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Cathedral to Mother Nature. It is not only an area of vast, pristine wilderness — some of which can also be found in other American West areas — it is a unique geothermal site with over half of the Earth’s geothermal features (10,000 total). The sites here contain the planet’s most diverse set of geysers, colored hot springs, bubbling mudpots, and steaming fumaroles, and its 300 geysers comprise two-thirds of all of those on Earth.
This is the place where the Earth’s core is closest to the Earth’s surface. This region contains its own active volcano and experiences over 2,000 earthquakes annually. Millions of years ago, volcanic eruptions created one of the largest calderas in the world, measuring 30 by 40 miles. These features produce the effect of what mountainman John Colter — who stumbled upon the area’s geyser basin in 1807 — called “hell.” The area is still referred to as “Colter’s Hell.” Not so hellish are the magnificent forests, the approximately 300 waterfalls (there are many speculated yet to be found), the Yellowstone Lake, mountain ranges, and wildlife. You can encounter elk, bison, moose, bighorn sheep, coyotes, and more there. Yellowstone also contains more than 1,000 archeological sites, 1,100 historic structures, and has associations with 21 American Indian tribes. The entire Park is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Yellowstone was the first established National Park in the world and the largest in the US (2,221,766 acres), and is a designated World Heritage Site. Although 80 percent of the Park is forested, mostly by the lodgepole pine, an incredible portion of the forests there were destroyed in 1988 by the largest blaze in recorded history. These fires started on the West-Central boundary of the Park, burned across the Park, and exited on the North-Central boundary. It was not uncommon for the fires to consume 150,000 acres of forest per day. Despite the efforts of the largest fire-fighting force ever, the fire continued until the grace of early snow that September snuffed it out. But regeneration is really just the way of Nature. The lodgepole pines require the heat of a fire to release the seeds of their cones, cones that grow only in the top-most part of the trees where they are protected, for the most part, from fire. Though the destruction is viewable today, so are the replacement seedlings growing amongst the remains of the huge, fallen trees. The day after Valentine’s Day, Bill and I wake up way pre-dawn to meet our guide for our adventure. A van is set to pick us up at 6:00 am at our Jackson hotel and take us to the Heart Six Guest Ranch near Grand Teton National Park. We’ve checked the Weather Channel, and it’s -40 degrees and it’s easy to see out the window that it’s snowing. I ask Bill if he’s wearing four or five top layers? Hmmm, better put on one more. I’m beginning to wonder how many layers of boots can you wear? Gearing up for a ride you can’t imagine is tough. How will I carry my camera? Can we store anything on the snowmobile? I later blame lack of sleep, thin oxygen, maybe birth order for having left my new ski gloves back at the hotel. Our guide, Cowboy Jim, takes us to the Heart Six where we are provided actual Winter gear, the real kind you need for an excursion of this type: a ski suit, heavy snow boots, a visored helmet, ski gloves (thank God), and a balaclava (a Russian word meaning “ski mask”). The Heart Six is very proud of their wide ranging, complete breakfast that they serve, as most outfitters only give you a Continental breakfast. I mean, what’s up with that? We’re on a Western ranch, not on the Continent! From the Ranch, we head north through the Grand Teton Park with the trailer of snowmobiles we’ve hitched to our van. The sun is now coming up and we see the beauty of Jackson Lake with the Teton Range behind. It’s so cold, though, that it’s hard to see through the van windows, so we spend time getting to know Cowboy Jim and the two other brave folks traveling with us. It’s not too far to Flagg Ranch, a guest ranch resort that was established as a US Calvary outpost in 1872. This is where we leave the van, get our snowmobile driving lesson, and head two miles to the entrance of Yellowstone. One of a few planned stops, we’re here for just a moment to pay entrance fees. Then, it’s off. |
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