May 4, 2025

166. Yellowstone National Park - America's Wild Heart

Show Notes
Transcript

Step into a land of bubbling mud pots, clockwork geysers, and vast wilderness as Johnny Mac explores America's first national park. From the iconic Old Faithful to the technicolor Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone's geothermal wonders reveal the powerful forces beneath our feet. Discover the best wildlife viewing in Lamar Valley, where wolves, bears and bison roam free, and learn how to navigate this massive park without getting caught in tourist crowds. Johnny shares the perfect itinerary to experience Yellowstone's diverse regions, from the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone to peaceful backcountry lakes, and explains why this remarkable landscape continues to capture America's imagination nearly 150 years after its protection.

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Calaroga Shark media.

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There exists a place where the Earth's crust thins to

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a dangerous membrane, where the planet breathes steam and spits

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scalding water, and clockwork geysers, where the smell of sulfur

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hangs in the air like nature's own warning sign. A

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place where wolves run free again after nearly being a

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race from these mountains, where grizzlies command respectful distance, where

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bison traffic jams are daily occurrence. It's a landscape so improbable,

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so alien in its features, that early explorers accounts were

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dismissed as hallucinatory fabrications by those who hadn't seen it

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with their own eyes. Yellowstone isn't just America's first national park.

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It's a testament to a rare moment of foresight in

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human history. In eighteen seventy two, before automobiles, before airplanes,

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before we'd even finished the brutal business of conquering this continent,

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someone looked at this bizarre, beautiful corner of Wyoming and

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parts of Montana and Idaho and said, this shouldn't belong

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to any of us.

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It should belong to all of us.

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It was an idea as revolutionary as the geological forces

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that shape the landscape itself. This is a place of contradictions.

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Pristine wilderness accessed by paved roads, a carefully managed wild

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a fragile ecosystem visited by over four million people annually

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who come to see what nature looks like when we

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mostly leave it.

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The hell alone.

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Yellowstone isn't a destination so much as it is a pilgrimage,

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a journey to witness what America was, what it could be,

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and perhaps what it should have remained. There's something fitting

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about the towns that serve as gateways to Yellowstone. They

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exist in that peculiar liminal space between civilization and wilderness,

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between kitsch and authenticity. Places like West Yellowstone, Montana and Cody,

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Wyoming are janus faced communities looking toward the park with

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reverence while facing tourists with an entrepreneurial glint. West Yellowstone,

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sitting just outside the park's west entrance, embodies this duality perfectly.

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Its main drag is lined with the expected tourist trappings,

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ice cream shops, t shirt emporiums, and outdoor outfitters where

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you can drop hundreds on a fly rod you might

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use exactly once but look closer and you'll find the

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Buffalo Bar, where park rangers and local guides swap stories

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over Montana microbrews, or the book Pedlar, where the selection

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betrays a deep knowledge of the surrounding wilderness. In winter,

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when the park largely closes to vehicular traffic, West Yellowstone transforms.

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The summer tourists vanish and are replaced by snowmobilers and

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cross country skiers. The town's pace slows and the residents

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reclaim their spaces. The relationship with the park shifts as well.

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It becomes less a commodity and more a neighbor and

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omnipresent force that dictates the rhythm of life with its

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weather patterns and animal migrations. Cody, Wyoming, the eastern gateway,

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carries the weight of its namesake, Buffalo Bill Cody, the

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town leans harder into the Western mythology with its nightly

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summer rodeo and the sprawling Buffalo Bill Center of the West,

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which houses five museums under one roof. It's a place

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where the line between historical appreciation and historical reenactment blurs,

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where the myth of the West is preserved in amber,

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even as genuine cowboys still work the surrounding ranches. These

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gateway towns serve as decompression chambers between the modern world

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and the wilderness beyond. Their place is to stock up

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on bear spray and shed your urban expectations, to mentally

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prepare for an experience that doesn't care about your Instagram

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feed or your comfort zone. Yellowstone's Grand Loop Road forms

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a figure eight through the park's heart, connecting its most

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famous features in a one hundred and forty two mile

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circuit that serves as the primary artery for most visitors.

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It's a masterpiece of early national park planning, designed not

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just for transportation, but for revelation, each turn calculated to

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unveil another wonder. The road itself is a compromise between

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accessibility and preservation. It allows millions to experience Yellowstone without

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venturing more than a quarter mile from their vehicles, while

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leaving vast tracks of backcountry untouched. For many visitors, this

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ribbon of asphalt is the extent of their experience, a

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phenomenon park rangers sometimes windshield wilderness, but even from this

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limit advantage, the park's majesty is undeniable. The Northern Loop

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showcases the sweeping Lamar Valley, known as America's Serengetti for

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its visible wildlife concentrations and the terraced limestone formations of

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mammoth hot springs, where mineral rich water creates living architecture

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that shifts over time. The Southern Loop holds the most

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famous attractions Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, the

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kaleidoscopic Grand Prismatic Spring, and the massive canyon that gives

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Yellowstone Falls its dramatic stage. These sites have been photographed

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millions of times, yet somehow managed to inspire awe in

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person in a way that no image quite captures. Between

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these marque attractions, like countless pullouts and overlooks where visitors

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can stretch their legs and absorb the landscape, these spots

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offer their own subtle rewards, the perfect reflection of mountains

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in a still lake, a bull elk bugling in a meadow,

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or simply the profound silence that descends when you step

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away from the idling engines and chattering tourists. Yellowstone sits

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atop a supervolcano, a fact that seems merely academic until

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you see the evidence with your own eyes. The park

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contains about ten thousand geothermal features, roughly half of all

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the geothermal features on the planet. These aren't just curiosities.

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Their windows into the Earth's molten heart reminders that the

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ground beneath our feet is not as solid as we pretend.

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The upper Geyser Basin, home to Old Faithful, contains the

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highest concentration of geysers.

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In the world. Walking the boardwalks here is like traversing

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an alien landscape. Steam rises from countless vents, the ground

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itself seems to breathe, and pools of water shimmer in

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impossible blues and greens due to heat loving bacteria that

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thrive in toxic environments. Old Faithful itself has become a

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victim of its own punctuality. Yes, it erupts with impressive regularity,

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sending thousands of gallons of water over one hundred feet

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into the air. Yes, it's a spectacle worth seeing. But

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the bleacher seating and the crowds checking their watches can

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diminish the raw power of what you're witnessing. Superheated water

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finding released through a constricted opening in the Earth's crust,

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a geological pressure valve that's been functioning for centuries. More

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rewarding are the basin's less famous features Morning Glory Pool

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with its rainbow gradient, Castle Geyser, with its cone like

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formation built up over thousands of eruptions, or Grand Geyser,

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less predictable than Old Faithful but more dramatic when it performs.

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These require patients and timing qualities and short supply for

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many modern travelers. The Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway

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Geyser Basin offers perhaps the park's most photogenic feature. This

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massive hot spring, the third largest in the world, presents

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as a perfect color wheel, from deep blue at its

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superheated center to bands of green, yellow, orange, and red

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created by different species of thermophilic bacteria. From ground level,

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it's impressive, but partially obscured by its own steam from

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the recently constructed overlook on the hill above its otherworldly

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These geothermal areas serve as reminders that were visitors not

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just to a place, but to a moment in geological time.

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The features we see today look different than they did

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a century ago, and will continue to evolve. Geysers go, dormant,

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springs change color, new vents appear without warning. The ground

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beneath Yellowstone is alive in a way that few other

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places on Earth can claim. In Yellowstone, the hierarchy of

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human superiority dissolves here. We are neither apex predators nor

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dominant species. We are at best tolerated observers, confined to

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our vehicles and designated paths, while the real residents bison, elk, wolves,

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bears move freely through their domain. The Lamar Valley in

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the northeast corner of the park offers the premier wildlife

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viewing experience, often called America's Serengetti. This broad river valley,

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with its sweeping grassland, support herds of bison and pronghorn,

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packs of wolves, grizzly and black bears, and countless smaller

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mammals and birds. Dawn and dusk bring the valley to

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life as crepuscular creatures emerge to feet in the cool hours.

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The wolf watchers are a particular subspecies of Yellowstone visitor.

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Armed with spotting scopes powerful enough to count the whiskers

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on a wolf's muzzle from a mile away, they stake

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out positions along the northeast entrance road before sunrise. Many

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can identify individual wolves by sight and know the complex

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social dynamics of each pack. Their dedication borders on obsession,

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but after wolves were reintroduced to the park in nineteen

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ninety five after a seventy year absence, every sighting feels

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like witnessing ecological redemption. Bison, meanwhile, have mastered the art

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of traffic control. These one ton behemoths, despite their size,

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can sprint at thirty five miles per hour and jump

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six feet vertically, Yet they often choose to amble down

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the middle of the road, creating wildlife jams that can

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stretch for miles. Their indifference to vehicles is both their

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charm and the source of countless unsafe tourist interactions. The bear,

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both grizzly and black, command a different kind of attention.

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A bear jam forms instantly when one is spotted near

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the road, with visitors abandoning vehicles and dangerous locations for

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a glimpse or a photo. The bears mostly ignore the commotion,

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focused on their constant search for calories to survive the

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long winter hibernation. Park rangers fight a never ending battle

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to maintain safe distances between bears and the humans who

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forget these are wild animals, not trained performers. These wildlife

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encounters are unscripted and unpredictable. You might drive the same

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road ten times and see nothing, then round a bend

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to find a wolf pack taking down an elk, or

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a grizzly sow teaching her cubs to dig for roots.

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Its reality television of the highest order, with no producers,

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no retakes, and consequences that are brutally real. Beyond the

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famous geyser basins yellowstones, thermal features take countless forms, each

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with its own strange beauty. Hot springs like the sapphire

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Blue Abyss pool in the West Thumb geyser base and

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plunge to unseen depths. Mud pots like those in the

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Fountain Paint Pot area bubble and PLoP with the consistency

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of thick stew. Fumaroles or steam vents hiss and whistle

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as superheated vapor escapes from the earth. At Mammoth Hot Springs,

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near the park's north entrance, the thermal features create architecture

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instead of eruptions. Here, hot water, rich and dissolved limestone

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flows over a hillside, depositing minerals in terraced formations that

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grow about a foot each year. The result looks like

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a frozen waterfall with pools of steaming water cascading over white, orange,

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and brown terraces. Some formations, like the iconic Liberty Cap,

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have become so established they have their own names. What

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makes these features particularly fascinating is their impermanence. A spring

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that flows freely for decades can go dormant overnight. New

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vents can appear in previously stable ground. The color shift

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as different microorganisms thrive or die off with changing conditions.

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It's a landscape and constant flux, a reminder that the

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Earth is a living system, not a static backdrop for

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human activities. This impermanence extends to the larger geologic story.

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The caldera that forms more such of yellowstone continues to

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rise and fall as magma shifts beneath the surface. The

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park has experienced three major eruptions over the past two

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point one million years, and though scientists don't anticipate another

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catastrophic event anytime soon, the area remains one of the

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most seismically active in North America, with over one thousand

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measurable earthquakes annually. Walking among these thermal features requires a

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special kind of awareness. The ground that appears solid may

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be only a thin crust over boiling water. The paths

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that seem intuitive may lead to dangerous areas, the boardwalks

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that sometimes feel restrictive, or there because generations of visitors

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have learned hard lessons about Yellowstone's hazards. It's a place

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where the normal rules don't apply, where the earth itself

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cannot be trusted to behave as we expect. If Yellowstone

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or only the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, it

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would still merit National park status. This massive gash in

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the earth, carved by the river and painted in yellows, pinks,

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and reds by hydrothermal alteration of the rhyolite rock, stretches

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for twenty miles through the park's midsection. The canyon reaches

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depths of up to one thy two hundred feet and

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features two major waterfalls, the upper falls dropping one hundred

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and nine feet and the more dramatic lower falls plunging

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three hundred eight feet. Various overlooks provide different perspectives, from

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the vertigo inducing edge of Artist Point to the challenging

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descent of Uncle Tom's Trail with its steel stairs clinging

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to the canyon wall. What makes this canyon different from

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others in the American West is its color palette the

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yellow and Yellowstone refers at least partially to these canyon walls,

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where iron compounds oxidized by the area's thermal features create

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hues ranging from pale lemon to deep rust. When morning

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light strikes the canyon walls, the entire gorge seems to

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glow from within. The canyon also offers a different sort

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of wildlife viewing. Osprey nest on rock pinnacles rising from

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the canyon floor. While eagles soar on thermals above the rim,

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Smaller birds like swallows dart in and out of nesting

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holes in the soft rock walls. It's a vertical ecosystem

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as complex as the more famous valleys and forests elsewhere

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in the park. Perhaps most significantly, the canyon represents a

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kind of middle ground in the Yellowstone experience. It's neither

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the bizarre geothermal landscape of the geyser basins nor the

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pastoral scene of the wildlife rich valleys. It's a more

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familiar type of natural wonder, the kind that aligns with

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our expectations of what breathtaking scenery should look like, yet

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no less spectacular for its relative normality. While most visitors

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experience Yellowstone from the Grand Loop Road. In its offshoots,

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the park's true character reveals itself to those willing to

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leave the pavement behind. Of yellowstones two point two million acres,

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only a tiny fraction is developed. The rest consists of

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back country that ranges from accessible day hike territory to

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remote wilderness that sees fewer human footprints than the surface

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of the moon. The day hikes offer an excellent compromise

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between accessibility and immersion. Trails like the one to Ferry

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Falls provide relatively easy access to features that can't be

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seen from the road.

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The five mile round trip takes hikers through Lodgepole Pine

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Forest to a two hundred foot waterfall, with a side

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trail leading to an overlook of Grand Prismatic Spring that

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offers the best view of this rainbow colored wonder. More

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ambitious day hikers might tackle Mount Washburn, where a six

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point two mile round trip climb rewards with panoramic views

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of the park from ten tho two hundred and forty

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three feet. In summer, wildflowers carpet the slopes, and bighorn

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sheep often graze near the lookout tower at the summit.

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On clear days, The visibility stretches over fifty miles in

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all directions, providing a perspective on the park's massiveness that

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can't be grassed from lower elevations. For those with backcountry permits,

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overnight trips open up vast swaths of Yellowstone rarely seen

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by the average visitor. The Beckler area in the southwest

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corner of the park, known as Cascade Corner for its

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numerous waterfalls, offers multi day routes through riverside meadows and

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thermal areas without the crowds found elsewhere. The thorofare region,

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the most remote area in the continental United States as

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measured by distance from a road, provides a wilderness experience

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that feels unchanged since the days of the mountain men.

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These backcountry experiences come with responsibilities and risks. Bears are

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a genuine concern, necessitating proper food storage and awareness. Thermal

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areas can extend beyond their visible boundaries, creating hazards on

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seemingly normal ground. Weather can change rapidly, especially at higher elevations,

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but for those properly prepared, the rewards are immeasurable. The

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sight of a bull moose at dawn and a steaming

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meadow the stars reflected perfectly in a mountain lake, or

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simply the profound silence that can only be found miles

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from the nearest engine. Yellowstone forces this recognition upon us.

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It's a place where the Earth's raw power cannot be ignored,

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where our species, brief tenure and limited control are thrown

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into sharp relief. The ground itself cannot be trusted to

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remain solid. The water can scald, the animals can kill,

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the weather can turn lethal with little warning. And yet

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within these dangers lies the park's profound gift, the opportunity

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to experience a world not designed for human comfort or convenience,

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a world that operates on scales of time and space

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that humble our brief, narrow existence. When the naturalist John

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Muir wrote that going to the mountains is going home,

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he captured something essential about places like Yellowstone. Despite their

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apparent harshness, despite their indifference to our presence, these landscapes

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resonate with something primal within us.

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They feel like home.

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As you leave the park, rejoining the flow of modern

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life with its manufactured certainties and comforts, Yellowstone stays with you.

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It becomes a touchstone, a reminder that beneath our constructed

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world lies a deeper reality that operates by older, wilder rules.

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The park's existence is both a gift from the past

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and a responsibility to the future. A peace of the

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world that we've collectively agreed to leave alone, a place

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where force is larger than ourselves can continue to shape

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the land without our interference. In an age when it

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seems every inch of the planet has been mapped, exploited,

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or developed, Yellowstone remains gloriously necessarily wild, not as a

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museum piece, not as a theme park version of nature,

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but as a living system continuing its ancient cycles regardless

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of our presence. The wolves don't howl for our entertainment.

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The geysers don't erupt on schedule for our convenience. The

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mountains don't stand as backdrops for our photographs. They simply are,

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and in their profound indifference to our attention lies their

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greatest lesson. The world does not exist for us, but

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we exist because of it. Until next time, Happy travels

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and travel is back.

166. Yellowstone National Park - America's Wild Heart

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