January 29, 2020 • 43 mins
We think it’s safe to say that Yellowstone is the most iconic national park in the country. It’s the first example people think of when they think of national parks, and its most notable features, like geysers and bison and grizzly bears, have come to be synonymous with the National Park Service. Not only is it an American icon, but it’s the second largest national park in the contiguous U.S., it’s one of the most visited parks in the country with more than 4 million annual visitors, and most impressively of all, it’s the oldest national park in the entire world.
For this first-part episode, we’re gonna dive into some Yellowstone history, talk about Matt's first visit, and discuss some of the controversial ecological issues that have played out there.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I feel like we should have seatbelts on for this
episode because it's a big one. We're talking about Yellowstone,
and frankly, it really does not get much bigger than this. Yeah,
I really think it's safe to say that Yellowstone is
the most iconic national park in the country. It's the
first example people think of when they think of national
parks and its most notable features like geysers and bison
(00:21):
and grizzly bears, and they've become synonymous with the National
Park Service. Yeah, that's definitely true. And not only is
Yellowstone in American icon, but it's the second largest national
park in the contiguous US. It's one of the most
visited parks in the country, with more than four million
annual visitors, and most impressively of all, it's the oldest
national park in the entire world, which is crazy. So
(00:43):
not just the US, yeah, exactly, the whole world. When
the park was first established in eighteen seventy two, it
was before any type of federally protected land was set
aside anywhere on Earth. Um, no country has ever done
such a thing until the US, and this was decades
before the National Park Service was even formed. It was
(01:05):
also before before Wyoming even became a state. They know. Yeah,
this is it's really wild to think about, but it's fantastic.
And one of the things I like the most is
how ironic it is then that the world's first national
park may very well, but the thing that one day
destroys us all. As this park sits on top of
a giant super volcano that, if it ever erupts again,
(01:27):
will end life on Earth. Something tells me that seatbelts
won't help us very much in that situation. Well, they
can't hurt, but no, they won't help. Hi. I'm Matt
and I'm Brad. This is park Landia production of I
Heart Radio. We sold our lofts in Chicago, moved into
an RV with our dog, Finn, and now we're chopping
(01:49):
in the country exploring America's national parks. And today's episode
is about Yellowstone in Wyoming. So, considering how huge Yellowstone
is both geographically and historically, we thought it was fitting
to split this park into two different episodes. It's our
(02:10):
first time doing that, but we really want to do
a justice and talk about our experiences with Yellowstone. So
it definitely deserves a two parter. Yeah, it really does.
Because there's so much here and to really dig into
it would be impossible to cram into one episode. So
it's our first two part park fittingly, as as you
(02:31):
can tell, Season two of park Land is just full
of first full of little twists. But it also makes
perfect sense to do this with Yellowstone. So here we go.
You and I have experienced this park differently. We both
visited it individually on our own at first, and then
together this past summer. So there's a lot to cover
and a lot to spread out over these two episodes.
(02:52):
Let's just say it's miles and miles and miles of information. Yeah,
but it's literally massive. I mean it's more than two
point two million acres um. That's bigger than the states
of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. And it's also larger
than some countries. Yeah, that's true. So long story short,
be sure and fill up the gas tank before trying
(03:14):
to tackle Yellowstone, because like we said, there are lots
of miles here and you're gonna want to be ready
for it. And the only national park larger than this
actually are are in Alaska, a lot of the Alaskan parks,
and then in the contiguous US there's Death Valley, which
is the only one in the lower forty eight States
that's larger than Yellowstone, and to be quite honest, I'm
(03:37):
exhausted just thinking about it. Yeah, but let's get into it.
It's the first part episode of Yellowstone, so we'll cover
more of our individual trips to Lstone for this episode
as well. For mine, I was here first with my family,
(03:58):
my dad, my brother, and my sister for a little
outdoorsy themed vacation a few years ago, and that was
definitely life changing, to the least, one of my kind
of formative national park experiences that triggered this obsession. But
you're gonna have to stay tuned for that, because first
we need to talk about history, and that's some epic, explosive,
(04:20):
fiery history here. Yes, yes, it is history. So backing
way up, when for Chappers, an adventurous frontiersman, first explored
this region of the ever expanding country, they were met
with the landscape that was beautiful and alluring but also
terrifying and intimidating and deadly. We're talking like simmering mud
(04:42):
pots and steaming streams, raging rivers, these explosive geyser's sulfi
York Springs and wildlife so intense that it makes Jumanji
look like a petting sue. Basically, I mean, these explorers
just no one believed them when they started like documenting
it and setting this back east. Everyone just brushed them off,
right right, I mean literally, it sounds absurd and over
(05:03):
the top and like completely made up, and so it
was assumed that these guys were just lying and had
crazy maginations and we're basically writing fantasy novels sending to
the government. But eventually, after enough of these reports came
in and the government finally wise up to the fact
that surely not every frontiersman has an overactive imagination, they
(05:25):
started formalizing these exploratory expeditions to research the area themselves
and see what all the fuss was about. Yeah, it's
kind of like the original Jurassic Park when John Hammond
brings all the doubtful scientists to the island and no
one thinks he'll actually see dinosaurs, but then they actually do,
and everyone is like stunned. Yeah, exactly, this place is
pretty much Jurassic National Park, but instead of Dr Grant,
(05:47):
Dr Malcolm, Dr Sadler, it was another trifecta of explorers
Ferdinand V. Hayden, a painter named Thomas Moran, and a
photographer named William Henry Jackson. Yeah, their findings must have
been huge and had some serious impact, because it was
less than a year later, in two that President Ulysses S.
(06:10):
Grant signed documentation making Yellowstone the very first national park,
encompassing the land that's primarily in northwestern Wyoming, with little
bits in Idaho and Montana as well. Right, so huge,
huge news, and the Trio not only provided impressive and
studying documentation, but they also argued for its protection by
(06:32):
pointing out that the area is not suitable for farming
or mining because you can't mine in hot springs or
over top of geyser. That's gonna you know, blow up
your barn or something, so you might as well protect it, right, Yeah.
I mean the first year at the as a national park,
there are only about three visitors, which increased dramatically once
the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed about a decade later,
(06:56):
there were thousands of annual visitors, which is really incredible.
For the eighteen hundreds, I mean they didn't have anything, Yeah,
I know, that is incredible. So even though frontiersman didn't
discover this steamy landscape until the mid eighteen hundreds. They
definitely were not the first humans to roam here. Native
Americans have been documented living here as far back as
eleven thousand years ago, most likely due to the abundance
(07:18):
of hunting opportunities after the Last Ice Age, because yellow
Stone is after all renowned for populations of bison and
elk and deer, among many many other animals, so it
makes sense that this was like a hunting mecca. Yeah,
in the early eighteen hundreds, some of the first fur
trappers to visit the region gave it the nickname rouch
(07:39):
Gen love It, which means rock yellow river um in
reference to the yellow sandstones by the river, and thus
the name yellow Stone was born. And in its history
it's been as colorful as the geyser's basins ever since. Yeah,
I know totally, because it really does have like this
(08:00):
technocolored history. It's so vibrant and so um bright and
very up and down good and bad. Vandals and poachers
were big problems in the early years here, as all
these animals are being hunted and trees are being cut
down with reckless abandoned and the minimal park rangers staff
that was here just literally did not have the resources
(08:22):
to protect such a large section of land. Now, things
really did get out of hand. I mean, like literally,
it was like military verse civilians. And yeah, and that's
until President Chester A author embarked on his first presidential
visit to the park with a little camping trip. Yes
he did, although if we're being honest, I think it
(08:42):
was probably a glamping trip. I can't really imagine any
president like camping. Maybe they do, I'm sure they do,
but who knows. Jester A. Arthur is probably a diva.
I mean, I'm you know, again, assuming I know absolutely
nothing about this guy, and I think I had forgotten,
forgotten he was ever a president until right now, which, um,
(09:04):
you know, he's I don't remember anything he did. So
but this was good. I'm glad he got to go
to Yellowstone. Um. And his trip here was hugely beneficial
because he wounded up signing legislation that allotted a lot
more funds for the park, which went towards employing troops
to protect the park and control the amount of development
(09:26):
that was happening, like it was off the chart. So
they needed to do something. Yeah, we learned all about
General Sheridan and Troop M of the United States Cavalry
while we were in Mammoth Hot Springs area of the
park last summer, where a bunch of historic army bergs
as were And apparently they protected the park for thirty
two years, all the way up until nineteen eighteen when
(09:47):
they handed over those duties to the recently created National
Park Service. Yes they did, because this is all new territory.
This was well before the National Park Service was established.
It's the first national park in the world, so they're
just figuring out for themselves and obviously taking a gorilla
approach to fending off these in the beginning years, like
most superintendents only lasted like six months to a year,
(10:10):
maybe not, and then turnover like it was no one
knew what they were doing, but someone had to start. Yeah,
and I'm glad that they pioneered that, and their sentiments
are forever engraved on the iconic Roosevelt Arch by the
Parks North Entrance, which the troops built, and the arch
reads for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and
(10:32):
it's something that has gone on to symbolize national parks
across the country ever since Yeah, and after this quick break,
we're going to get into some of Yellowstones colorful and
famous geographic history, geography. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
(11:09):
This is park Landia, and today we're talking about Yellowstone
National Park in north western Wyoming and a little bits
of Montana and i'd hope but most of the the way. Yes,
So of all the regions and landscapes in America and
really the world in general, few are as dynamic and
epic as Yellowstone, with its famed super volcano, geyser's hot
(11:30):
springs and mud pots. It's a place that definitely sounds
like it was dreamed up by George Lucas or something.
It just does not really sound real, which is why
the government thought early frontiersmen were you know, fantasizing about
this and creating just like lying because it doesn't sound
like an actual place. Yeah, it's one of those places
(11:51):
that you really have to see to believe. I mean
even we just try to describe it to people, like
they look at us sideways, like a little like like
Finn does, like yeah, they're like you're lying, Yeah, I
don't know what are you saying. And so it's even
today it's still unbelievable. And that's so crazy because we
have photos and videos and all of it, and um,
(12:12):
you know, I'm growing up. You hear and learn so
much about Yellowstone that it actually seems almost too surreal
and mythical. Um, it almost doesn't make sense. And that's
something that like something like this would exist on this planet.
I know, it's it's wild. We're lucky to have it.
You got it. It's one of those places you have
to see for yourself, and you have to honestly have
(12:33):
to smell for yourself because it's gotten a roma. Yeah.
We've gone how many times and I still don't feel
like I understand Yellowstone, which is crazy. I know, there's
there's so much, there's lots to take in, and it
all kind of starts with the heart of the park,
the Yellowstone Caldera. Caldera, of course, is the collapse remnants
of a volcano, and this is the largest of its
(12:54):
kind on the entire continent, clocking in at a somewhat
terrifying thirty by forty five miles. And today this caldera
is the site of Yellowstone Lake, this enormous pristine lake
that is so utterly serene looking that you'd really never
expect that there's a super volcano lurking underneath. Not to
get all like scary and neurotic or anything. No, not
(13:15):
at all. We should probably stop scaring our listeners because
it's all gonna be okay, guys, totally, I mean probably.
I don't want to. I can't. I can't guarantee that.
I don't want to be held responding. I mean, if
we're being if we're being honest about the super volcano,
and I'll just come right out and give it to
you straight. The supervolcano is still considered to be technically
active in dormant, although it's only erupted three times in
(13:38):
the last two million years. The most recent one was
years ago, and it was strong enough to make Vesuvius
and Mount Saint Helen seemed like blips on the radar,
like absolutely nothing. So even though it technically could erupt again,
the chances are very, very slim that any of us
will ever live to experience it, thankfully. Yeah, And on
(13:58):
the plus side, the super of Kano is what makes
Yellowstone the incredible wild place that it is today. Without it,
there would be it wouldn't be any geysers or hot
springs that make the park what it is. I mean,
yellowstren actually has more than ten thousands of these thermal features,
which are all beautiful and eerie reminder of the volcano
that's right below you. And it's crazy because like what it's,
(14:18):
it's supposed to be like erupting like any time now
plus our minus ten thousand, so it kind of erupt
in ten thousand years or ten minutes from now. Yeah,
we don't you might never hear this, you know what,
We might not finish this episode because that would actually
be kind of poetic. But um, as long as the
Super Bowl Hano keeps doing this thing and fueling these
geysers and not wiping out life as we know it,
(14:40):
I'm fine with it. Yeah. Nowadays, the best places to
witness these amazing thermal features are at places like Mammoth
Hot Springs. The Gorus guys are basin, the Old Faithful
Grand Press Medic Springs, West Thumb guys are basin. I mean,
there's so much more to talk about, but I guess
we'll talk about that in part two, So you have
(15:00):
to stay tuned. If the world is still around trails. Now,
I'm going to start talking a little bit about my
first time to Yellowstone, and I was actually visiting the
park for the first time with some family as part
of this semi annual nature the family vacation thing that
(15:23):
my dad had the idea to start, and I'm so
glad he did. And we were like ruminating over, like
which parks should we do, which part of the country
should we start this like kind of quasi tradition at.
And we all agree that Yellowstone slash Grand Titon was
the perfect place to do this and create this experience
(15:43):
together because none of us had been and obviously it
doesn't get more iconic and quintessential then Yellowstone, so it doesn't.
So we're all instantly obsessed. And we coordinated to this
trip where it was about a week and we all
flew out to Jackson Hole flew into there, which is
(16:09):
super convenient. I think it's like in Grand Teton National Park,
and then we just we got a rental car. We
spent a few days in Grand Teton at this beautiful
lodge in Titown Village and visited Jackson like the actual
city or town for a few days as well, and
then the second half of that trip of that week
(16:31):
was Yellowstone, so we drove from Teton Village up past
the rest of Grand Teton into Yellowstone National Park, and
then we stayed in West Yellowstone, which is like the
far northwestern portion of the park. It's probably like a
two and a half dollar drive Yellowstone to get to
(16:51):
West Yellowstone, which is pretty I know it really the
first day, we're like, wow, this is the gigantic park.
And it really makes you realize that because it takes
ever to get from point A to point B. And
one of my favorite things was, like, you sent me
this photo of you guys, and it was like your
first like bison heard as I was crossing the road,
and there's like this beautiful shot of like your dad
(17:12):
in the driver's heat and the passenger seat and this
like scenic photo behind it, and I just love that one,
I know. And it's kind of misty out or foggy
or something, so it's like these gigantic animals just looming
in the distance and lots of them. I mean, we're
just right in the middle. So sorry for interrupting, but
I just had to bring up them. No, it's important.
(17:35):
So West Yellowstone is actually in a portion of the
park that's in Montana. The other sends kind of the gateway.
It's like, um, the Northwestern Entrance, and it's this adorable
little like touristy town that's hustling and bustling in the
summer months. And we were there like mid September, so
things were somewhat winding down, but still very lively and adorable.
(17:56):
I loved it there. We had this cute little cabin
and on our way up towards West Yellistone, the very
first thing we did was stopped at Old Faithful, which
I think makes a lot of sense as the first
Yellstone experience because everybody knows what Old Faithful is, and
it's right up there with like the Grand Canyon and
(18:17):
Statue of Liberty, is like these, um like all important
Americana sites and activities. And we went there, had to
pretty much force our way through the crowds to get
a good view because it's very crowded. The park in
general is pretty is very crowded, but Old Faithful is
just like swarming with people. It's like a mob scene.
(18:39):
So yeah, it is. So we went into the visitor center.
My brother and I got our National Parks books stamped,
and I think my dad bought some sort of book
and or game. I want to say, we've got National
Parks YACHTSI there, And we played that a little later
in the cabin in West Yellstone. Although I don't know,
(19:00):
I don't know what makes it National Parks and Yatzi
is like a pretty straightforward numbers based dice game. So
I don't understand that one guys are two guys or
three guys. I don't know whatever, but it works. It works.
I love a good theme, even with it doesn't make sense.
And so we did all faithful and then kind of
(19:22):
checked in and got our bearings. In West Yellowstone explored
the town, which has some of these like super cute
little restaurants and cafes. We would like start every morning
by going to this little coffee shock thing. It's like
not a standalone shop per se. It's like this little
window that's on at this intersection, and there was just
(19:45):
lovely woman working every morning. Yes that's the one that
we went to our trip together. But yeah, this is
where the it all originated, where you got started with
it and obsessed with it because you're like we have
to go know, like good morning five, Like there's nothing
super special like the food or coffee that you rushed
me so much that we got there before it even opened,
(20:09):
waiting like, please serve us coffee. Coffee. Yeah, so they
have coffee and then a very limited like selection of
food items, but like they have like huckleberry bars, because
huckle bears are huge part of the country, so you
could find huckleberry anything and everything, and they're different restaurants
and bakeries and stuff, and they had stuff like that,
(20:29):
and then like probably banana bread and scones, you know,
kind of those little cute little things right there in
the corner. And then bagels. And I remember my brother
ordered a bagel, but like he doesn't like cream cheese
and he has for butter, and she was like, I
don't have butter, so I'll just give you this dry bagel.
And then you had a dry bagel. Um, very exciting. Yeah,
(20:56):
that's right. I kind of built that at me. It
see like something crazy than to happen. But no, he
just didn't have green cheese. And I think our favorite
that the place we went to more than like I
think three nights in a row maybe was this place
called the Buffalo Bar, which is this essentially it's a
saloon like it felt like a saloon with like pool
tables inside and big I think fake taxi dermy and
(21:19):
then a big, gigantic like buffalo replica in the middle
of the dining room. And we loved it. Cool Mary
west es it is, yeah, but it's like still kind
of like clean and modern ish. So we loved it.
And I don't think we really ate that. We mostly
went there for like after dinner drinks like Wyoming whiskey
(21:42):
and stuff like that. So all these great things in
west Ylstone in a great place to like kind of
get your start every morning because you're close to a
ton And what my family and I did was we
made sure we stalked up embarrassed Ray first things first.
We didn't want to like wander around Yellowstone without that.
Especially my dad was like very adamant and he always
(22:04):
had it at the ready. And we did a bunch
of different things in the span of like three or
four days. I feel like we really maximized it. Yeah.
So one of my favorite things was we did the
Grand Prismatic Springs area and the Fairy Falls Trail, which
is one of the best trails ever. I love it.
(22:25):
I think that's my favorite one. That we did in Yellowstone,
and one of my favorite trails, like just in general period,
was that the one that you like took me on
this dramatic long hike where you said it was like, oh,
it's only like two and a half miles, and it
end up being like seven. Yeah. I remembered it differently
because when we did with my family, I thought it
was remember being much shorter, but it was action packed
(22:47):
because we saw a ton of bison in a fox.
Unfortunately we didn't see it on ours, but that's another episode, right,
I honestly don't remember seeing I mean, I don't remember
it being as long as it ended up being this
past summer with you, but it's great. It's like super
peaceful and scenic and you go through a variety of
different trains from this like super tall, thin ribbon of
(23:08):
a waterfall, through these pine forests and then these wide
open meadows, which is on this trip where we saw
like a huge herd of bison and it was well nerving.
We wound up like cutting off the trail and going
around them, um, which was also nerve wracking because I'm like,
what if we wind up going off trail and then
like stumbling into a bear or like a loan bison. Yeah, true,
(23:34):
And we did wind up stumbling into like a loan
bison that was just lying right next to this tree,
and I was so scared. It was my brother and
I were like kind of ahead a little bit. We're
like several paces ahead of my sister and dad, and
we were talking and I remember, I don't know exactly
what let of this conversation, but we're talking about like
(23:54):
Disney World, because I guess I just talked about that
all the time. And I was saying to my brother,
I'm like, yeah, I really wanna explore Animal Kingdom more
or something. I was probably like, you know, just think
about animals though, And then like as soon as I
say that, we see the spice in and I freak
out and kind of yelp, and my dad pants because
you think I saw bear. I can imagine this, and yeah,
(24:18):
neurotic messes. I didn't do anything. It was just there.
And in that area, though, you do have to be
careful if you do walk off trail because there are
geysers and you do not want to fall into one
of those, because people have been falling into it now,
and you know, that's just not good. You will get burnt,
you will not be happy, and it'll take a long
(24:39):
time and cover you might not Yeah, yeah, definitely. So
you know you gotta be careful when you're doing that.
So I know where you pointed out where you were
walking the trail, and it wasn't like half a mile
off trail like into different areas. It wasn't anything crazy, yeah, exactly.
And then we inish that trail by doing this gigantic
(25:01):
loop that brought us back to the Grand Prismatic Spring,
which is easily one of the most popular sites in
the park. You kind of go up to this overlook
and from up there you can see down into this
like incredible like almost rainbow colored spring with these super
bright greens, blues, yellows, oranges. It's insane, Like I don't
(25:23):
understand how this is like this, how it's real and
it's massive and just like billowing a little bit of steam.
By mid afternoon, um, when the weather's the temperatures warmed
up enough, the steam dissipates enough where you could see
the spring really well, Versus in the morning when they
are still really cold, the steam could like be too
(25:43):
much it's hard to see. So I would definitely recommend
going like mid afternoon like we did, and that was great.
Another thing we did was we had a little picnic
in the Lamar Valley area, just like rolling meadows, beautiful
little ponds and lakes. Didn't see any animals out there,
even though I know we could have, and we were
(26:05):
kind of hoping to, you know, from a safe distance,
and we wanted it, wanted just being this nice, little
peaceful picnic by some pond at the end of the trail,
and it was. It was great. And we also did
the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for photos and then
a little hike by our waterfall. That's that's another popular
(26:26):
area that's like Raging River, the Yellowstone River, and it's
lined at these like explosive waterfalls and great panoramic views
from these overlooks and little trails that kind of run
along the river. Didn't you guys kayak on that trip
as well? Yes, we did so, I think the last day,
last full Daniels and we booked a kayaking trip on
(26:49):
Yellowstone Lake, which were all super excited about. So you
went fishing on Yellowstone Lake. We didn't go fishing, but
we like did a kayak trip and for that you
stay pretty close to the shore. They don't really let
I don't think they let you at all, like go
out into the mad like yeah, because like yeah, like
I got to go out there and just see it.
(27:11):
But we were on a boat, you know, so it
was a lot easier to get there and back. And
I feel like a lot of people would get exhausted
out there and not realized and take a long time
to get back. So it's a good thing that they're
helping their kayakers kayak safe. Yes, because they said, like
you get unexpectedly windy and the way it's can get
choppy out there, and the main problem is the lake
(27:34):
is freezing so like dangerously cold, so like if you capsize,
it's hard to get back in and if you're out
the middle of the lake, you're like screwed. Yeah, And
I thought, like, but I really thought the main problem
was about your jacket because the near guide I think
it was a Grange jacket. Do you know who this
(27:56):
person is? Yeah, so I actually don't. I have this
jacket is really nice. What does it call the a
bomber jacket? Is that was? That is okay? So it's
just like slick black bomber jacket with um this yellow
letter B on one sleeve and a lemon on the
other sleeve, so I think you know where I'm going
with us. And then on the back is a song
(28:17):
lyric that says winners don't quit on themselves. So it's
a Beyonce jacket obviously from the representing the Lemonade album,
and the lyric is from one of those songs. And
this guy full on the thought it was like, I
like your jacket, is that a Bruin's jacket? Like when
is dog quit on themselves? Right? Why wouldn't Yeah, let's
(28:40):
actually strike that. So I told him I was like, no,
it's the Beyonce jacket, and then he just kind of
like quietly nodded and stopped talking to me for like
the rest of the trip. And it was but like
the trip was really fun. It was not that windy fortunately,
so it was a nice, calm, easy pace. We've had
to see a lot and my favorite part was like
you get to kayak along the shore close enough to
(29:01):
the west thumb guys are basins, so you get to
see some thermal activity as well, Like not guys, there's
but hot springs in this billowing steam and some of
the like technicolored pools that in certain portions are like
dripping and flowing into the lakes. So that was really
beautiful and really cool. And then from there, I believe
(29:23):
it was when we were like all settled back into
the car and driving back to us Yellowstone, we found
ourselves in the middle of a bison stampede, like literal stampede.
Oh was that the photo? No, No, that was different,
but there's a lot of these. Yeah. So there there
was traffic, which happens a lot in Yellowstone. It was
standstill traffic, and we didn't know what was going on,
(29:46):
just impatiently waiting there. And then we start to see
bison walking down the side of the road, like a
lot of bison, and they were walking at a slow pace.
So me and my sister rolled down our windows because
we were on the side where the bison were and
we're gonna like take video of it. And as soon
as we start taking video, they start to like run,
like this whole herd of them or running surrounding our car,
(30:09):
not to us, but like everyone in the road. And
I remember it was amazing because the video turned out
it wound up looking like a found footage film or
something like my video because it's like I started to
take the video and then they charged and I'm like
oh and it gets all shaky and then I scream
and you get to see up like very close, how
(30:29):
huge these animals are. Like if they hit our car,
we would have been dum damaged to say the least,
like it could they could probably flip cars that they
like charged head tanks. Yeah, they're the largest land mammal
in the country. They can get really fast. They can
run like much faster than humans. So you do not
(30:51):
want to get into a a race with them by
any means either. So that was my yellow staring experience
with my family, clearly epic and actimidating and colorful and
does all of it was thoroughly life changing. That was
our first time doing something like this as And if
(31:12):
you just think that these are from one trip, I know,
these are just one trip of ours, each of ours,
and we hit on some of the same stuff we didn't.
But it's just so so big. I mean, yeah, what
would you say, is the best time to go The
best time to visit Yellowstone is I liked When I
(31:32):
visited I was mid September. Um, it was kind of chilly,
but not cold yet and peak summer season was dwindling,
so it wasn't as crowded as it is and like
July August, so we didn't have to worry about that
too much, just like the periodic traffic jams and whatnot.
But it was all manageable and beautiful and all the
(31:56):
animals were out and about and it's come to it's
extremely comfortable that time of the year. But luckily the
park is open all year round. I mean, it's basically
a Game of Thrones esque style landscape from late fall
to early spring, and most roads are closed, so the
only way to get into the park is on a snowmobile,
(32:16):
so you can go cross country skiing and go on
to snow coach tours. Um those are very popular. Yeah,
they are really popular on the winter moths. And during
this time period most facilities and lodges are closed as well,
So it's definitely much much quieter in kind of a
creepy way, but also serene and peaceful. And I know,
(32:39):
I would really love to experience Gallastone in the winter sometimes.
That's high on my list because that would be like
visiting another it would be like a whole another park
at that point, and that would be amazing. And then
you would also not have to worry about bears because
they're hibernating, so you can put the bear spare away.
Future is possible. Yeah, we would just have to do
it like not, because we're not going for that. No,
(33:03):
we don't need everything to freeze. No, we don't need that. Yeah.
The only roads that are open year round are the
North Entrance Road, Northeast Entrance Road in the Mammoth Tower
Road of the Grand Loop. Yep. So pretty limited, pretty quiet,
and I'm sure it's mind blown. Be beautiful. That's everything
(33:24):
you Allstone always says. After this quick break, we're gonna
wrap up part one of our Yellowstone episodes by talking
a little bit more about the animals here and the
ecology of the park. I am math and I'm brad.
(34:01):
This is park Landia, and this week's episode is about
Yellowstone National Park and Northwestern Wyoming ecology. And right now
we're gonna get into a little bit more detail about
the wildlife here since it's a pretty big deal. Yeah,
and it's really crazy because in the past couple of decades,
Yellowstone has taught scientists a lot about how food webs
(34:23):
and ecological systems work. It's um an ecosystem that runs
on energy from the sun. A plant turns solar energy
into food for itself, but then that plant is eaten
by a cricket, which is then eaten by a mouse,
which is then eaten by a snake, which is then
eaten by a hawk. When the hawk dies, its body
(34:43):
provides food for bacteria and fungi, which then in turn
feeds plants. All of these animals represent what are called
tropic levels what scientists now call links in the food chain,
and as representatives of these trophic groups eat each other,
energy has path all around the ecosystem. But what happens
when one member of this food web is our mood
(35:04):
from the system Ye also has actually been ground zero
for sort of unintentional experiment regarding what scientists have come
to refer to as trophic cascades. And trophic cascades occur
when predators hunting their prey keeps the number of prey
animals down, passing on the savings to the next tropic level.
Whatever the prey animal eats then has a better shot
(35:27):
at survival and don and on and on down the line. Um,
and in Yellowstone what they did was they actually like
reintroduced the gray wolves back India zone. And this is
a perfect example of what we're talking about. So in
regards to wolves, like every wolves are scary, right, Like
humans have never really liked them, which is kind of
(35:49):
weird because they're the direct wild ancestors of man's best friends,
domesticated dogs. The fact that they're fast, carnivorous and they
move around and intimidating packs I think, Plus they eat livestock.
They can eat like twenty pounds of meat in a
single sitting. This is a this is what's led humans
to create this like terrifying mythology around wolves, with things
(36:10):
like Little Red riding a Peter in the Wolf, the
Boy who Cried Wolf, etcetera, etcetera. Historically, gray wolves have
ranged around two thirds of the modern day United States home,
but they've been driven out of most of it now. Um,
they were hunted out of Yellowstone by nineteen six. Yeah,
and then in nineteen however, the Park Service released fourteen
(36:32):
gray wolves from Canada into Yellowstone after seventy years of
a wolfless ecosystem there. This decision, of course, was controversial
and made a lot of humans mad, but the ecological
results were immediate and honestly pretty startling. Yeah. In fact,
what a lot of ecologists think the wolves did in
Yellowstone was prevent elk and deer, some of their favorite foods,
(36:55):
from eating all the plants, especially near rivers. Yeah, the
wolves kept the deer and elk from denuding the river valleys,
which promoted the growth of trees and the riparian areas.
Riparian meaning the special groups of plants that grow in
flood plants of rivers and streams. So this meant more beavers,
which are animals that create special many habitats for other
(37:16):
animals like otters, fish, amphibians, and so forth, and more
migratory birds visited as well. The wolves killed or intimidated
the coyotes, which meant there were then more rabbits and
mice around, which learned hawks and other birds of prey
to the area. So huge effects. And not only all that,
but it increased stabilization of the river banks narrowed river channels,
(37:38):
which makes for more different kind of habitat in Yellowstone
as well, so would have this huge ripple effect across
pretty much every everything every animal, every environment. Yeah, and
the simple truth is that the affects the wolves took
on Yellowstone is complex, and this idea of traffic cascade
being the saving grace of the park's ecosystem is a
(37:58):
controversial one in young scientists. We basically can't replicate the
study because there's not another Yellowstone to replicate it in,
so we may never know exactly what effect wolves had
on Yellowstone. However, it definitely taught us that the human
mythology around wolves being evil and dangerous villains deserving eradication
is a very subjective one. Yeah, they can have a
(38:21):
lot of benefits. Yeah, this is something that is very
complex and hard to kind of just dive into, right because,
like they said, you can't just replicate it over and
over again, because even if you reintroduced wolves into Michigan,
I'm just using a random place. I mean, yeah, it's
(38:41):
the ecosystem is so different there, and the cycle of
life and the hunting cycles they're so different that it
wouldn't actually create a correct study. Yeah, that's true. But
then when you also think about how like well it's
used to run around to your thirds of the US,
like they're clearly affimated two a majority of this country,
(39:05):
and they have every natural right to be there in
a way. So it's it's weird that suddenly humans are
in this position where they're controlling it and dictating where
wolves are relocated to and then witnessing what happened. So
it's it's strange because they were here before people were
(39:25):
and because they've been gone another kinds of introduced, a reintroduced.
It's like, but there are different species of wolves. I
think they're the closest too, but you can't have the
exact if they didn't stay in that ecosystem, right, I
mean the same thing with the bison. They were reintroduced
into a national park this year, which one was then
(39:47):
that well, they moved more bison to bad lands and
released them. They're so like, this isn't an entirely new concept.
This has happened before, yellows, this will happen in the
future in other places. So but that will have an
impact on that national park, and it sounds like it's
going great in Yellowstone, So kudos to the wolves. We
(40:08):
did not see any walls and yellow Stone regretfully, I
would love to. I know that's that one takes a
lot of patients, Like, that's definitely something that I would
love to do, is like just slow down a little bit,
because we normally like kind of go through national parks
and try to get everything in. And that's why we
revisit national parks as well though, because we see the
things that we miss. But Yellowstone is one of those
(40:29):
national parks that we have both been to multiple times
now from multiple days at a time. I mean, I
think we both have a combined maybe twenty days in
that park and we still haven't even scratched the surface.
The what is it one percent of Yellowstone is actually
seen by the tourists that go there run. So there's
(40:54):
so much in that ecosystem, that wildlife, that diversity that
we have to really explore. And that is why we're
even continuing with a part two of Yellowstone National Park
later this season. Right, it won't be the next episode,
so you're gonna have to stay tuned. You're gonna have
standard toes and get ready for more and more of
(41:15):
that beautiful, beautiful place that Yellowstone is. Yeah, but of
a cliffhanger. But also the exciting thing too is we'll
be able to incorporate like our r V experience there
because now that us were in and r V able
we first visited, So it's lodges, hotels inside the park,
outside the park, where do you want to stay? Since
(41:39):
both of our first trips were pre r V, we're
going to save our ur V segment for part two,
and since we visited together, we are in our r
V and experienced it from a totally different perspective exactly.
So for that reason and a bunch of other things,
I'm excited for part two because this really is one
of those enormous, dynamic park that feels completely fresh and
(42:02):
new upon each visit, and it feels like you're visiting
a different place when you're in an RV as well,
that's for sure, So that'll be fun to talk about incorporate. Yeah,
for now, though, we hope you have been inspired to
visit or revisit this ultimate national park. It's a place
we have loved him an individually and together. It's been
(42:23):
inspiring and it's just put me in complete shock. It's
such a truly special place. Yeah, it really is, and
just remember it could blow at any moment. Good night.
You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks,
Parklandi's the production of My Heart Radio, created by Matt Carrouac,
Brad Carouac and Christopher hasiotis produced and edited by Mike John's.
(42:47):
Our executive producer is Christopher hasiotis our researcher, it's Jecelyn shield.
A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters
and the rest of the park Landia crew and Hey listeners.
If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Apple podcast Us. It helps other people like you find
our show. You can keep up with us on social
media as well. Check out our photos from our travels
on Instagram at parkla India Pod and join in on
(43:09):
the conversation in our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers from our
podcast My Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
thank you for listening.
I feel like we should have seatbelts on for this
episode because it's a big one. We're talking about Yellowstone,
and frankly, it really does not get much bigger than this. Yeah,
I really think it's safe to say that Yellowstone is
the most iconic national park in the country. It's the
first example people think of when they think of national
parks and its most notable features like geysers and bison
(00:21):
and grizzly bears, and they've become synonymous with the National
Park Service. Yeah, that's definitely true. And not only is
Yellowstone in American icon, but it's the second largest national
park in the contiguous US. It's one of the most
visited parks in the country, with more than four million
annual visitors, and most impressively of all, it's the oldest
national park in the entire world, which is crazy. So
(00:43):
not just the US, yeah, exactly, the whole world. When
the park was first established in eighteen seventy two, it
was before any type of federally protected land was set
aside anywhere on Earth. Um, no country has ever done
such a thing until the US, and this was decades
before the National Park Service was even formed. It was
(01:05):
also before before Wyoming even became a state. They know. Yeah,
this is it's really wild to think about, but it's fantastic.
And one of the things I like the most is
how ironic it is then that the world's first national
park may very well, but the thing that one day
destroys us all. As this park sits on top of
a giant super volcano that, if it ever erupts again,
(01:27):
will end life on Earth. Something tells me that seatbelts
won't help us very much in that situation. Well, they
can't hurt, but no, they won't help. Hi. I'm Matt
and I'm Brad. This is park Landia production of I
Heart Radio. We sold our lofts in Chicago, moved into
an RV with our dog, Finn, and now we're chopping
(01:49):
in the country exploring America's national parks. And today's episode
is about Yellowstone in Wyoming. So, considering how huge Yellowstone
is both geographically and historically, we thought it was fitting
to split this park into two different episodes. It's our
(02:10):
first time doing that, but we really want to do
a justice and talk about our experiences with Yellowstone. So
it definitely deserves a two parter. Yeah, it really does.
Because there's so much here and to really dig into
it would be impossible to cram into one episode. So
it's our first two part park fittingly, as as you
(02:31):
can tell, Season two of park Land is just full
of first full of little twists. But it also makes
perfect sense to do this with Yellowstone. So here we go.
You and I have experienced this park differently. We both
visited it individually on our own at first, and then
together this past summer. So there's a lot to cover
and a lot to spread out over these two episodes.
(02:52):
Let's just say it's miles and miles and miles of information. Yeah,
but it's literally massive. I mean it's more than two
point two million acres um. That's bigger than the states
of Delaware and Rhode Island combined. And it's also larger
than some countries. Yeah, that's true. So long story short,
be sure and fill up the gas tank before trying
(03:14):
to tackle Yellowstone, because like we said, there are lots
of miles here and you're gonna want to be ready
for it. And the only national park larger than this
actually are are in Alaska, a lot of the Alaskan parks,
and then in the contiguous US there's Death Valley, which
is the only one in the lower forty eight States
that's larger than Yellowstone, and to be quite honest, I'm
(03:37):
exhausted just thinking about it. Yeah, but let's get into it.
It's the first part episode of Yellowstone, so we'll cover
more of our individual trips to Lstone for this episode
as well. For mine, I was here first with my family,
(03:58):
my dad, my brother, and my sister for a little
outdoorsy themed vacation a few years ago, and that was
definitely life changing, to the least, one of my kind
of formative national park experiences that triggered this obsession. But
you're gonna have to stay tuned for that, because first
we need to talk about history, and that's some epic, explosive,
(04:20):
fiery history here. Yes, yes, it is history. So backing
way up, when for Chappers, an adventurous frontiersman, first explored
this region of the ever expanding country, they were met
with the landscape that was beautiful and alluring but also
terrifying and intimidating and deadly. We're talking like simmering mud
(04:42):
pots and steaming streams, raging rivers, these explosive geyser's sulfi
York Springs and wildlife so intense that it makes Jumanji
look like a petting sue. Basically, I mean, these explorers
just no one believed them when they started like documenting
it and setting this back east. Everyone just brushed them off,
right right, I mean literally, it sounds absurd and over
(05:03):
the top and like completely made up, and so it
was assumed that these guys were just lying and had
crazy maginations and we're basically writing fantasy novels sending to
the government. But eventually, after enough of these reports came
in and the government finally wise up to the fact
that surely not every frontiersman has an overactive imagination, they
(05:25):
started formalizing these exploratory expeditions to research the area themselves
and see what all the fuss was about. Yeah, it's
kind of like the original Jurassic Park when John Hammond
brings all the doubtful scientists to the island and no
one thinks he'll actually see dinosaurs, but then they actually do,
and everyone is like stunned. Yeah, exactly, this place is
pretty much Jurassic National Park, but instead of Dr Grant,
(05:47):
Dr Malcolm, Dr Sadler, it was another trifecta of explorers
Ferdinand V. Hayden, a painter named Thomas Moran, and a
photographer named William Henry Jackson. Yeah, their findings must have
been huge and had some serious impact, because it was
less than a year later, in two that President Ulysses S.
(06:10):
Grant signed documentation making Yellowstone the very first national park,
encompassing the land that's primarily in northwestern Wyoming, with little
bits in Idaho and Montana as well. Right, so huge,
huge news, and the Trio not only provided impressive and
studying documentation, but they also argued for its protection by
(06:32):
pointing out that the area is not suitable for farming
or mining because you can't mine in hot springs or
over top of geyser. That's gonna you know, blow up
your barn or something, so you might as well protect it, right, Yeah.
I mean the first year at the as a national park,
there are only about three visitors, which increased dramatically once
the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed about a decade later,
(06:56):
there were thousands of annual visitors, which is really incredible.
For the eighteen hundreds, I mean they didn't have anything, Yeah,
I know, that is incredible. So even though frontiersman didn't
discover this steamy landscape until the mid eighteen hundreds. They
definitely were not the first humans to roam here. Native
Americans have been documented living here as far back as
eleven thousand years ago, most likely due to the abundance
(07:18):
of hunting opportunities after the Last Ice Age, because yellow
Stone is after all renowned for populations of bison and
elk and deer, among many many other animals, so it
makes sense that this was like a hunting mecca. Yeah,
in the early eighteen hundreds, some of the first fur
trappers to visit the region gave it the nickname rouch
(07:39):
Gen love It, which means rock yellow river um in
reference to the yellow sandstones by the river, and thus
the name yellow Stone was born. And in its history
it's been as colorful as the geyser's basins ever since. Yeah,
I know totally, because it really does have like this
(08:00):
technocolored history. It's so vibrant and so um bright and
very up and down good and bad. Vandals and poachers
were big problems in the early years here, as all
these animals are being hunted and trees are being cut
down with reckless abandoned and the minimal park rangers staff
that was here just literally did not have the resources
(08:22):
to protect such a large section of land. Now, things
really did get out of hand. I mean, like literally,
it was like military verse civilians. And yeah, and that's
until President Chester A author embarked on his first presidential
visit to the park with a little camping trip. Yes
he did, although if we're being honest, I think it
(08:42):
was probably a glamping trip. I can't really imagine any
president like camping. Maybe they do, I'm sure they do,
but who knows. Jester A. Arthur is probably a diva.
I mean, I'm you know, again, assuming I know absolutely
nothing about this guy, and I think I had forgotten,
forgotten he was ever a president until right now, which, um,
(09:04):
you know, he's I don't remember anything he did. So
but this was good. I'm glad he got to go
to Yellowstone. Um. And his trip here was hugely beneficial
because he wounded up signing legislation that allotted a lot
more funds for the park, which went towards employing troops
to protect the park and control the amount of development
(09:26):
that was happening, like it was off the chart. So
they needed to do something. Yeah, we learned all about
General Sheridan and Troop M of the United States Cavalry
while we were in Mammoth Hot Springs area of the
park last summer, where a bunch of historic army bergs
as were And apparently they protected the park for thirty
two years, all the way up until nineteen eighteen when
(09:47):
they handed over those duties to the recently created National
Park Service. Yes they did, because this is all new territory.
This was well before the National Park Service was established.
It's the first national park in the world, so they're
just figuring out for themselves and obviously taking a gorilla
approach to fending off these in the beginning years, like
most superintendents only lasted like six months to a year,
(10:10):
maybe not, and then turnover like it was no one
knew what they were doing, but someone had to start. Yeah,
and I'm glad that they pioneered that, and their sentiments
are forever engraved on the iconic Roosevelt Arch by the
Parks North Entrance, which the troops built, and the arch
reads for the benefit and enjoyment of the people, and
(10:32):
it's something that has gone on to symbolize national parks
across the country ever since Yeah, and after this quick break,
we're going to get into some of Yellowstones colorful and
famous geographic history, geography. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm Brad.
(11:09):
This is park Landia, and today we're talking about Yellowstone
National Park in north western Wyoming and a little bits
of Montana and i'd hope but most of the the way. Yes,
So of all the regions and landscapes in America and
really the world in general, few are as dynamic and
epic as Yellowstone, with its famed super volcano, geyser's hot
(11:30):
springs and mud pots. It's a place that definitely sounds
like it was dreamed up by George Lucas or something.
It just does not really sound real, which is why
the government thought early frontiersmen were you know, fantasizing about
this and creating just like lying because it doesn't sound
like an actual place. Yeah, it's one of those places
(11:51):
that you really have to see to believe. I mean
even we just try to describe it to people, like
they look at us sideways, like a little like like
Finn does, like yeah, they're like you're lying, Yeah, I
don't know what are you saying. And so it's even
today it's still unbelievable. And that's so crazy because we
have photos and videos and all of it, and um,
(12:12):
you know, I'm growing up. You hear and learn so
much about Yellowstone that it actually seems almost too surreal
and mythical. Um, it almost doesn't make sense. And that's
something that like something like this would exist on this planet.
I know, it's it's wild. We're lucky to have it.
You got it. It's one of those places you have
to see for yourself, and you have to honestly have
(12:33):
to smell for yourself because it's gotten a roma. Yeah.
We've gone how many times and I still don't feel
like I understand Yellowstone, which is crazy. I know, there's
there's so much, there's lots to take in, and it
all kind of starts with the heart of the park,
the Yellowstone Caldera. Caldera, of course, is the collapse remnants
of a volcano, and this is the largest of its
(12:54):
kind on the entire continent, clocking in at a somewhat
terrifying thirty by forty five miles. And today this caldera
is the site of Yellowstone Lake, this enormous pristine lake
that is so utterly serene looking that you'd really never
expect that there's a super volcano lurking underneath. Not to
get all like scary and neurotic or anything. No, not
(13:15):
at all. We should probably stop scaring our listeners because
it's all gonna be okay, guys, totally, I mean probably.
I don't want to. I can't. I can't guarantee that.
I don't want to be held responding. I mean, if
we're being if we're being honest about the super volcano,
and I'll just come right out and give it to
you straight. The supervolcano is still considered to be technically
active in dormant, although it's only erupted three times in
(13:38):
the last two million years. The most recent one was
years ago, and it was strong enough to make Vesuvius
and Mount Saint Helen seemed like blips on the radar,
like absolutely nothing. So even though it technically could erupt again,
the chances are very, very slim that any of us
will ever live to experience it, thankfully. Yeah, And on
(13:58):
the plus side, the super of Kano is what makes
Yellowstone the incredible wild place that it is today. Without it,
there would be it wouldn't be any geysers or hot
springs that make the park what it is. I mean,
yellowstren actually has more than ten thousands of these thermal features,
which are all beautiful and eerie reminder of the volcano
that's right below you. And it's crazy because like what it's,
(14:18):
it's supposed to be like erupting like any time now
plus our minus ten thousand, so it kind of erupt
in ten thousand years or ten minutes from now. Yeah,
we don't you might never hear this, you know what,
We might not finish this episode because that would actually
be kind of poetic. But um, as long as the
Super Bowl Hano keeps doing this thing and fueling these
geysers and not wiping out life as we know it,
(14:40):
I'm fine with it. Yeah. Nowadays, the best places to
witness these amazing thermal features are at places like Mammoth
Hot Springs. The Gorus guys are basin, the Old Faithful
Grand Press Medic Springs, West Thumb guys are basin. I mean,
there's so much more to talk about, but I guess
we'll talk about that in part two, So you have
(15:00):
to stay tuned. If the world is still around trails. Now,
I'm going to start talking a little bit about my
first time to Yellowstone, and I was actually visiting the
park for the first time with some family as part
of this semi annual nature the family vacation thing that
(15:23):
my dad had the idea to start, and I'm so
glad he did. And we were like ruminating over, like
which parks should we do, which part of the country
should we start this like kind of quasi tradition at.
And we all agree that Yellowstone slash Grand Titon was
the perfect place to do this and create this experience
(15:43):
together because none of us had been and obviously it
doesn't get more iconic and quintessential then Yellowstone, so it doesn't.
So we're all instantly obsessed. And we coordinated to this
trip where it was about a week and we all
flew out to Jackson Hole flew into there, which is
(16:09):
super convenient. I think it's like in Grand Teton National Park,
and then we just we got a rental car. We
spent a few days in Grand Teton at this beautiful
lodge in Titown Village and visited Jackson like the actual
city or town for a few days as well, and
then the second half of that trip of that week
(16:31):
was Yellowstone, so we drove from Teton Village up past
the rest of Grand Teton into Yellowstone National Park, and
then we stayed in West Yellowstone, which is like the
far northwestern portion of the park. It's probably like a
two and a half dollar drive Yellowstone to get to
(16:51):
West Yellowstone, which is pretty I know it really the
first day, we're like, wow, this is the gigantic park.
And it really makes you realize that because it takes
ever to get from point A to point B. And
one of my favorite things was, like, you sent me
this photo of you guys, and it was like your
first like bison heard as I was crossing the road,
and there's like this beautiful shot of like your dad
(17:12):
in the driver's heat and the passenger seat and this
like scenic photo behind it, and I just love that one,
I know. And it's kind of misty out or foggy
or something, so it's like these gigantic animals just looming
in the distance and lots of them. I mean, we're
just right in the middle. So sorry for interrupting, but
I just had to bring up them. No, it's important.
(17:35):
So West Yellowstone is actually in a portion of the
park that's in Montana. The other sends kind of the gateway.
It's like, um, the Northwestern Entrance, and it's this adorable
little like touristy town that's hustling and bustling in the
summer months. And we were there like mid September, so
things were somewhat winding down, but still very lively and adorable.
(17:56):
I loved it there. We had this cute little cabin
and on our way up towards West Yellistone, the very
first thing we did was stopped at Old Faithful, which
I think makes a lot of sense as the first
Yellstone experience because everybody knows what Old Faithful is, and
it's right up there with like the Grand Canyon and
(18:17):
Statue of Liberty, is like these, um like all important
Americana sites and activities. And we went there, had to
pretty much force our way through the crowds to get
a good view because it's very crowded. The park in
general is pretty is very crowded, but Old Faithful is
just like swarming with people. It's like a mob scene.
(18:39):
So yeah, it is. So we went into the visitor center.
My brother and I got our National Parks books stamped,
and I think my dad bought some sort of book
and or game. I want to say, we've got National
Parks YACHTSI there, And we played that a little later
in the cabin in West Yellstone. Although I don't know,
(19:00):
I don't know what makes it National Parks and Yatzi
is like a pretty straightforward numbers based dice game. So
I don't understand that one guys are two guys or
three guys. I don't know whatever, but it works. It works.
I love a good theme, even with it doesn't make sense.
And so we did all faithful and then kind of
(19:22):
checked in and got our bearings. In West Yellowstone explored
the town, which has some of these like super cute
little restaurants and cafes. We would like start every morning
by going to this little coffee shock thing. It's like
not a standalone shop per se. It's like this little
window that's on at this intersection, and there was just
(19:45):
lovely woman working every morning. Yes that's the one that
we went to our trip together. But yeah, this is
where the it all originated, where you got started with
it and obsessed with it because you're like we have
to go know, like good morning five, Like there's nothing
super special like the food or coffee that you rushed
me so much that we got there before it even opened,
(20:09):
waiting like, please serve us coffee. Coffee. Yeah, so they
have coffee and then a very limited like selection of
food items, but like they have like huckleberry bars, because
huckle bears are huge part of the country, so you
could find huckleberry anything and everything, and they're different restaurants
and bakeries and stuff, and they had stuff like that,
(20:29):
and then like probably banana bread and scones, you know,
kind of those little cute little things right there in
the corner. And then bagels. And I remember my brother
ordered a bagel, but like he doesn't like cream cheese
and he has for butter, and she was like, I
don't have butter, so I'll just give you this dry bagel.
And then you had a dry bagel. Um, very exciting. Yeah,
(20:56):
that's right. I kind of built that at me. It
see like something crazy than to happen. But no, he
just didn't have green cheese. And I think our favorite
that the place we went to more than like I
think three nights in a row maybe was this place
called the Buffalo Bar, which is this essentially it's a
saloon like it felt like a saloon with like pool
tables inside and big I think fake taxi dermy and
(21:19):
then a big, gigantic like buffalo replica in the middle
of the dining room. And we loved it. Cool Mary
west es it is, yeah, but it's like still kind
of like clean and modern ish. So we loved it.
And I don't think we really ate that. We mostly
went there for like after dinner drinks like Wyoming whiskey
(21:42):
and stuff like that. So all these great things in
west Ylstone in a great place to like kind of
get your start every morning because you're close to a
ton And what my family and I did was we
made sure we stalked up embarrassed Ray first things first.
We didn't want to like wander around Yellowstone without that.
Especially my dad was like very adamant and he always
(22:04):
had it at the ready. And we did a bunch
of different things in the span of like three or
four days. I feel like we really maximized it. Yeah.
So one of my favorite things was we did the
Grand Prismatic Springs area and the Fairy Falls Trail, which
is one of the best trails ever. I love it.
(22:25):
I think that's my favorite one. That we did in Yellowstone,
and one of my favorite trails, like just in general period,
was that the one that you like took me on
this dramatic long hike where you said it was like, oh,
it's only like two and a half miles, and it
end up being like seven. Yeah. I remembered it differently
because when we did with my family, I thought it
was remember being much shorter, but it was action packed
(22:47):
because we saw a ton of bison in a fox.
Unfortunately we didn't see it on ours, but that's another episode, right,
I honestly don't remember seeing I mean, I don't remember
it being as long as it ended up being this
past summer with you, but it's great. It's like super
peaceful and scenic and you go through a variety of
different trains from this like super tall, thin ribbon of
(23:08):
a waterfall, through these pine forests and then these wide
open meadows, which is on this trip where we saw
like a huge herd of bison and it was well nerving.
We wound up like cutting off the trail and going
around them, um, which was also nerve wracking because I'm like,
what if we wind up going off trail and then
like stumbling into a bear or like a loan bison. Yeah, true,
(23:34):
And we did wind up stumbling into like a loan
bison that was just lying right next to this tree,
and I was so scared. It was my brother and
I were like kind of ahead a little bit. We're
like several paces ahead of my sister and dad, and
we were talking and I remember, I don't know exactly
what let of this conversation, but we're talking about like
(23:54):
Disney World, because I guess I just talked about that
all the time. And I was saying to my brother,
I'm like, yeah, I really wanna explore Animal Kingdom more
or something. I was probably like, you know, just think
about animals though, And then like as soon as I
say that, we see the spice in and I freak
out and kind of yelp, and my dad pants because
you think I saw bear. I can imagine this, and yeah,
(24:18):
neurotic messes. I didn't do anything. It was just there.
And in that area, though, you do have to be
careful if you do walk off trail because there are
geysers and you do not want to fall into one
of those, because people have been falling into it now,
and you know, that's just not good. You will get burnt,
you will not be happy, and it'll take a long
(24:39):
time and cover you might not Yeah, yeah, definitely. So
you know you gotta be careful when you're doing that.
So I know where you pointed out where you were
walking the trail, and it wasn't like half a mile
off trail like into different areas. It wasn't anything crazy, yeah, exactly.
And then we inish that trail by doing this gigantic
(25:01):
loop that brought us back to the Grand Prismatic Spring,
which is easily one of the most popular sites in
the park. You kind of go up to this overlook
and from up there you can see down into this
like incredible like almost rainbow colored spring with these super
bright greens, blues, yellows, oranges. It's insane, Like I don't
(25:23):
understand how this is like this, how it's real and
it's massive and just like billowing a little bit of steam.
By mid afternoon, um, when the weather's the temperatures warmed
up enough, the steam dissipates enough where you could see
the spring really well, Versus in the morning when they
are still really cold, the steam could like be too
(25:43):
much it's hard to see. So I would definitely recommend
going like mid afternoon like we did, and that was great.
Another thing we did was we had a little picnic
in the Lamar Valley area, just like rolling meadows, beautiful
little ponds and lakes. Didn't see any animals out there,
even though I know we could have, and we were
(26:05):
kind of hoping to, you know, from a safe distance,
and we wanted it, wanted just being this nice, little
peaceful picnic by some pond at the end of the trail,
and it was. It was great. And we also did
the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for photos and then
a little hike by our waterfall. That's that's another popular
(26:26):
area that's like Raging River, the Yellowstone River, and it's
lined at these like explosive waterfalls and great panoramic views
from these overlooks and little trails that kind of run
along the river. Didn't you guys kayak on that trip
as well? Yes, we did so, I think the last day,
last full Daniels and we booked a kayaking trip on
(26:49):
Yellowstone Lake, which were all super excited about. So you
went fishing on Yellowstone Lake. We didn't go fishing, but
we like did a kayak trip and for that you
stay pretty close to the shore. They don't really let
I don't think they let you at all, like go
out into the mad like yeah, because like yeah, like
I got to go out there and just see it.
(27:11):
But we were on a boat, you know, so it
was a lot easier to get there and back. And
I feel like a lot of people would get exhausted
out there and not realized and take a long time
to get back. So it's a good thing that they're
helping their kayakers kayak safe. Yes, because they said, like
you get unexpectedly windy and the way it's can get
choppy out there, and the main problem is the lake
(27:34):
is freezing so like dangerously cold, so like if you capsize,
it's hard to get back in and if you're out
the middle of the lake, you're like screwed. Yeah, And
I thought, like, but I really thought the main problem
was about your jacket because the near guide I think
it was a Grange jacket. Do you know who this
(27:56):
person is? Yeah, so I actually don't. I have this
jacket is really nice. What does it call the a
bomber jacket? Is that was? That is okay? So it's
just like slick black bomber jacket with um this yellow
letter B on one sleeve and a lemon on the
other sleeve, so I think you know where I'm going
with us. And then on the back is a song
(28:17):
lyric that says winners don't quit on themselves. So it's
a Beyonce jacket obviously from the representing the Lemonade album,
and the lyric is from one of those songs. And
this guy full on the thought it was like, I
like your jacket, is that a Bruin's jacket? Like when
is dog quit on themselves? Right? Why wouldn't Yeah, let's
(28:40):
actually strike that. So I told him I was like, no,
it's the Beyonce jacket, and then he just kind of
like quietly nodded and stopped talking to me for like
the rest of the trip. And it was but like
the trip was really fun. It was not that windy fortunately,
so it was a nice, calm, easy pace. We've had
to see a lot and my favorite part was like
you get to kayak along the shore close enough to
(29:01):
the west thumb guys are basins, so you get to
see some thermal activity as well, Like not guys, there's
but hot springs in this billowing steam and some of
the like technicolored pools that in certain portions are like
dripping and flowing into the lakes. So that was really
beautiful and really cool. And then from there, I believe
(29:23):
it was when we were like all settled back into
the car and driving back to us Yellowstone, we found
ourselves in the middle of a bison stampede, like literal stampede.
Oh was that the photo? No, No, that was different,
but there's a lot of these. Yeah. So there there
was traffic, which happens a lot in Yellowstone. It was
standstill traffic, and we didn't know what was going on,
(29:46):
just impatiently waiting there. And then we start to see
bison walking down the side of the road, like a
lot of bison, and they were walking at a slow pace.
So me and my sister rolled down our windows because
we were on the side where the bison were and
we're gonna like take video of it. And as soon
as we start taking video, they start to like run,
like this whole herd of them or running surrounding our car,
(30:09):
not to us, but like everyone in the road. And
I remember it was amazing because the video turned out
it wound up looking like a found footage film or
something like my video because it's like I started to
take the video and then they charged and I'm like
oh and it gets all shaky and then I scream
and you get to see up like very close, how
(30:29):
huge these animals are. Like if they hit our car,
we would have been dum damaged to say the least,
like it could they could probably flip cars that they
like charged head tanks. Yeah, they're the largest land mammal
in the country. They can get really fast. They can
run like much faster than humans. So you do not
(30:51):
want to get into a a race with them by
any means either. So that was my yellow staring experience
with my family, clearly epic and actimidating and colorful and
does all of it was thoroughly life changing. That was
our first time doing something like this as And if
(31:12):
you just think that these are from one trip, I know,
these are just one trip of ours, each of ours,
and we hit on some of the same stuff we didn't.
But it's just so so big. I mean, yeah, what
would you say, is the best time to go The
best time to visit Yellowstone is I liked When I
(31:32):
visited I was mid September. Um, it was kind of chilly,
but not cold yet and peak summer season was dwindling,
so it wasn't as crowded as it is and like
July August, so we didn't have to worry about that
too much, just like the periodic traffic jams and whatnot.
But it was all manageable and beautiful and all the
(31:56):
animals were out and about and it's come to it's
extremely comfortable that time of the year. But luckily the
park is open all year round. I mean, it's basically
a Game of Thrones esque style landscape from late fall
to early spring, and most roads are closed, so the
only way to get into the park is on a snowmobile,
(32:16):
so you can go cross country skiing and go on
to snow coach tours. Um those are very popular. Yeah,
they are really popular on the winter moths. And during
this time period most facilities and lodges are closed as well,
So it's definitely much much quieter in kind of a
creepy way, but also serene and peaceful. And I know,
(32:39):
I would really love to experience Gallastone in the winter sometimes.
That's high on my list because that would be like
visiting another it would be like a whole another park
at that point, and that would be amazing. And then
you would also not have to worry about bears because
they're hibernating, so you can put the bear spare away.
Future is possible. Yeah, we would just have to do
it like not, because we're not going for that. No,
(33:03):
we don't need everything to freeze. No, we don't need that. Yeah.
The only roads that are open year round are the
North Entrance Road, Northeast Entrance Road in the Mammoth Tower
Road of the Grand Loop. Yep. So pretty limited, pretty quiet,
and I'm sure it's mind blown. Be beautiful. That's everything
(33:24):
you Allstone always says. After this quick break, we're gonna
wrap up part one of our Yellowstone episodes by talking
a little bit more about the animals here and the
ecology of the park. I am math and I'm brad.
(34:01):
This is park Landia, and this week's episode is about
Yellowstone National Park and Northwestern Wyoming ecology. And right now
we're gonna get into a little bit more detail about
the wildlife here since it's a pretty big deal. Yeah,
and it's really crazy because in the past couple of decades,
Yellowstone has taught scientists a lot about how food webs
(34:23):
and ecological systems work. It's um an ecosystem that runs
on energy from the sun. A plant turns solar energy
into food for itself, but then that plant is eaten
by a cricket, which is then eaten by a mouse,
which is then eaten by a snake, which is then
eaten by a hawk. When the hawk dies, its body
(34:43):
provides food for bacteria and fungi, which then in turn
feeds plants. All of these animals represent what are called
tropic levels what scientists now call links in the food chain,
and as representatives of these trophic groups eat each other,
energy has path all around the ecosystem. But what happens
when one member of this food web is our mood
(35:04):
from the system Ye also has actually been ground zero
for sort of unintentional experiment regarding what scientists have come
to refer to as trophic cascades. And trophic cascades occur
when predators hunting their prey keeps the number of prey
animals down, passing on the savings to the next tropic level.
Whatever the prey animal eats then has a better shot
(35:27):
at survival and don and on and on down the line. Um,
and in Yellowstone what they did was they actually like
reintroduced the gray wolves back India zone. And this is
a perfect example of what we're talking about. So in
regards to wolves, like every wolves are scary, right, Like
humans have never really liked them, which is kind of
(35:49):
weird because they're the direct wild ancestors of man's best friends,
domesticated dogs. The fact that they're fast, carnivorous and they
move around and intimidating packs I think, Plus they eat livestock.
They can eat like twenty pounds of meat in a
single sitting. This is a this is what's led humans
to create this like terrifying mythology around wolves, with things
(36:10):
like Little Red riding a Peter in the Wolf, the
Boy who Cried Wolf, etcetera, etcetera. Historically, gray wolves have
ranged around two thirds of the modern day United States home,
but they've been driven out of most of it now. Um,
they were hunted out of Yellowstone by nineteen six. Yeah,
and then in nineteen however, the Park Service released fourteen
(36:32):
gray wolves from Canada into Yellowstone after seventy years of
a wolfless ecosystem there. This decision, of course, was controversial
and made a lot of humans mad, but the ecological
results were immediate and honestly pretty startling. Yeah. In fact,
what a lot of ecologists think the wolves did in
Yellowstone was prevent elk and deer, some of their favorite foods,
(36:55):
from eating all the plants, especially near rivers. Yeah, the
wolves kept the deer and elk from denuding the river valleys,
which promoted the growth of trees and the riparian areas.
Riparian meaning the special groups of plants that grow in
flood plants of rivers and streams. So this meant more beavers,
which are animals that create special many habitats for other
(37:16):
animals like otters, fish, amphibians, and so forth, and more
migratory birds visited as well. The wolves killed or intimidated
the coyotes, which meant there were then more rabbits and
mice around, which learned hawks and other birds of prey
to the area. So huge effects. And not only all that,
but it increased stabilization of the river banks narrowed river channels,
(37:38):
which makes for more different kind of habitat in Yellowstone
as well, so would have this huge ripple effect across
pretty much every everything every animal, every environment. Yeah, and
the simple truth is that the affects the wolves took
on Yellowstone is complex, and this idea of traffic cascade
being the saving grace of the park's ecosystem is a
(37:58):
controversial one in young scientists. We basically can't replicate the
study because there's not another Yellowstone to replicate it in,
so we may never know exactly what effect wolves had
on Yellowstone. However, it definitely taught us that the human
mythology around wolves being evil and dangerous villains deserving eradication
is a very subjective one. Yeah, they can have a
(38:21):
lot of benefits. Yeah, this is something that is very
complex and hard to kind of just dive into, right because,
like they said, you can't just replicate it over and
over again, because even if you reintroduced wolves into Michigan,
I'm just using a random place. I mean, yeah, it's
(38:41):
the ecosystem is so different there, and the cycle of
life and the hunting cycles they're so different that it
wouldn't actually create a correct study. Yeah, that's true. But
then when you also think about how like well it's
used to run around to your thirds of the US,
like they're clearly affimated two a majority of this country,
(39:05):
and they have every natural right to be there in
a way. So it's it's weird that suddenly humans are
in this position where they're controlling it and dictating where
wolves are relocated to and then witnessing what happened. So
it's it's strange because they were here before people were
(39:25):
and because they've been gone another kinds of introduced, a reintroduced.
It's like, but there are different species of wolves. I
think they're the closest too, but you can't have the
exact if they didn't stay in that ecosystem, right, I
mean the same thing with the bison. They were reintroduced
into a national park this year, which one was then
(39:47):
that well, they moved more bison to bad lands and
released them. They're so like, this isn't an entirely new concept.
This has happened before, yellows, this will happen in the
future in other places. So but that will have an
impact on that national park, and it sounds like it's
going great in Yellowstone, So kudos to the wolves. We
(40:08):
did not see any walls and yellow Stone regretfully, I
would love to. I know that's that one takes a
lot of patients, Like, that's definitely something that I would
love to do, is like just slow down a little bit,
because we normally like kind of go through national parks
and try to get everything in. And that's why we
revisit national parks as well though, because we see the
things that we miss. But Yellowstone is one of those
(40:29):
national parks that we have both been to multiple times
now from multiple days at a time. I mean, I
think we both have a combined maybe twenty days in
that park and we still haven't even scratched the surface.
The what is it one percent of Yellowstone is actually
seen by the tourists that go there run. So there's
(40:54):
so much in that ecosystem, that wildlife, that diversity that
we have to really explore. And that is why we're
even continuing with a part two of Yellowstone National Park
later this season. Right, it won't be the next episode,
so you're gonna have to stay tuned. You're gonna have
standard toes and get ready for more and more of
(41:15):
that beautiful, beautiful place that Yellowstone is. Yeah, but of
a cliffhanger. But also the exciting thing too is we'll
be able to incorporate like our r V experience there
because now that us were in and r V able
we first visited, So it's lodges, hotels inside the park,
outside the park, where do you want to stay? Since
(41:39):
both of our first trips were pre r V, we're
going to save our ur V segment for part two,
and since we visited together, we are in our r
V and experienced it from a totally different perspective exactly.
So for that reason and a bunch of other things,
I'm excited for part two because this really is one
of those enormous, dynamic park that feels completely fresh and
(42:02):
new upon each visit, and it feels like you're visiting
a different place when you're in an RV as well,
that's for sure, So that'll be fun to talk about incorporate. Yeah,
for now, though, we hope you have been inspired to
visit or revisit this ultimate national park. It's a place
we have loved him an individually and together. It's been
(42:23):
inspiring and it's just put me in complete shock. It's
such a truly special place. Yeah, it really is, and
just remember it could blow at any moment. Good night.
You've been listening to park Landia, a show about national parks,
Parklandi's the production of My Heart Radio, created by Matt Carrouac,
Brad Carouac and Christopher hasiotis produced and edited by Mike John's.
(42:47):
Our executive producer is Christopher hasiotis our researcher, it's Jecelyn shield.
A special things goes out to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters
and the rest of the park Landia crew and Hey listeners.
If you're enjoying the show, leave us a review on
Apple podcast Us. It helps other people like you find
our show. You can keep up with us on social
media as well. Check out our photos from our travels
on Instagram at parkla India Pod and join in on
(43:09):
the conversation in our Facebook group Parklandia Rangers from our
podcast My Heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and as always,
thank you for listening.
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