Through Active Ancient Land

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Adventure Tuesday

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

Mammoth Hot springs

Since we always enter from the northern entrance, by the small town of Gardiner, we get access to the most northern part of the park in the wintertime. Though you can’t get to Old Faithful with the car, you can get to Mammoth Hot Springs. If you can’t go to Yellowstone at all, you can always tune in to one of the many webcams that the national park service provide. There are several covering the northern part, and one of them can be found by the Mammoth Hot Springs. Precipitation (both rain and snow) that falls on the surrounding mountains slowly makes its way down through the soil and continues deep belowground. Eventually the water is heated up before it finally sees daylight again when it leaves the deeper soil and is forced upward and creates the Mammoth Hot Springs.

Adventures in Yellowstone National Park

The park is maybe mostly known for its thermal hot springs like the Old Faithful. The hot springs create a specific microhabitat that allows certain species to thrive, but if you go up in elevation you will find the fragile alpine flora and a completely different microhabitat. Yellowstone is part of the Rocky Mountains, which extends all the way up through Canada. The park is one of the oldest National Parks in the US, and became the nations first National Park in 1872. Within the park you will find the Washburn Range and the Red Mountains Range. The northwest corner is covered by the Gallatin Range which starts north of the park, around Bozeman, MT. In the northeast corner you have the Absaroka Range that follows the Montana-Wyoming border and make up the eastern border of the park.

Colors, Art and Science

It’s pretty cool to see the art that constantly forms with the combination of hot steam and cold air. Snow and ice surrounding the hot springs makes for the perfect art formation. The hot springs at Mammoth are one of the most accessible hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. They are just a few miles from the entrance in Gardiner which makes for an easy excursion. The bedrock underlying Mammoth Hot Springs mainly consist of limestone. When the deep water slowly makes its way upwards it has formed carbonic acid (due to the carbon dioxide that the water has collected belowground) which dissolves the limestone and forms calcium carbonate. When the calcium carbonate finally reach the surface it is deposited and forms travertine which is the rock that forms all the terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs.

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Freezing Temperatures and Changing Colors

The hot springs constantly change and that is one of the greatest things about them. Either the flow of the water changes dues to freezing temperatures, or tectonic changes belowground triggers the water to change its route and sometimes even its temperature and other characteristics. Some of the hot springs even dry out for several decades, before they start to flow again. There have also been times when the hot springs flow has increased so much that the boardwalk gets under water. If you can time your excursion through the hot springs with some sunset or sunrise you should. The colors of the sky will reflect in the hot springs, and that is always amazing to see. It will be a completely different experience compared to the daytime excursion. The color of the hot springs themselves, blue, orange and green are caused by differences in temperatures and pH which allow for different bacteria to thrive and live there. Another good thing about freezing temperatures, other than all the art that is created, is that a lot fewer people will venture out at all. If its 10 or 20 below no one will be here.

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The Terraces

Mammoth hot springs consist of two levels, the lower and upper terrace. Small parts of the area is wheelchair accessible, but to get to the upper terrace you either have to walk up some stairs, or access it from a different road, which I think is closed in the wintertime. Either way, if you are able to walk around you definitely should check out all the different springs at both the lower and upper terrace. You might see less of the different hot springs after a big dump of snow, so that might not be super fun. The photos below are all from the upper terrace level. All the photos above is sort of a mixture of all the different springs on both the upper and lower level.

Have you ever seen Mammoth Hot Springs in the wintertime?

America's Last Truly Great Wilderness

“To be a wilderness then was to be “deserted,” “savage,” “desolate,” “barren”—in short, a “waste,” the word’s nearest synonym. Its connotations were anything but positive, and the emotion one was most likely to feel in its presence was “bewilderment” or terror. ”

— William Cronon - The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature

Wednesday Thoughts

Arctic Wildlife Refuge

1002 Area

A whole different story from the chanting of “Build that Wall” that I wrote about last week, but still almost the same is going on in the most northern parts of Alaska. The development of the 1002 area, better known as "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins". I have written about it before, but it’s worth mentioning again. It’s been up for debate several times during the past 40 years, but now we are facing the reality of this government and the development of this area. Several articles have been written about Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and that we need to protect it. One of the, for me, most famous instances is the first minute or so in Patagonia’s video the Refuge below. It’s an old recording from hearings in the house, clipped together with environmentalists and other callers to a tv-show. One of the people talking over the phone, who clearly has never been up in Alaska or ANWR describes the "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins" as “Tundra known as wasteland, there is nothing out there, virtual plains as far as the eye can see”. Its a very strong moment in the video and it also highlights the problem of people’s perceptions about wilderness and nature, just look at the old perception about wilderness quoted above from Bill Cronon’s The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature.

The Porcupine Herd

The Arctic Refuge now contains the largest area of designated Wilderness within the National Wildlife Refuge System, covering about 19.64 million acres of land and water. The history behind the name “The Sacred Place Where Life Begins" that the Gwich'in people call it has to do with how the Caribou utilizes the large area. The porcupine herd utilizes a far greater area than the 1002 area, but come spring and early summer this is THE area all the Caribou from the Porcupine herd utilize as calving area, which makes it a very important area. Click on this LINK if you want to see the migration of the Porcupine herd with beautiful images. If you want to read the absolute latest (as of early January 2019) about the development in ANWR follow this LINK, or read this blogpost for more detailed information. To comment on the draft of Environmental Impact Statement that BLM put together follow this LINK, and you can read more about how to comment and why HERE, also in the actual Environmental Impact Statement. You have until February 11 to submit a comment. You can also submit your comment by mail:

Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program EIS
222 West 7th Avenue, Stop #13
Anchorage, Alaska 99513 -7504

Image Source: http://northern.org/media-library/maps/arctic/arctic-refuge-maps/1002AreaWlifeWEB.jpg/

I find it important to think about and share the issues we are facing in this day and age. I tend to focus on the environment and wilderness since those areas lay very close to my heart. What current issues are you burning for?

Christmas Skiing on Open Plains and through Herds of Bison

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Adventure Tuesday

Yellowstone National Park - Winter Edition

Skiing Blacktail Plateau

When we ski, we usually go to Blacktail Plateau. It’s only a one way, so out and back or if you carpool you can go just one way, but it is really beautiful. You have large views of the landscape from here and you can also spot herds of bison or elk along this route. In the summertime this road (Blacktail Plateau Drive) is also really pretty to drive, it’s one of many side roads you can drive in the park to get out of the tourist jam. The first time we skied there, W and I were deep in conversation and came around a corner to a herd of bison. We got so scared, and so did them. They ran off down the slope. A baby bison started to bluff charge us, luckily the older bison had no interest in us. Bison sometimes move fast across the landscape, browsing on what they can find underneath the snow, so it’s always a good idea to keep an eye out in what direction they are moving.

Adventures in Yellowstone National Park

The park is maybe mostly known for its thermal hot springs like the Old Faithful. The hot springs create a specific microhabitat that allows certain species to thrive, but if you go up in elevation you will find the fragile alpine flora and a completely different microhabitat. Yellowstone is part of the Rocky Mountains, which extends all the way up through Canada. The park is one of the oldest National Parks in the US, and became the nations first National Park in 1872. Within the park you will find the Washburn Range and the Red Mountains Range. The northwest corner is covered by the Gallatin Range which starts north of the park, around Bozeman, MT. In the northeast corner you have the Absaroka Range that follows the Montana-Wyoming border and make up the eastern border of the park.

Through Valleys and over Hills

If you are lucky enough fresh snow and newly groomed trails will meet you when you arrive. But either way I love skiing here. You will get such a different view of the park if you go by skis. Not only of the wild animals, but also all the mountains and the deep forests in the distance. We almost never run into any people. Finding a parking spot can be hard depending on what end of the Blacktail Plateau Drive you start at. We have been pretty lucky so far and always managed to squeeze in somewhere. I love being able to ski in Yellowstone, you’ll get such an amazing feeling of freedom. And to top that off you will always see a bison or two munching away in the distance.

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Northeast Yellowstone - A Place to Ski?

The exit at the northeast part of Yellowstone National Park is called the Silver Gate. It is right on the border between Montana and Wyoming. When you leave Yellowstone through this exit you’ll first drive through the mountains, and once you leave the park you can embark on the trip up in elevation, towards the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness and the Beartooth Highway. The little town right outside the Silver Gate, Cook City, reminds me about the small towns you’ll see in the narrow valley along the Seward Highway towards Homer and all other places down in southeast Alaska. Obviously the Beartooth Highway is closed during the wintertime, because it sits high in elevation (10,947 ft). I have not explored the ski trails in northeast Yellowstone, and I would love to do that in the future. Northeast Yellowstone has these beautiful and large coniferous trees and draped by the mountains right next to the road, and just imagine skiing in there! That would be a dreamlike winter wonderland.

Have you been skiing in any of the National Parks in the world?