{"id":20651,"date":"2025-03-16T22:21:05","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T02:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/?p=20651"},"modified":"2025-03-18T14:53:03","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T18:53:03","slug":"yellowstone-national-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aleta.life\/index.php\/2025\/03\/16\/yellowstone-national-park\/","title":{"rendered":"Yellowstone National Park"},"content":{"rendered":"
Position: 45\u00b001’46.1″N 110\u00b042’19.6″W<\/a><\/h6>\n

\"some-guy-probably-not-john-colter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In the spring of 1808, no one at Fort Raymond quite believed John Colter<\/a>\u2019s stories of boiling mudpots, seething water pools, shooting geysers and sulphurous fumaroles. Colter had just returned from a winter-long solo expedition across the region that is now Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. He probably wasn\u2019t the first white man to see the natural wonders of Yellowstone, but he was the first to bring back stories of Hell on Earth. As a veteran of Lewis and Clark\u2019s 1804 expedition to map America west of the Mississippi River, Colter was not given to fabrication.<\/p>\n

Colter had left the fort he had helped construct in October 1807 with a goal of establishing trade with the Crow nation. That winter, with temperatures regularly dipping as low as -30F, he travelled over 500 miles. An expert hunter, trapper and the prototypical mountain man, he understood wilderness exploration and its risks. Thus, despite his story\u2019s apparent outlandishness, Colter was viewed as a credible witness. After all, he had been praised for his expeditionary work by none other than Thomas Jefferson. Over time his stories were corroborated and an area of hot springs along the Shoshone River near Cody, Wyoming, became known as Colter\u2019s Hell<\/a> as a mark of acknowledgement.<\/p>\n

But wait, there\u2019s more\u2026<\/h6>\n

\"john-colter-blackfeet-encounter\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Two years later, Colter and another member of Lewis and Clark\u2019s expedition, John Potts, clashed with the Blackfeet while trying to build trade in the region. This wasn\u2019t the first time Colter had run-ins with the Blackfeet. Potts was killed and Colter captured. After a council and deliberation, Colter, stripped naked, was told by the Blackfeet to run [for his life]. He didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/p>\n

Fast on his feet, Colter soon outran all but one of his pursuers. The two men faced off and Colter prevailed. Stealing a blanket from his dead assailant, he continued running for a further five miles. At the Madison River he took shelter in a beaver lodge and, escaping detection, stole away into the night.<\/p>\n

Colter returned to St. Louis in 1810 and reunited with Clark who was working on a map of the Yellowstone region. His route through the wilderness was later included in Clark\u2019s map published in 1814. That map would be the standard reference for the next 75 years. When the War of 1812 broke out, Colter enlisted. He died, possibly of jaundice, in 1812 or 1813, at the age of 37 (give or take five years).<\/p>\n

Mythmaking<\/h6>\n

This tale of derring-do became the foundation for what would become the myth of mountain men and the American West. At the turn of the 20th<\/sup> century elaborate retellings of stories of this kind became big business and gave birth to an entire genre of fiction. Hollywood wasn\u2019t far behind. The 1972 movie \u2018Jeremiah Johnson<\/a>\u2019 with Robert Redford kept the genre alive. Two generations later, \u2018The Revenant<\/a>\u2019, was released to global success. Both films illustrate the enduring appeal of frontiersmen taming the wilderness and slaughtering indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n

\"Yellowstone_National_Park-1904\"<\/a><\/p>\n

All that is a colourful and bloody preamble to the establishment of Yellowstone as America\u2019s, and the world\u2019s, first national park in 1872. The park quickly became a tourist destination. To help things along, the Northern Pacific Railroad built a spur line from Livingstone Montana to Cinnabar, a few miles short of the park\u2019s northern entrance. Punters transferred from the train to dusty stagecoaches for the final bit of their journey to Mammoth Hot Springs. From there they could adventure south towards Yellowstone Lake and geysers like Old Faithful. To control voracious poaching, the army built a permanent camp at Mammoth Hot Springs. Many of the army\u2019s methods for controlling poachers while keeping visitors safe eventually transferred to the National Park Service after its establishment in 1916.<\/p>\n

The railway from Livingstone and Cinnabar are both long gone. Although, if you examine Google Earth\u2019s satellite images of Paradise Valley you can make out where the tracks ran along the west side of the river. By car, the journey takes about 90 minutes from Bozeman. If we had an airplane we could have landed at Gardiner airport, three miles north of the park\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n

Yellowstone<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The current confusion in Washington DC conveyed a sense of urgency to our visit. By some miracle, the National Park Service is still working. For how long remains unclear. Stopping at park headquarters for information and updates on road closures, I congratulated the ranger on duty for being open. He was grateful for the acknowledgement and judiciously passed no comment.<\/p>\n

During the winter most roads heading south in the park remain closed. That leaves only a 50-mile-long traverse across the northern edge open for exploration. Should you drive from Mammoth to the northeast entrance you will find neither rangers nor traffic entering the park. That\u2019s because Colter Pass (yes, that Colter) closes between October and late May.<\/p>\n

Mammoth Hot Springs<\/h6>\n

Yellowstone\u2019s hot springs are pretty cool. Like the carbonate mineral hot spring terraces we visited in Pamukkale, Turkey, a few years ago, they arrange themselves in levels. Unlike Pamukkale\u2019s<\/a> snow white calcium carbonate-rich deposits, Mammoth\u2019s terraces are sulphurous, brown and quite a bit hotter. We waded in up to our knees in Turkey, but felt no such temptation this time. Boardwalks provide access to Mammoth\u2019s lower terraces. Warm, smelly steam rises off the rocks and acidic water cascades down in rivulets. The upper terraces are closed in winter and can be accessed by car at other times of the year.<\/p>\n

All this thermal activity comes with a (theoretical) risk of annihilation by a super volcano. The middle of Yellowstone is described by a volcanic caldera about the size of London. Some six miles (10 kilometres) beneath the surface lurk two magma domes, each about the size of Idaho Falls. Since the turn of this century seismic activity has significantly increased. Thousands of earthquakes a year shake things up. Most are small, 3.0 on the Richter scale, or less. A few years ago, NASA suggested that an eruption might be prevented by cooling the magma with water. They admitted that piercing the magma dome with a well might also initiate an eruption. Needless to say, Elon Musk has yet to find the $4 billion in taxpayer\u2019s money needed to undertake the project.<\/p>\n

\n\n\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>
\n\t
<\/div>\n\n\t
\n\n\t\t<\/a>\"\"\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\t\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\n\t