After stops at Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and Devils Tower, time for Yellowstone National Park which was celebrating the centennial of its creation as the country's first national park. Nearing the park, I saw the Rocky Mountains for the first time. They were nothing like the Appalachians I was familiar with, and I first appreciated where the verse “purple mountains’ majesty” came from. The sights of new wonders were just beginning. We camped at Mammoth Hot Springs campground, hiked boardwalks around the springs, and attended the ranger programs at night.
Dad and me, Liberty Cap, Mammoth Hot Springs - 1972
We went to our first ranger campfire program at Badlands National Monument. I was hooked from that first one making sure to attend one in every park we camped in, and I continue to be amazed by the talents of interpretive rangers.
We’ve been cleaning the crawl space and having lived here 34 years, there’s lots of old stuff under there. One box had several items from this trip, including a book from Yellowstone that year.
Thirty-one summers later, my wife, three kids and I would stay at one of the small cabins at Mammoth and take a great hike on the Beaver Ponds Trail which crosses from Wyoming into Montana. Our oldest was 14, the same age I was on my first visit. The kids were as enchanted as I had been with bison, elk, mountain goats, bear and moose.
Joe & Jane, Beaver Ponds Trail - 2003
I don’t remember where else in Yellowstone my parents and I camped in ‘72, but we did take the park loop drives, and entered into the bizarre geyser basins. Of all the wonders of Yellowstone—animals, alpine lake, waterfalls, the canyon—the thermal features are what always transport me to a different world.
Mom and me, Upper Geyser Basin - 1972
Dan, Upper Geyser Basin - 2003
After that first trip, I longed to return to see these wonders. My first chance came in May 1989 when Jane was pregnant with our first. I had a hearing in Helena, Montana and extended it to visit Yellowstone. One of the park roads had just been plowed open with a good ten feet of snow towering on both sides. A notable sight from this trip was the number of animal carcasses around. Many food sources were destroyed in the devastating fires the prior fall, a hard winter followed, and many animals did not survive. The park was still beautiful and among the many signs of destruction, tiny pine seedlings sprouted in the burnt soil. Future visits would witness the steady regrowth of those forests.
Of course, Yellowstone was celebrating its centennial in 1972. One of my hobbies was coin collecting, so getting a silver centennial medallion was my big souvenir of the trip. And I got a centennial to patch to sew on my jacket alongside my Apollo mission patches! I suspect souvenirs for this year’s sesquicentennial celebration will have more inclusive language.
We also drove to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and saw the magnificent colors in the canyon walls, and even hints of steam from thermal features venting there. In 2003, just a few months after my dad died, we’d take a family photo at the canyon that would become that year’s Christmas card.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - 2003
Then in February 2017 Jane and I, new empty nesters, would return with friends to see the canyon when it looked like a Christmas card blanketed in snow.
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone - February 2017
On that trip we had stayed three nights at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge taking some brisk snowshoe hikes and warm snow coach excursions. We then stayed in Jackson Hole for a week and got to the Grand Canyon via a ferociously cold snowmobile ride from the south entrance. We all might still be thawing out from that ride! However, seeing an empty park with snow-covered bison plowing through drifts and steam from their mouths echoing nearby thermals is a sight never to be forgotten.
Not sure that I’ll get to Yellowstone to celebrate #150. If I do, I’d like to visit in the fall, the one season I’ve not experienced there. I’m so thankful to my parents for introducing me to Yellowstone and sharing the wonders of wildlife, scenery, weird thermals, and the park’s simple, quiet beauty. To return over decades with my own children and with friends adds more depth to the memories. Thank you to those who helped preserve this treasure 150 years ago, and to all those who continue to work there to sustain the wonders for us and future generations.
For Part Three, we’ll head north.