Yellowstone dreaming
11/02/19 05:21
The New York Times has an article this morning about Steamboat Geyser in Yellowstone National Park. I haven’t paid to get past the paywall at the New York Times website, so I haven’t read their article and I haven’t been to Yellowstone for several years. The headline, however, is enough to make me want to make a trip.
Yellowstone is magnificent all year around, but it is especially dramatic in the winter. The west side of the park is open to snow coach travel, so the way to get to the Norris Basin in the winter is to take the snow coach from Mammoth to Old Faithful. Snowmobilers often go in the West Entrance by West Yellowstone and head over through Madison to Norris Steamboat is in the Norris basin. It is, to my memory, the tallest geyser in the park. Unlike Old Faithful, the geyser is mostly steam for a lot of the time, but occasionally has very dramatic eruptions. I’ve see it once. The best way to see it is to camp at the Norris campground. The geyser is so loud that you can hear it in the campground.
Back in 1963, my family had a new car and we made a trip to Yellowstone the following summer. It wasn’t very far for us and we went into the park almost every summer. In the summer of 64, the geyser was being very active and I think it set a record that year for the highest and longest eruption. Then, a few years later, it went completely dormant until the early 1980’s. Since then it will go silent for six months or even a few years and then produce an eruption, but last year, it started erupting much more frequently. According to a brief article on geek.com, it erupted 29 times last year.
This is especially welcome news for me because the Norris Basin is home to some very beautiful geysers and pools and was, until recent years, one of the less explored regions of the park. The area is dangerous with lots of unstable ground and it is important to stay on marked trails and walkways. There are stories of people perishing in hot water because they ventured off trail. Getting boiled doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
Yellowstone is a fascinating place and one of the places where we can be aware of the rapid pace of change in our planet. We know that geological time is a different pace than the way we normally think about the passage of time, Volcanoes will erupt. Earthquakes will occur. Predicting those events, however, is difficult because things can move very slowly when you are thinking about tectonic plates and the movement of rocks. Yellowstone, however, is a place that is capable of surprising you.
There are other ways that Yellowstone changes. The fires of 1988 and 1989 transformed areas of the park. There were hillsides around the Madison area that were completely denuded. It was said that the soil was sterilized by the intense heat. Yet a couple of years later those same hills were green with new growth and rebirth. Down closer to the lake, there were vistas opened up by the fires. There are places with beautiful views of the lake that used to be just walls of trees. At the time, especially when the news cameras were using very long lenses to take pictures of fires near Old Faithful, when it seemed like the whole park was going up in flames. Visiting 5 years later was a delight because the park had put on a great display of rebirth and regrowth.
Today, however, I’m remembering and dreaming of a winter visit to Yellowstone. It fills up with people so dramatically in the summer that it you have to be willing to walk in order to get to places of peace and quiet. It is hard to fully appreciate natural beauty when you are surrounded by a noisy crowd. It is frustrating to drive in traffic when you are in remote country. In the winter, however, the tourists are confined to snow coaches and congregate in Mammoth, Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. They do plow the road from Mammoth over to Cook City, so you can drive to Tower junction. From there it is a two mile ski to tower falls, which is absolutely gorgeous in the winter. A frozen waterfall is worth the effort to take a look. And winter or summer any foot travel of more than a mile will get you away from the crush of tourists.
Hot springs and geysers are even more dramatic in the winter when the steam turns to ice crystals and the fog creates a mist over the land. It is no exaggeration to think of it as a wonderland.
During our years in Chicago, we made journeys to Yellowstone at least two of the winters. My family would have a gathering right after Christmas at Chico Hot Springs in the Yellowstone valley and then we’d drive down through Gardner and Mammoth to take a look at the park. We could count on being able to show Big Horn Sheep, Antelope, Elk, Deer, and Buffalo to guests. Taking our friends from Australia to the park was a delightful adventure.
I’m probably suffering from a bit of cabin fever. Although i’m getting outside to go to and from the church and various meetings around town, I’ve been spending a bit too much time inside during this cold weather. I own appropriate clothing to go out in the very cold weather, but sometimes I get lazy or just stay inside because it is warm and convenient. The past week has given us the gift of snow which means I need to shovel the driveway and that at least gets me outside, but it isn’t the same as a walk in the woods. Perhaps today will give me the chance to get out and take a look around.
I won’t make it over to Yellowstone in person, but nothing can keep me from paying a visit in memory. Happy skiing!
Yellowstone is magnificent all year around, but it is especially dramatic in the winter. The west side of the park is open to snow coach travel, so the way to get to the Norris Basin in the winter is to take the snow coach from Mammoth to Old Faithful. Snowmobilers often go in the West Entrance by West Yellowstone and head over through Madison to Norris Steamboat is in the Norris basin. It is, to my memory, the tallest geyser in the park. Unlike Old Faithful, the geyser is mostly steam for a lot of the time, but occasionally has very dramatic eruptions. I’ve see it once. The best way to see it is to camp at the Norris campground. The geyser is so loud that you can hear it in the campground.
Back in 1963, my family had a new car and we made a trip to Yellowstone the following summer. It wasn’t very far for us and we went into the park almost every summer. In the summer of 64, the geyser was being very active and I think it set a record that year for the highest and longest eruption. Then, a few years later, it went completely dormant until the early 1980’s. Since then it will go silent for six months or even a few years and then produce an eruption, but last year, it started erupting much more frequently. According to a brief article on geek.com, it erupted 29 times last year.
This is especially welcome news for me because the Norris Basin is home to some very beautiful geysers and pools and was, until recent years, one of the less explored regions of the park. The area is dangerous with lots of unstable ground and it is important to stay on marked trails and walkways. There are stories of people perishing in hot water because they ventured off trail. Getting boiled doesn’t seem like a good idea to me.
Yellowstone is a fascinating place and one of the places where we can be aware of the rapid pace of change in our planet. We know that geological time is a different pace than the way we normally think about the passage of time, Volcanoes will erupt. Earthquakes will occur. Predicting those events, however, is difficult because things can move very slowly when you are thinking about tectonic plates and the movement of rocks. Yellowstone, however, is a place that is capable of surprising you.
There are other ways that Yellowstone changes. The fires of 1988 and 1989 transformed areas of the park. There were hillsides around the Madison area that were completely denuded. It was said that the soil was sterilized by the intense heat. Yet a couple of years later those same hills were green with new growth and rebirth. Down closer to the lake, there were vistas opened up by the fires. There are places with beautiful views of the lake that used to be just walls of trees. At the time, especially when the news cameras were using very long lenses to take pictures of fires near Old Faithful, when it seemed like the whole park was going up in flames. Visiting 5 years later was a delight because the park had put on a great display of rebirth and regrowth.
Today, however, I’m remembering and dreaming of a winter visit to Yellowstone. It fills up with people so dramatically in the summer that it you have to be willing to walk in order to get to places of peace and quiet. It is hard to fully appreciate natural beauty when you are surrounded by a noisy crowd. It is frustrating to drive in traffic when you are in remote country. In the winter, however, the tourists are confined to snow coaches and congregate in Mammoth, Old Faithful and West Yellowstone. They do plow the road from Mammoth over to Cook City, so you can drive to Tower junction. From there it is a two mile ski to tower falls, which is absolutely gorgeous in the winter. A frozen waterfall is worth the effort to take a look. And winter or summer any foot travel of more than a mile will get you away from the crush of tourists.
Hot springs and geysers are even more dramatic in the winter when the steam turns to ice crystals and the fog creates a mist over the land. It is no exaggeration to think of it as a wonderland.
During our years in Chicago, we made journeys to Yellowstone at least two of the winters. My family would have a gathering right after Christmas at Chico Hot Springs in the Yellowstone valley and then we’d drive down through Gardner and Mammoth to take a look at the park. We could count on being able to show Big Horn Sheep, Antelope, Elk, Deer, and Buffalo to guests. Taking our friends from Australia to the park was a delightful adventure.
I’m probably suffering from a bit of cabin fever. Although i’m getting outside to go to and from the church and various meetings around town, I’ve been spending a bit too much time inside during this cold weather. I own appropriate clothing to go out in the very cold weather, but sometimes I get lazy or just stay inside because it is warm and convenient. The past week has given us the gift of snow which means I need to shovel the driveway and that at least gets me outside, but it isn’t the same as a walk in the woods. Perhaps today will give me the chance to get out and take a look around.
I won’t make it over to Yellowstone in person, but nothing can keep me from paying a visit in memory. Happy skiing!