More Yellowstone


Mon: We joined another ranger guided tour along the rim of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We have found the tours to be extremely informative and probably better than stumbling about on our own. A common theme was emphasized in each of their presentations. The park was here and available for us today because it had been set aside and protected over 130 years ago. It appears that the park service is constantly in confllict between preservation and use. Often it seemed like preservation is winning out. I realize that my thought is not entirely correct, but I sometimes got the feeling that Yellowstone was treated more like a museum with exhibits behind velvet ropes than a park as a place to play. We are instructed to stay on paths and to not touch the features. Now I realize that Yellowstone can be a very dangerous place. Many of those warnings serve to protect us foolish and unaware visitors. People have fallen through the thin ground that is near the thermal features and have fallen over the unstable cliffs of the canyon and have been injured or killed by encounters with the wild animals. A very large area was closed to any hiking because of black bear habitat. I suspect that this may be only seasonal but I'm not sure.

I had visited Yellowstone about 50 years ago on a trip with my parents. As I recall, bears were a frequent sight alongside the roads. People would stop and even feed them from their cars for the photos. On this trip we have yet to see any bears. We saw a lot of other wild life and some occasional bear sign. We also noticed a large gathering of people alongside the road. they had seen a grizzly, but it had disappeared into the forest.

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