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Yellowstone Park

On our first trip through the northern part of the U.S. It was 1958 and Alaska had not yet achieved statehood. My father, his mother, my younger brother and I left Winnipeg?, Manitoba to visit some friends of my grandmother's in Bozeman?, Montana.

When we arrived in Bozeman, we stayed with our friends for a few days and then drove on to Yellowstone Park, driving the switchback highway that rose ever higher as we left Montana for Wyoming and the entrance to the U.S.'s first national park.

What amazing delights we soon saw. None of us could believe that something so awesome even existed. Here a river cut a small canyon into the bedrock. There hot water ran down the terraces of the Mammoth Hot Springs? creating variegated colors: Opal Terrace, Angel Terrace and Palette Spring.

Then on to numerous other stops as we explored bubbling pools and small plops of geysers. To me it seemed like a colorful fairyland. Then there was the obligatory stop to see Old Faithful. I remember that it was not quite as faithful as usual that day. We had to wait a few extra minutes for it to put on its show.

But how could we be disappointed. This was not a time when everything could be brought from far away right into our house. Few peple had television and there were no color TVs available at all, at least not to the public. We saw deer and other wildlife and my father took roll after roll of photos. Of course the wonders of geysers, rocks colored by solutions of different metals and other elements were the chief wonders but there was so much more that we had never seen before. Some of these were the beautiful wild flowers that did not grow in the city in which we grew up nor on the prairie which surrounded the city. The whole ecology was completely different and I revelled in this difference.

Four years later, our whole family, without our grandmother but including our mother and two youngest siblings returned to Yellowstone Park on our way back from California where we again visited friends in numerous cities and went sightseeing. This time it was colder. There was still snow on the higher elevations of the park and we posed in our shorts in the snow. Such extremes and wonders are to be found in this huge park which is constantly changing. The newest thing I just read is that Yellowstone is actually the caldera of a huge active volcano that has been simmering for eons. What are we to make of that?