MEEKER I For a week in September, we had the joy of visiting our country’s oldest national park, Yellowstone, established in 1872. Prior visits have always been fun but this one included a reunion with my siblings whom I rarely see.
Some visitors feel the famous “Old Faithful” geyser is the best feature of the park. Indeed, it is still lovely and reliable, gushing about every 90 minutes. These days, it is also overrun with tourists, traffic and tour buses.
Other geyser areas have unique and interesting water eruptions too even if you have to be more patient to watch the water flow. Most of the other geysers have a less predictable eruption schedule. And there are pools of multicolored waters.
My favorite is “Morning Glory Pool” that I recall from a childhood visit. It took a three mile hike to see it, but Morning Glory is no longer primarily blue. Instead it is an interesting combination of green, yellow, and blue colors. Still remarkable, just not the color it used to be.
The park offers far more than geysers. Wildlife roam all over including a large bison herd, elk, deer, bears and wolves. The re-introduction of wolves to the park is considered quite successful and helped balance the natural ecosystem.
Yellowstone Falls are spectacular in a deep canyon and still have lots of water. You who fish would enjoy Yellowstone Lake and the many rivers where brown, brook, rainbow and lake trout are plentiful.
Hiking is also popular with more than 1,000 trails in the park that includes more than two million acres. For the fitter of you, there are also backcountry trails. For us slow pokes, paths around all the geysers and popular visitor sites are available.
You might recall that Yellowstone had a huge wildfire in 1988 that burned 36% of the park. This was back in the days when wildfires were considered natural and left to burn. Those policies got challenged but as we all know, restraining and containing any wildfire is rarely easy.
You will be happy to know the burned area in the park is looking much better and new twenty year growth is evident everywhere. In the end, that huge fire rejuvenated the eco system and wildlife health although many burned tree trunks still tell the story.
Last year, even with Covid, 3.8 million people visited Yellowstone and 2021 visits are expected to be the highest ever. As you may know, many of our national parks are getting loved to death with more tourists than lodging, roads, and eateries can handle. Various strategies have been employed in recent years including shuttle buses to mitigate parking problems and capping daily visitor access.
It is not an easy challenge to solve. Most national parks have tiny, two lane roads and limited lodging. If you look at the motels, campgrounds, and trails in many parks, they are the same today as many years ago. National parks are all about preservation, not infrastructure growth.
In reading about its establishment, I was intrigued to learn that declaring this a protected spot was highly contested. Locals felt they would lose business opportunities and control of local lands. The whole thought of public lands was novel back then. Likewise, Tetons and Yosemite, for example, faced similar fights to become protected.
Although residents of the United States might have a great reverence for our national parks, that doesn’t always include their establishment or continued funding. Many of our parks are desperate to repair and maintain existing buildings, roads, and hiking paths.
I love our national parks and have visited many of them. The folks that manage our parks face many challenges today that are not easily solved. I salute you for hanging in there and protecting our public lands.
My hope is that my grandchildren can enjoy our national parks in healthy conditions as I have.
By KAYE SULLIVAN – Special to the Herald Times
