside the park. Some of the geysers, like the Steamboat geyser in Norris Geyser Basin are capable of shooting up more than 300 feet in the air, whereas some others, like the Old Faithful, erupts in every 90 minutes so it gives visitors a guarantee to witness at least one eruption of Yellowstone's wonderful geysers (I've written another article with lots of amazing photos on Yellowstone's geysers, you can click here to view it).
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| A lake formed by geyser water at the Norris Geyser Basin |
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| The Norris Geyser Basin |
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| The Old Faithful |
The volcanic activities in the region also brought abundance of nutrients animals need to sustain life. Among many of Yellowstone National Park's hot spring pools, one can easily find bacteria living in there. While these bacteria are not harmful to people, their colors have definitely turned the hot spring pools into something that's truly spectacular. One great example would be the world famous Grand Prismatic Spring, where the bacteria coated the outer rims of the spring into red and yellow. Because the center of the spring is too hot for any bacteria to live, the water remains its sky blue color. As the water temperature drops when the spring radiates out, the environment has become more and more livable for bacteria. Eventually the bacteria turned a plain hot water pool into a rainbow colored spring known as the Grand Prismatic Spring, which in many ways have become a symbol of the Yellowstone National Park.
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| The Grand Prismatic Spring |
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| The Grand Prismatic Spring |
Not just bacteria, the park is also home to wildlives we huamsn are more familiar with. The Yellowstone region is home to a large population of mountain goats, deer, moose, black bears, birds, and wolves. The traces of these animals can also be easily found throughout the park, no matter if you heard the howling of wolves in the early morning, saw footprints of these animals, or you simply encountered them on the roads.
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| A Raven |
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| This Mountain Goat blocked our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone |
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| "Swan Lake" |
Speaking of "The Animal" of the park, the title would undoubtedly belong to the American bisons. In the Lamar Valley, one can easily find bisons gathering and living together in groups. It's hard to imagine that only a hundred years ago, bisons were slaughtered by humans from over 15 million down to only a couple hundred of them. Thanks to the conservation effort humans have done to preserve the bison population in the last few generations, the American bisons are making a grand return to the American West, a land where they have long been a symbol of.
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| The Larmar Valley from Mt.Washburn |
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| American bisons at the Lamar Valley |
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| American bisons near the Yellowstone River |
There are only a few places in the world where one can find pristine sceneries, geological wonders, or a huge variety of animals running wild and free. Yet when it comes to a place that has everything only with more exaggerated features, Yellowstone is the only place on earth. It's very unfortunate that what we see today will perish in a very violent way. But before that happens, let's all hope the human society can continue to preserve whatever the park has right now so the generations that come after us will also have the chance to exclaim "Wonderful!", just like we did.
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