Yellowstone in the Winter Tour

This was my third winter in the park, each year I grow in knowledge and appreciation of how blessed, we the American people, are to have this magnificent park on our soil.

The story of the park starts in 1871 when General Henry Washburn, a newly appointed Surveyor General of Montana, explored this area. It was around an evening campfire that the idea came to him that this fantastic area should not be turned over to settlement, but set aside "for the benefit and enjoyment of the people." This idea was sent to Washington D.C and one year later, President Grant signed the papers for our country's first national park.

Regretfully the early years of the park were difficult, it fell victim to vandals and poachers. No one knew how a park should be run, so the army was assigned the job of protecting it. Fort Yellowstone was created with temporary buildings and tents, as this was to be a short term assignment. Thirty years later the army was still patrolling the roads and chasing poachers, so more permanent structures were built. In 1909 a team of Scottish masons built seven beautiful sandstone structures that can be seen and are still in use today in the Mammoth Hot Springs area.

In 1918, administration of Yellowstone was handed over to the newly created National Park Service, who manages it today.

Yellowstone has over 200 geysers making it the largest concentration of its kind anywhere on earth. Other areas that lie in active volcanic zones such as Iceland, Chile, New Zealand and part of the Soviet Union also have limited numbers of these rare and unique thermal features.

Geothermal activity requires three conditions that don't often occur together: heat, water and a plumbing system. While hot springs are fairly common in areas with active or recently active volcanoes, geysers are not. In Yellowstone, the magma chamber just a few miles below the surface provides the heat needed to fuel a geyser system. Abundant rain and snow keep under ground reservoirs filled, while cracks and fissures in the bedrock form conduits for the plumbing system. Geothermal activity occurs when surface water percolates into porous rocks. There it becomes heated and then returns to the surface taking the form of geysers, hot springs, mud pots, or fumaroles.

A first for me was to see the magnificent cone geyser of Castle erupt. Currently it is erupting every 10-12 hours. The water eruption reached about 90 feet and lasted for 20 minutes! Castle was named by the Washburn group, as it's ancient cone reminded them of a turret of a ruined castle. It is felt that Castle is the oldest geyser in the park and the cone took thousands of years to form.

Bison continue to be my favorite critters of Yellowstone, and to think that in the early 1900's, we the American people almost allowed them to go into extinction by over hunting. In the Lamar Valley is a cluster of log buildings which were used from 1907 till 1952, to rebuild the bison population through the use of a captive herd. I am delighted to say that the park now has a resident head of 3,000.

Why do we call them buffalos rather then bison? Bison were given the nickname by French explorers who took one look at this husky, four-legged grass-eater and said: "les Boeufs." which is French for "the beef." They thought bison were wild cows. The explorers were partially right. Bison are in the bovine family, but they're not the same beasts. A full grown male can weigh about 2,000 pounds and stand a little over 6 feet tall. It can sprint as fast as a horse, up to 35 miles per hour. Both male and females have horns and the large hump on its back is a shoulder muscle to hold up its huge head.

Still present throughout the park are the blackened trees from the 1988 fire that burned 1/3 of the park! After 13 years, visitors are amazed at the amount of blacken trees that remain. The climate of the park is dry and has very little bacteria that is needed to decompose the wood. Because of this, the burned trees only decompose 1% a year. Their presence will remind many generations of the summer fire that saw more then 9,000 firefighters, including several units from the Army and Marines, aided by airborne firefighting techniques. For modern times, this was the largest fire suppression effort ever undertaken in the United States. In spite of massive human fire-fighting efforts, it took nature's moisture, coming as snow in early September, to finally end the fire.

Wolf packs disappeared from Yellowstone in 1922 when the last wolf was killed by a park ranger. Later it was mounted and placed in a display case at the Albright Visitor Center. This was an era when wolves, coyotes, and mountain lions were considered a menace to Yellowstone's other wildlife.

In 1973 the gray wolves were declared an endangered species. Under the Endangered Species Act, federal agencies such as the National Park Service are mandated to protect both animals and habitats and, where possible, restore viable populations of listed species such as the gray wolf. Although a decision was reached in Congress, it still took years before a program was put into effect. Opponents to wolf restoration held that the program cost too much, feared attacks on people, livestock and other wildlife in the area as well as reducing big game hunting outside the park.

In January 1995, after 22 years of intense study and preparation, fourteen Canadian wolves were captured near Hinton, Alberta, and relocated to Yellowstone. This marked a new level of understanding and acceptance of the roles that predators play in a healthy ecosystem.

For approximately nine weeks after their arrival in Yellowstone, the wolves were contained in three large pens in the vicinity of the Lamar Valley. Their first steps out of the pens and onto free ground came in late March 1995. They adapted quickly to the park, feeding on young, old or diseased elk, just as they did in their former territories in Canada. Biologists are watching with great interest the effect of the wolves on other park animals. Coyote numbers are down, but the red fox population is growing, a true sign of the delicate ecosystem moving into balance. Biologists have noticed that certain ravens who normally feed on dead animals have attached themselves to their favorite wolf packs. Making biologists wonder how these birds ever survived before the wolf's returned!

Today there are a total of 120 wolves in 14 packs that roam greater Yellowstone. Only four are from the original release program, 76 are their pups, others have moved in from other sources.

It is difficult to actually see a wolf as they enjoy the large open plains of the Lamar Valley and shy away from humans and industrial areas. We saw a group of biologists with spotting scopes, studying the behavior of the Druid Peak pack. They were happy to allow me to have a look through their scope. My first view was of a gray colored wolf on a large rock, enjoying the rays of the morning sun. He was absolutely beautiful! There was a total of four, one was jet black. I was told wolves can be gray, tan, brown, black, or white with yellow or greenish-brown eyes.

The pack was close to the carcass of an elk killed probably a couple days earlier as there was little more then a rib cage left. I noticed a pack of coyotes came to the carcass and started eating. Wolves have little tolerance for coyotes eating their kill, even if they personally don't want it. All of a sudden one of the wolves jumped up and started chasing the coyotes away, it was very exciting. I always had difficulty telling a wolf apart from a coyote, but seeing the two together helped me to see the difference. A wolf is three times the size of a coyote and has a larger head. Seeing a wolf was the highlight of my visit this year.

Yellowstone continues to be very special to me. What keeps me coming back year after year? It is a place of intense natural beauty, fascinating wildlife, offers peace, tranquility and has an ever changing environment. All this coaxes me to return and learn more and more about this magnificent area.