0:00

I feel like we should have seatbelts on for this episode

0:02

because it's a big one. We're talking

0:04

about Yellowstone, and frankly,

0:06

it really does not get much bigger than this. Yeah,

0:09

I really think it's safe to say that Yellowstone is the most

0:11

iconic national park in the country. It's

0:13

the first example people think of when they

0:15

think of national parks and its

0:17

most notable features like geysers

0:20

and bison and grizzly bears,

0:22

and they've become synonymous with the National

0:24

Park Service. Yeah, that's definitely true. And

0:27

not only is Yellowstone in American icon,

0:29

but it's the second largest national park in

0:32

the contiguous US. It's one

0:34

of the most visited parks in the country, with more than four

0:36

million annual visitors, and most impressively

0:39

of all, it's the oldest national park in

0:41

the entire world, which is crazy.

0:43

So not just the US, yeah, exactly,

0:46

the whole world. When the park was first

0:48

established in eighteen seventy two, it

0:50

was before any type of federally protected

0:53

land was set aside anywhere on Earth. Um,

0:55

no country has ever done such a thing

0:58

until the US, and

1:01

this was decades before the National Park

1:03

Service was even formed. It was also before

1:06

before Wyoming even became a state. They

1:08

know. Yeah, this is it's really

1:10

wild to think about, but it's fantastic.

1:12

And one of the things I like the most

1:15

is how ironic it is then

1:17

that the world's first national park may very

1:19

well, but the thing that one day destroys us all.

1:22

As this park sits on top of a

1:24

giant super volcano that, if it ever

1:26

erupts again, will end life

1:28

on Earth. Something tells me that seatbelts won't

1:30

help us very much in that situation. Well,

1:34

they can't hurt, but no, they won't

1:36

help. Hi.

1:39

I'm Matt and I'm Brad. This is park Landia

1:42

production of I Heart Radio. We sold

1:44

our lofts in Chicago, moved into an

1:46

RV with our dog, Finn, and now we're chopping

1:49

in the country exploring America's national parks.

1:52

And today's episode is about

1:54

Yellowstone in Wyoming. So,

2:01

considering how huge Yellowstone is both

2:03

geographically and historically, we thought

2:05

it was fitting to split this park into two

2:08

different episodes. It's our first time

2:10

doing that, but we really want to do a justice

2:12

and talk about our experiences with Yellowstone.

2:15

So it definitely deserves a two parter.

2:18

Yeah, it really does. Because there's so much here

2:20

and to really dig into it

2:22

would be impossible to cram

2:25

into one episode. So it's our first

2:27

two part park fittingly, as

2:30

as you can tell, Season two of park Land is just full

2:33

of first full of little twists.

2:35

But it also makes perfect sense to do

2:37

this with Yellowstone. So here we go. You

2:39

and I have experienced this park differently.

2:42

We both visited it individually

2:44

on our own at first, and then together

2:47

this past summer. So there's

2:49

a lot to cover and a lot to spread out over

2:51

these two episodes. Let's just say it's miles

2:54

and miles and miles of information. Yeah,

2:58

but it's literally massive. I mean it's more

3:00

than two point two million acres um.

3:02

That's bigger than the states of Delaware and

3:05

Rhode Island combined. And

3:07

it's also larger than some countries. Yeah,

3:09

that's true. So long story short,

3:12

be sure and fill up the gas tank before trying

3:14

to tackle Yellowstone, because like we said, there

3:16

are lots of miles here and

3:19

you're gonna want to be ready for it. And

3:22

the only national park larger than this actually

3:24

are are in Alaska, a lot of the

3:26

Alaskan parks, and then in the contiguous

3:28

US there's Death Valley, which is the only

3:30

one in the lower forty eight States that's larger

3:33

than Yellowstone, and to

3:36

be quite honest, I'm exhausted just thinking

3:38

about it. Yeah, but let's get into it.

3:40

It's the first part episode

3:43

of Yellowstone,

3:49

so we'll cover more of

3:51

our individual trips to Lstone for this episode

3:53

as well. For mine, I

3:55

was here first with my family,

3:58

my dad, my brother, and my sister for

4:00

a little outdoorsy themed

4:02

vacation a few years ago, and that

4:05

was definitely life changing, to the least, one

4:07

of my kind of formative

4:09

national park experiences that triggered

4:11

this obsession. But you're gonna

4:13

have to stay tuned for that, because first

4:16

we need to talk about history, and that's some epic,

4:19

explosive, fiery history here. Yes,

4:21

yes, it is history.

4:25

So backing way up, when for Chappers,

4:28

an adventurous frontiersman, first explored

4:30

this region of the ever expanding country,

4:33

they were met with the landscape

4:35

that was beautiful and alluring but

4:37

also terrifying and intimidating

4:39

and deadly. We're talking like simmering

4:42

mud pots and steaming streams,

4:44

raging rivers, these explosive

4:46

geyser's sulfi York Springs

4:49

and wildlife so intense that it makes Jumanji

4:51

look like a petting sue. Basically, I mean, these

4:53

explorers just no one believed them when

4:55

they started like documenting it and setting this

4:57

back east. Everyone just brushed

4:59

them off, right right, I mean literally,

5:01

it sounds absurd and over the top and

5:04

like completely made up, and

5:06

so it was assumed that these guys were

5:08

just lying and had crazy

5:10

maginations and we're basically writing fantasy

5:13

novels sending to the government. But

5:16

eventually, after enough of these reports

5:18

came in and the government finally wise up

5:20

to the fact that surely not every frontiersman

5:23

has an overactive imagination, they

5:25

started formalizing these exploratory

5:27

expeditions to research the area themselves

5:30

and see what all the fuss was about. Yeah, it's

5:32

kind of like the original Jurassic Park when John

5:34

Hammond brings all the doubtful scientists to the island

5:36

and no one thinks he'll actually see dinosaurs,

5:39

but then they actually do, and everyone is

5:41

like stunned. Yeah, exactly,

5:43

this place is pretty much Jurassic National

5:45

Park, but instead of Dr Grant, Dr

5:48

Malcolm, Dr Sadler, it

5:50

was another trifecta of explorers

5:53

Ferdinand V. Hayden, a painter

5:55

named Thomas Moran, and a photographer

5:58

named William Henry Jackson. Yeah,

6:01

their findings must have been huge

6:04

and had some serious impact, because

6:06

it was less than a year later, in two

6:08

that President Ulysses S. Grant signed

6:10

documentation making Yellowstone the very

6:13

first national park, encompassing

6:15

the land that's primarily in northwestern

6:18

Wyoming, with little bits in Idaho

6:21

and Montana as well. Right,

6:23

so huge, huge news,

6:26

and the Trio not only provided impressive

6:28

and studying documentation, but they

6:30

also argued for its protection by

6:32

pointing out that the area is not suitable for farming

6:35

or mining because you can't mine

6:37

in hot springs or over

6:39

top of geyser. That's gonna you know, blow

6:42

up your barn or something, so you might

6:44

as well protect it, right, Yeah. I mean the first

6:46

year at the as a national park, there are only about

6:48

three visitors, which increased

6:50

dramatically once the Northern Pacific

6:53

Railroad was completed about a decade

6:55

later, there were thousands of

6:57

annual visitors, which is really incredible. For

7:00

the eighteen hundreds, I mean they didn't have anything,

7:02

Yeah, I know, that is incredible. So

7:04

even though frontiersman didn't discover

7:07

this steamy landscape until the mid eighteen hundreds.

7:09

They definitely were not the first humans to roam

7:11

here. Native Americans have been documented

7:14

living here as far back as eleven

7:16

thousand years ago, most likely

7:18

due to the abundance of hunting opportunities

7:20

after the Last Ice Age, because

7:22

yellow Stone is after all renowned for populations

7:25

of bison and elk and deer, among

7:28

many many other animals, so it makes sense

7:30

that this was like a hunting mecca. Yeah,

7:33

in the early eighteen hundreds, some of the first fur trappers

7:35

to visit the region gave it the nickname

7:38

rouch Gen love It, which

7:41

means rock yellow river

7:44

um in reference to the yellow sandstones by

7:46

the river, and thus the name yellow

7:48

Stone was born. And

7:51

in its history it's been as

7:53

colorful as the geyser's basins ever

7:55

since. Yeah, I know totally, because

7:58

it really does have like this technocolored

8:00

history. It's so vibrant and so

8:03

um bright and very up

8:05

and down good and bad. Vandals

8:08

and poachers were big problems in the early years

8:10

here, as all these animals

8:12

are being hunted and trees are being cut down

8:14

with reckless abandoned and the

8:17

minimal park rangers staff that was

8:19

here just literally did not have the resources

8:22

to protect such a large section

8:24

of land. Now, things really did get out

8:26

of hand. I mean, like literally, it was like military

8:29

verse civilians. And yeah, and that's

8:31

until President Chester A author

8:33

embarked on his first presidential visit

8:36

to the park with a little camping

8:38

trip. Yes he did, although if

8:40

we're being honest, I think it was probably

8:42

a glamping trip. I can't really imagine

8:45

any president like camping.

8:48

Maybe they do, I'm sure they do, but who

8:50

knows. Jester A. Arthur is probably a

8:52

diva. I mean, I'm you know, again,

8:55

assuming I know absolutely nothing

8:57

about this guy, and I think I had

8:59

forgotten, forgotten he was ever a president

9:02

until right now, which, um,

9:04

you know, he's I don't remember anything

9:06

he did. So but this

9:09

was good. I'm glad he got to go to Yellowstone. Um.

9:12

And his trip here was hugely

9:15

beneficial because he wounded

9:17

up signing legislation that allotted a

9:19

lot more funds for the park, which went

9:22

towards employing troops to protect the park

9:24

and control the amount of development that

9:26

was happening, like it was off the chart.

9:28

So they needed to do something. Yeah, we learned

9:31

all about General Sheridan and Troop M of the

9:33

United States Cavalry while we were in Mammoth

9:35

Hot Springs area of the park last summer, where

9:38

a bunch of historic army bergs

9:40

as were And apparently they

9:43

protected the park for thirty two years,

9:45

all the way up until nineteen eighteen when

9:47

they handed over those duties to the recently

9:50

created National Park Service. Yes

9:52

they did, because this is all new territory. This was well

9:54

before the National Park Service was established. It's

9:56

the first national park in the world, so they're just figuring

9:59

out for themselves and obviously taking

10:01

a gorilla approach to fending

10:04

off these in the beginning

10:06

years, like most superintendents only lasted

10:08

like six months to a year, maybe not,

10:10

and then turnover like it was

10:13

no one knew what they were doing, but someone

10:16

had to start. Yeah, and I'm glad that they pioneered

10:19

that, and their

10:21

sentiments are forever engraved on

10:23

the iconic Roosevelt Arch by the Parks

10:25

North Entrance, which the troops built, and

10:28

the arch reads for the benefit and enjoyment

10:31

of the people, and it's something that has gone on to symbolize

10:33

national parks across the country ever since

10:36

Yeah, and after this quick break, we're going to get

10:38

into some of Yellowstones colorful and famous

10:41

geographic history,

11:06

geography. Hi, I'm Matt and I'm

11:08

Brad. This is park Landia, and today we're

11:11

talking about Yellowstone National Park in

11:13

north western Wyoming and

11:15

a little bits of Montana and i'd hope but most of the the way.

11:18

Yes, So of

11:21

all the regions and landscapes in America and

11:23

really the world in general, few are as

11:25

dynamic and epic as Yellowstone, with

11:28

its famed super volcano, geyser's hot

11:30

springs and mud pots. It's a place that definitely

11:33

sounds like it was dreamed up by George Lucas or

11:35

something. It just does not really sound

11:38

real, which is why the government

11:40

thought early frontiersmen were you

11:43

know, fantasizing about this and creating

11:46

just like lying because it doesn't

11:48

sound like an actual

11:50

place. Yeah, it's one of those places that you really have to

11:52

see to believe. I mean even we just try

11:54

to describe it to people, like they look at us sideways,

11:56

like a little like like Finn does, like yeah,

11:59

they're like you're lying, Yeah,

12:01

I don't know what are you saying. And so

12:04

it's even today it's still unbelievable.

12:07

And that's so crazy because we have photos and videos

12:09

and all of it, and um, you

12:12

know, I'm growing up. You hear and learn so much about

12:14

Yellowstone that it actually seems almost

12:17

too surreal and mythical. Um,

12:19

it almost doesn't make sense. And that's something that

12:22

like something like this would exist on this planet.

12:24

I know, it's it's wild. We're lucky

12:27

to have it. You got it. It's one of those places you have

12:29

to see for yourself, and

12:31

you have to honestly have to smell for

12:33

yourself because it's gotten a roma. Yeah.

12:35

We've gone how many times and I still don't

12:37

feel like I understand Yellowstone, which

12:39

is crazy. I know, there's there's so much, there's

12:41

lots to take in, and it

12:44

all kind of starts with the heart of the park,

12:46

the Yellowstone Caldera. Caldera,

12:48

of course, is the collapse remnants

12:50

of a volcano, and

12:52

this is the largest of its kind on the

12:55

entire continent, clocking in at a

12:58

somewhat terrifying thirty by forty five

13:00

miles. And today this caldera

13:02

is the site of Yellowstone Lake, this enormous

13:05

pristine lake that is so

13:07

utterly serene looking that you'd really

13:09

never expect that there's a super volcano lurking

13:12

underneath. Not to get all like scary and neurotic

13:14

or anything. No, not at all. We should probably stop

13:16

scaring our listeners because it's all gonna be okay,

13:18

guys, totally, I mean probably.

13:21

I don't want to. I can't. I can't guarantee that. I don't

13:23

want to be held responding. I

13:26

mean, if we're being if we're being

13:28

honest about the super volcano, and I'll just

13:30

come right out and give it to you straight. The supervolcano

13:33

is still considered to be technically active

13:35

in dormant, although it's only erupted three

13:37

times in the last two million years. The

13:40

most recent one was years

13:43

ago, and it was strong enough to make Vesuvius

13:45

and Mount Saint Helen seemed like blips on the radar,

13:48

like absolutely nothing. So even

13:50

though it technically could erupt again, the

13:52

chances are very, very slim that

13:54

any of us will ever live to experience

13:56

it, thankfully. Yeah, And

13:58

on the plus side, the super of Kano is what

14:00

makes Yellowstone the incredible wild place

14:03

that it is today. Without it, there would be

14:05

it wouldn't be any geysers or hot springs

14:07

that make the park what it is. I mean, yellowstren

14:10

actually has more than ten thousands of these thermal features,

14:12

which are all beautiful and eerie reminder

14:14

of the volcano that's right below you.

14:17

And it's crazy because like what it's, it's

14:19

supposed to be like erupting like

14:21

any time now plus our minus ten thousand,

14:23

so it kind of erupt in ten thousand years or ten minutes

14:26

from now. Yeah, we don't you might never hear this, you

14:28

know what, We might not finish this episode because

14:31

that would actually be kind of poetic. But um,

14:34

as long as the Super Bowl Hano keeps doing

14:36

this thing and fueling these geysers and not

14:38

wiping out life as we know it, I'm

14:40

fine with it. Yeah. Nowadays, the best

14:42

places to witness these amazing thermal features

14:45

are at places like Mammoth Hot Springs.

14:47

The Gorus guys are basin, the

14:50

Old Faithful Grand Press Medic

14:52

Springs, West Thumb guys

14:55

are basin. I mean, there's so much more to

14:57

talk about, but I guess we'll talk about that in part two,

14:59

So you have to stay tuned. If the world

15:01

is still around trails.

15:11

Now, I'm going to start talking a little bit about

15:13

my first time to Yellowstone, and I

15:16

was actually visiting the park for the first time with some

15:18

family as part of this semi

15:20

annual nature the family vacation thing

15:22

that my dad had

15:24

the idea to start, and I'm so glad

15:26

he did. And we

15:28

were like ruminating over, like which parks should we

15:30

do, which part of the country should we start this like

15:34

kind of quasi tradition at. And

15:37

we all agree that Yellowstone slash Grand Titon

15:39

was the perfect place to do this and

15:41

create this experience together

15:44

because none of us had been

15:46

and obviously it doesn't get more iconic

15:49

and quintessential then

15:51

Yellowstone, so it

15:54

doesn't. So we're all

15:56

instantly obsessed. And

15:59

we coordinated to this trip where it was about

16:01

a week and we all flew

16:03

out to Jackson

16:06

Hole flew

16:08

into there, which is super convenient.

16:10

I think it's like in Grand Teton National Park,

16:12

and then we just we got a rental car. We

16:15

spent a few days in Grand Teton at

16:17

this beautiful lodge in Titown Village

16:20

and visited Jackson like

16:22

the actual city or town

16:26

for a few days as well, and then the

16:28

second half of that trip of that week was

16:31

Yellowstone, so we drove from

16:34

Teton Village up past the

16:36

rest of Grand Teton into Yellowstone

16:38

National Park, and then we stayed

16:41

in West Yellowstone, which is like

16:44

the far northwestern portion of

16:46

the park. It's probably like a two and a half dollar

16:48

drive Yellowstone to

16:50

get to West Yellowstone, which is pretty

16:54

I know it really the first day, we're like,

16:56

wow, this is the gigantic park. And

16:58

it really makes you realize that because it takes ever to

17:00

get from point A to point B. And one of my favorite

17:02

things was, like, you sent me this photo of

17:04

you guys, and it was like your first

17:06

like bison heard as I was crossing

17:09

the road, and there's like this beautiful shot

17:11

of like your dad in the driver's heat and

17:13

the passenger seat and this like scenic

17:15

photo behind it, and I just love

17:18

that one, I know. And it's kind of

17:20

misty out or foggy or something, so

17:22

it's like these gigantic animals just

17:25

looming in the distance and lots

17:27

of them. I mean, we're just right in the middle. So sorry

17:31

for interrupting, but I just had to

17:33

bring up them. No, it's important. So

17:35

West Yellowstone is actually

17:38

in a portion of the park that's in Montana.

17:40

The other sends kind of the gateway. It's like, um,

17:43

the Northwestern Entrance, and it's

17:45

this adorable little like touristy town that's

17:48

hustling and bustling in the summer months. And

17:51

we were there like mid September, so things were

17:53

somewhat winding down, but still very lively

17:55

and adorable. I loved it

17:57

there. We had this cute little cabin and

18:01

on our way up towards West Yellistone, the

18:03

very first thing we did was

18:05

stopped at Old Faithful, which I

18:07

think makes a lot of sense as the first

18:10

Yellstone experience because everybody

18:12

knows what Old Faithful is, and it's

18:15

right up there with like the Grand Canyon and Statue

18:17

of Liberty, is like these, um

18:20

like all important Americana sites

18:23

and activities. And we

18:25

went there, had to pretty

18:27

much force our way through the crowds to get a good

18:29

view because it's very crowded.

18:32

The park in general is pretty is very crowded,

18:34

but Old Faithful is just like swarming

18:36

with people. It's like a mob scene. So

18:40

yeah, it is. So we

18:42

went into the visitor center. My brother

18:44

and I got our National Parks books stamped, and

18:47

I think my dad bought some sort

18:50

of book and or

18:52

game. I want to say, we've got National

18:54

Parks YACHTSI there, And

18:56

we played that a little later in the cabin in West

18:58

Yellstone. Although I don't know,

19:00

I don't know what makes it National Parks and Yatzi is

19:03

like a pretty straightforward numbers

19:05

based dice game. So I

19:07

don't understand that one

19:10

guys are two guys or three guys.

19:13

I don't know whatever, but it works. It works.

19:16

I love a good theme, even with it doesn't make

19:18

sense. And so we did

19:20

all faithful and then kind

19:22

of checked in and got our bearings. In West Yellowstone

19:24

explored the town, which has some of these

19:27

like super cute little restaurants

19:29

and cafes. We would like start

19:31

every morning by going to this little coffee shock

19:35

thing. It's like not a standalone

19:38

shop per se. It's like this little window

19:42

that's on at this intersection, and

19:44

there was just lovely woman

19:46

working every morning. Yes that's the one that we

19:49

went to our trip

19:51

together. But yeah, this is where

19:53

the it all originated, where you got

19:56

started with it and obsessed with

19:58

it because you're like we have to go know,

20:00

like good morning five, Like there's nothing super special

20:03

like the food or coffee that you rushed

20:05

me so much that we got there before it

20:07

even opened, waiting

20:10

like, please serve us coffee. Coffee.

20:13

Yeah, so they have coffee and then a very limited

20:15

like selection of food items, but like they

20:18

have like huckleberry bars, because huckle

20:20

bears are huge part of the country, so you could

20:22

find huckleberry anything and everything,

20:25

and they're different restaurants and bakeries and stuff,

20:27

and they had stuff like that, and

20:30

then like probably banana

20:32

bread and scones,

20:34

you know, kind of those

20:37

little cute little things right there in the corner. And

20:39

then bagels. And I remember my brother

20:41

ordered a bagel, but like he doesn't like cream cheese

20:43

and he has for butter, and she was like, I don't have butter,

20:46

so I'll just give you this dry bagel. And

20:49

then you had a dry bagel. Um,

20:53

very exciting. Yeah,

20:56

that's right. I kind of built that at me. It see like something

20:58

crazy than to happen. But no, he just

21:00

didn't have green cheese. And

21:03

I think our favorite that the place we went

21:05

to more than like I think three nights

21:07

in a row maybe was this place called the Buffalo Bar,

21:10

which is this essentially it's a saloon

21:13

like it felt like a saloon with like pool

21:15

tables inside and big I

21:18

think fake taxi dermy and then a

21:20

big, gigantic like buffalo

21:23

replica in the middle of the dining

21:25

room. And we loved it. Cool

21:27

Mary west es

21:30

it is, yeah, but it's like still kind

21:32

of like clean and modern

21:35

ish. So we loved it. And

21:37

I don't think we really ate that. We mostly went

21:39

there for like after dinner drinks like

21:42

Wyoming whiskey and stuff like that. So

21:45

all these great things in west Ylstone

21:47

in a great place to like kind of

21:49

get your start every morning because

21:51

you're close to a ton And

21:54

what my family and I did was we made

21:56

sure we stalked up embarrassed Ray first

21:58

things first. We didn't want to like wander around Yellowstone

22:01

without that. Especially my dad was like very

22:03

adamant and he always had it at the ready.

22:06

And we did a bunch of different

22:08

things in the span of like

22:10

three or four days. I feel like we really maximized

22:12

it. Yeah. So one

22:16

of my favorite things was we did the

22:18

Grand Prismatic Springs area and

22:20

the Fairy Falls Trail, which is one of

22:22

the best trails ever. I love

22:25

it. I think that's my favorite one. That we did in

22:27

Yellowstone, and one

22:29

of my favorite trails, like just in general

22:32

period, was that the one that you like took

22:34

me on this dramatic long hike where you said

22:36

it was like, oh, it's only like two and a half miles, and it

22:38

end up being like seven. Yeah.

22:40

I remembered it differently because when we did with

22:43

my family, I thought it was remember being much

22:45

shorter, but it was action packed

22:47

because we saw a ton of bison in a fox.

22:50

Unfortunately we didn't see it on ours, but

22:52

that's another episode, right, I

22:54

honestly don't remember seeing I mean, I don't

22:56

remember it being as long as it ended up being this

22:58

past summer with you, but it's

23:01

great. It's like super peaceful and

23:03

scenic and you go through a variety of different trains

23:06

from this like super tall, thin ribbon

23:08

of a waterfall, through these pine forests

23:10

and then these wide open meadows, which

23:13

is on this trip where we saw like a

23:15

huge herd of bison and it was well

23:18

nerving. We wound up like cutting off the

23:20

trail and going around them,

23:23

um, which was also nerve wracking because I'm like, what

23:25

if we wind up going off trail and then like stumbling

23:27

into a bear or like

23:30

a loan bison. Yeah,

23:32

true, And we did wind up stumbling

23:35

into like a loan bison that was just lying

23:37

right next to this tree, and

23:39

I was so scared. It was my brother

23:42

and I were like kind of ahead a little bit. We're

23:44

like several paces ahead of

23:46

my sister and dad, and we were talking and I

23:48

remember, I don't know exactly

23:50

what let of this conversation, but we're talking about like

23:54

Disney World, because I guess I just talked about that all

23:56

the time. And I was saying

23:58

to my brother, I'm like, yeah, I really wanna

24:01

explore Animal Kingdom more or something.

24:03

I was probably like, you know, just think about animals though,

24:06

And then like as soon as I say that, we see the spice

24:08

in and I freak out and kind of yelp,

24:10

and my dad pants because you

24:12

think I saw bear. I

24:15

can imagine this, and yeah,

24:18

neurotic messes. I

24:21

didn't do anything. It was just there.

24:24

And in that area, though, you do have to be careful if you

24:26

do walk off trail because there are geysers

24:29

and you do not want to fall into one of those,

24:31

because people have been falling into it now, and

24:34

you know, that's just not good. You will

24:36

get burnt, you will not be happy, and

24:39

it'll take a long time and cover you might

24:41

not Yeah, yeah,

24:43

definitely. So you know you gotta be careful

24:45

when you're doing that. So I know where you pointed

24:48

out where you were walking the trail, and it wasn't

24:50

like half a mile off trail

24:52

like into

24:55

different areas. It wasn't anything

24:57

crazy, yeah, exactly. And

24:59

then we inish that trail by doing this gigantic

25:01

loop that brought us back to the Grand Prismatic

25:04

Spring, which is easily one of the most

25:06

popular sites in the park. You kind of go up

25:08

to this overlook and from

25:10

up there you can see down into

25:12

this like incredible like almost

25:14

rainbow colored spring with these super

25:17

bright greens, blues, yellows,

25:19

oranges. It's insane,

25:22

Like I don't understand how this is like

25:25

this, how it's real and it's

25:27

massive and just like billowing a little

25:29

bit of steam. By mid afternoon, um,

25:32

when the weather's the temperatures warmed up enough, the

25:34

steam dissipates enough where you could see the spring

25:36

really well, Versus in the morning when

25:39

they are still really cold, the steam

25:42

could like be too much it's

25:44

hard to see. So I would definitely recommend going

25:46

like mid afternoon like we did, and

25:49

that was great. Another thing we

25:51

did was we had a little

25:53

picnic in the Lamar Valley area, just

25:56

like rolling meadows, beautiful little

25:58

ponds and lakes. Didn't see

26:01

any animals out there, even though I know we

26:03

could have, and we were kind of hoping

26:05

to, you know, from a safe distance,

26:09

and we wanted it, wanted just being this nice,

26:11

little peaceful picnic by some

26:14

pond at the end of the trail, and it was. It was great.

26:17

And we also did

26:20

the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone for

26:22

photos and then a little hike by our waterfall.

26:25

That's that's another popular area that's

26:27

like Raging River, the Yellowstone River, and

26:30

it's lined at these like explosive waterfalls

26:33

and great panoramic views

26:36

from these overlooks and little trails

26:38

that kind of run along the river. Didn't

26:40

you guys kayak on that trip as well? Yes,

26:42

we did so, I think the last day,

26:46

last full Daniels and we booked

26:48

a kayaking trip on Yellowstone Lake,

26:51

which were all super excited about. So you went

26:53

fishing on Yellowstone Lake. We didn't go fishing,

26:55

but we like did a kayak trip

26:57

and for that

27:00

you stay pretty close to the shore. They

27:02

don't really let I don't think they let you at all,

27:04

like go out into the

27:06

mad like yeah, because like yeah,

27:09

like I got to go out there and just see it. But we

27:11

were on a boat, you know, so it

27:13

was a lot easier to get

27:15

there and back. And I feel like a lot of people would

27:17

get exhausted out there and not realized and

27:20

take a long time to get back. So it's a good

27:22

thing that they're helping their kayakers kayak

27:24

safe. Yes, because they said,

27:26

like you get unexpectedly windy

27:29

and the way it's can get choppy out there, and

27:32

the main problem is the lake is

27:34

freezing so like dangerously

27:36

cold, so like if you capsize,

27:39

it's hard to get back in and if you're

27:41

out the middle of the lake, you're like screwed.

27:44

Yeah, And I thought, like, but I

27:46

really thought the main problem was about

27:48

your jacket because the near guide

27:52

I think it was a Grange jacket.

27:56

Do you know who this person is? Yeah, so I actually

27:58

don't. I have this jacket is really nice. What

28:00

does it call the a bomber jacket? Is that was? That is okay?

28:03

So it's just like slick black

28:06

bomber jacket with um this

28:08

yellow letter B on one sleeve

28:11

and a lemon on the other sleeve,

28:13

so I think you know where I'm going with us. And then

28:16

on the back is a song lyric that

28:18

says winners don't quit on themselves. So

28:21

it's a Beyonce jacket obviously

28:24

from the representing the Lemonade album,

28:26

and the lyric is from one

28:28

of those songs. And this guy full on the thought

28:31

it was like, I like your jacket, is that a

28:33

Bruin's jacket? Like when is dog

28:35

quit on themselves? Right? Why

28:38

wouldn't Yeah, let's

28:40

actually strike that. So I

28:43

told him I was like, no, it's the Beyonce jacket,

28:45

and then he just kind of like quietly nodded and stopped

28:47

talking to me for like the rest of the trip. And

28:49

it was but like the trip was really fun. It was

28:52

not that windy fortunately, so

28:54

it was a nice, calm, easy

28:56

pace. We've had to see a lot and my favorite

28:58

part was like you get to kayak along the shore

29:01

close enough to the west thumb guys are basins,

29:03

so you get to see some thermal activity as well, Like

29:06

not guys, there's but hot springs in this billowing

29:08

steam and some of

29:10

the like technicolored

29:12

pools that in certain portions

29:14

are like dripping and flowing into the lakes. So

29:17

that was really beautiful and really cool. And

29:20

then from there, I

29:23

believe it was when we were like all settled

29:25

back into the car and driving back to us Yellowstone,

29:27

we found ourselves

29:29

in the middle of a bison stampede,

29:32

like literal stampede. Oh was that

29:34

the photo? No, No, that was

29:37

different, but there's a lot of these.

29:39

Yeah. So there there was traffic, which happens

29:41

a lot in Yellowstone. It was standstill

29:44

traffic, and we didn't know what was going on, just

29:46

impatiently waiting there. And then we start

29:49

to see bison walking down the side

29:51

of the road, like a lot of bison, and

29:53

they were walking at a slow pace. So

29:56

me and my sister rolled down our windows because we

29:58

were on the side where the bison were and we're gonna

30:00

like take video of it. And as soon

30:02

as we start taking video, they start to like run,

30:05

like this whole herd of them or running surrounding

30:08

our car, not to us, but like everyone in the road.

30:11

And I remember it was amazing

30:13

because the video turned out it wound

30:15

up looking like a found

30:17

footage film or something like my video because

30:19

it's like I started to take the video and then they charged

30:21

and I'm like oh and it gets all shaky and

30:23

then I scream and you

30:26

get to see up like very close, how

30:29

huge these animals are. Like if they hit

30:31

our car, we would have been dum

30:34

damaged to say the least, like it could

30:37

they could probably flip cars that they like charged

30:39

head tanks. Yeah,

30:42

they're the largest land mammal in the

30:44

country. They

30:47

can get really fast. They can run like much

30:49

faster than humans. So you do not want

30:51

to get into a a race with them

30:54

by any means either. So

30:57

that was my yellow staring experience with my family, clearly

31:00

epic and actimidating

31:03

and colorful and does

31:06

all of it was thoroughly life changing. That was our

31:08

first time doing something

31:10

like this as And if you just

31:12

think that these are from one trip, I

31:14

know, these are just one trip

31:17

of ours, each of ours, and we

31:19

hit on some of the same stuff we didn't. But

31:21

it's just so so big.

31:24

I mean, yeah,

31:26

what would you say, is the best time to go The

31:29

best time to visit Yellowstone is

31:32

I liked When I visited I was mid September.

31:34

Um, it was kind

31:36

of chilly, but not cold

31:39

yet and peak summer

31:41

season was dwindling, so it wasn't

31:43

as crowded as it is and like

31:45

July August, so we didn't

31:48

have to worry about that too much, just like the periodic

31:50

traffic jams and whatnot. But it

31:52

was all manageable and beautiful

31:55

and all the animals were out and about and

31:59

it's come to it's extremely

32:01

comfortable that time of the year.

32:03

But luckily the park is open all year round.

32:06

I mean, it's basically a Game of Thrones esque

32:08

style landscape from late fall

32:10

to early spring, and most roads

32:12

are closed, so the only way to get into the park

32:14

is on a snowmobile, so

32:17

you can go cross country skiing and

32:19

go on to snow coach tours. Um

32:22

those are very popular. Yeah,

32:24

they are really popular on the winter moths. And

32:27

during this time period most facilities

32:29

and lodges are closed as well, So it's definitely

32:32

much much quieter in kind

32:35

of a creepy way, but also serene

32:37

and peaceful. And I know, I would

32:39

really love to experience Gallastone

32:41

in the winter sometimes. That's high

32:44

on my list because that would be like

32:46

visiting another it would be like a whole another park at that

32:48

point, and that would be amazing. And

32:50

then you would also not have to worry

32:52

about bears because they're hibernating, so you can

32:54

put the bear spare away. Future is possible.

32:57

Yeah, we would just have to do it like not, because

33:01

we're not going for that. No, we don't

33:04

need everything to freeze. No, we

33:06

don't need that. Yeah. The only roads

33:08

that are open year round are the North Entrance Road,

33:11

Northeast Entrance Road

33:13

in the Mammoth Tower Road of the Grand

33:15

Loop. Yep. So pretty limited,

33:18

pretty quiet, and I'm sure it's

33:21

mind blown. Be beautiful. That's

33:23

everything you Allstone always says. After

33:26

this quick break, we're gonna wrap up part

33:28

one of our Yellowstone episodes by talking

33:30

a little bit more about the animals here

33:32

and the ecology of the park.

34:00

I am math and I'm brad. This is park

34:02

Landia, and this week's episode

34:04

is about Yellowstone National Park and

34:07

Northwestern Wyoming ecology.

34:10

And right now we're gonna get into

34:12

a little bit more detail about the wildlife

34:15

here since it's a pretty big deal. Yeah,

34:17

and it's really crazy because in the past couple of decades,

34:20

Yellowstone has taught scientists a lot about

34:22

how food webs and ecological

34:24

systems work. It's um

34:26

an ecosystem that runs on energy from the

34:29

sun. A plant turns solar

34:31

energy into food for itself,

34:34

but then that plant is eaten by a cricket,

34:36

which is then eaten by a mouse, which

34:38

is then eaten by a snake, which is then

34:40

eaten by a hawk. When the hawk dies,

34:43

its body provides food for bacteria and

34:45

fungi, which then in turn

34:47

feeds plants. All of these animals

34:50

represent what are called tropic levels

34:52

what scientists now call links in

34:54

the food chain, and as representatives

34:57

of these trophic groups eat each other, energy

34:59

has path all around the ecosystem.

35:01

But what happens when one member of this food

35:04

web is our mood from the system Ye also

35:06

has actually been ground zero for sort of

35:09

unintentional experiment regarding what scientists

35:11

have come to refer to as trophic cascades.

35:14

And trophic cascades occur when predators

35:16

hunting their prey keeps the number of prey

35:19

animals down, passing on the savings

35:21

to the next tropic level. Whatever

35:24

the prey animal eats then has

35:26

a better shot at survival and

35:28

don and on and on down the line.

35:31

Um, and in Yellowstone what they did

35:33

was they actually like reintroduced

35:35

the gray wolves back India

35:38

zone. And this is a perfect example

35:40

of what we're talking about. So in

35:43

regards to wolves, like every wolves are

35:45

scary, right, Like humans have never really liked

35:47

them, which is kind of weird because

35:49

they're the direct wild ancestors

35:51

of man's best friends, domesticated

35:54

dogs. The fact that they're fast,

35:56

carnivorous and they move around and intimidating

35:58

packs I think, Plus they eat livestock.

36:01

They can eat like twenty pounds of meat in a single

36:03

sitting. This is a this is what's

36:05

led humans to create this like terrifying

36:08

mythology around wolves, with things

36:10

like Little Red riding a Peter in the Wolf,

36:12

the Boy who Cried Wolf, etcetera, etcetera.

36:15

Historically, gray wolves have ranged around two

36:17

thirds of the modern day United States home, but

36:19

they've been driven out of most of it now. Um,

36:22

they were hunted out of Yellowstone

36:25

by nineteen six.

36:27

Yeah, and then in nineteen however,

36:30

the Park Service released fourteen

36:32

gray wolves from Canada into Yellowstone

36:34

after seventy years of a wolfless

36:36

ecosystem there. This decision,

36:39

of course, was controversial and made a

36:41

lot of humans mad, but the ecological

36:43

results were immediate and honestly

36:46

pretty startling. Yeah. In fact,

36:48

what a lot of ecologists think the

36:50

wolves did in Yellowstone was prevent elk

36:52

and deer, some of their favorite

36:55

foods, from eating all the plants,

36:57

especially near rivers. Yeah, the

36:59

wolves kept the deer and elk from denuding

37:01

the river valleys, which promoted the growth

37:03

of trees and the riparian areas. Riparian

37:06

meaning the special groups of plants that grow

37:08

in flood plants of rivers and streams. So

37:11

this meant more beavers, which are animals

37:14

that create special many habitats for other animals

37:16

like otters, fish, amphibians, and so forth,

37:19

and more migratory birds visited as

37:21

well. The wolves killed or intimidated

37:23

the coyotes, which meant there were then

37:26

more rabbits and mice around, which learned hawks

37:28

and other birds of prey to the area. So

37:31

huge effects. And not only all that,

37:33

but it increased stabilization of

37:35

the river banks narrowed river channels,

37:38

which makes for more different kind of habitat

37:40

in Yellowstone as well, so would have this huge

37:42

ripple effect across pretty

37:44

much every everything every animal, every

37:47

environment. Yeah, and the simple truth

37:49

is that the affects the wolves took

37:51

on Yellowstone is complex, and

37:54

this idea of traffic cascade being

37:56

the saving grace of the park's ecosystem

37:58

is a controversial one in young scientists.

38:01

We basically can't replicate the study because

38:03

there's not another Yellowstone to replicate it

38:06

in, so we may never know exactly

38:08

what effect wolves had on Yellowstone.

38:11

However, it definitely taught us that the

38:13

human mythology around wolves being

38:15

evil and dangerous villains deserving eradication

38:18

is a very subjective one. Yeah,

38:20

they can have a lot of benefits. Yeah, this

38:23

is something that is very

38:25

complex and hard to kind of just dive

38:28

into, right because, like they said,

38:30

you can't just replicate it over and over

38:32

again, because even if you reintroduced

38:35

wolves into Michigan,

38:37

I'm just using a random place. I

38:39

mean, yeah, it's the

38:41

ecosystem is so different there, and

38:44

the cycle of life and the

38:46

hunting cycles they're so different

38:49

that it wouldn't actually

38:51

create a correct study.

38:54

Yeah, that's true. But then when you also think about

38:56

how like well it's used to run around to your thirds of

38:58

the US, like they're clearly

39:00

affimated two

39:03

a majority of this country, and they

39:06

have every natural right

39:08

to be there in a way. So it's it's weird

39:10

that suddenly humans are in this position where they're

39:14

controlling it and dictating where

39:16

wolves are relocated to and

39:18

then witnessing what happened. So it's it's

39:21

strange because they were here before

39:24

people were and

39:26

because they've been gone another kinds of introduced,

39:29

a reintroduced. It's like, but there are different species

39:32

of wolves. I think they're the closest too,

39:35

but you can't have the exact if they

39:38

didn't stay in that ecosystem,

39:40

right, I mean the same thing with the bison.

39:42

They were reintroduced into a national

39:44

park this year, which

39:46

one was then that well, they moved more

39:49

bison to bad lands and released

39:51

them. They're so like, this isn't

39:54

an entirely new concept. This has happened

39:56

before, yellows, this will happen in

39:58

the future in other places. So but that will

40:00

have an impact on that national park, and

40:03

it sounds like it's going great in Yellowstone, So kudos

40:06

to the wolves. We

40:08

did not see any walls and yellow Stone regretfully,

40:10

I would love to. I know that's that one takes

40:12

a lot of patients, Like, that's

40:15

definitely something that I would love to do, is

40:17

like just slow down a little bit, because we normally

40:19

like kind of go through national parks and

40:21

try to get everything in. And that's why

40:24

we revisit national parks as well though, because we

40:26

see the things that we miss. But Yellowstone

40:28

is one of those national parks that

40:32

we have both been to multiple times now from

40:35

multiple days at a time. I

40:37

mean, I think we both have a combined maybe twenty

40:39

days in that park and we still haven't even scratched

40:42

the surface. The what

40:45

is it one percent of Yellowstone is actually

40:48

seen by the

40:50

tourists that go there run. So

40:54

there's so much in that ecosystem,

40:56

that wildlife, that diversity

40:59

that we have to really explore. And that is

41:01

why we're even continuing with

41:03

a part two of Yellowstone

41:06

National Park later this season.

41:08

Right, it won't be the next episode, so

41:10

you're gonna have to stay tuned. You're gonna have standard

41:12

toes and get ready for more and

41:15

more of that beautiful, beautiful

41:17

place that Yellowstone is. Yeah, but of

41:19

a cliffhanger. But also the exciting thing too

41:21

is we'll be able to incorporate like our r V experience

41:24

there because now that us were in

41:26

and r V able we first visited, So

41:29

it's lodges,

41:32

hotels inside the park,

41:34

outside the park, where do you want to stay?

41:39

Since both of our first trips were pre r

41:41

V, we're going to save our ur V segment

41:43

for part two, and since

41:46

we visited together, we are in our r V

41:48

and experienced it from a totally different

41:51

perspective exactly. So for

41:53

that reason and a bunch of other things,

41:55

I'm excited for part two because this really

41:57

is one of those enormous, dynamic park

42:00

that feels completely fresh and new

42:02

upon each visit, and it feels

42:04

like you're visiting a different

42:07

place when you're in an RV as

42:09

well, that's for sure, So that'll

42:12

be fun to talk about incorporate. Yeah,

42:14

for now, though, we hope you have been inspired

42:16

to visit or revisit this ultimate

42:18

national park. It's a place we have loved

42:21

him an individually and together. It's

42:23

been inspiring and it's

42:25

just put me in complete shock. It's

42:28

such a truly special place. Yeah,

42:30

it really is, and just remember it could blow

42:32

at any moment. Good night. You've

42:36

been listening to park Landia, a show about national

42:38

parks, Parklandi's the production of My Heart

42:40

Radio, created by Matt Carrouac, Brad

42:43

Carouac and Christopher hasiotis produced

42:45

and edited by Mike John's. Our executive producer

42:48

is Christopher hasiotis our researcher, it's

42:50

Jecelyn shield. A special things goes out

42:52

to Gabrielle Collins, Christal Waters

42:54

and the rest of the park Landia crew and Hey

42:56

listeners. If you're enjoying the show, leave

42:58

us a review on Apple podcast Us. It helps

43:00

other people like you find our show. You can

43:03

keep up with us on social media as well. Check

43:05

out our photos from our travels on Instagram

43:07

at parkla India Pod and join in

43:09

on the conversation in our Facebook group Parklandia

43:12

Rangers from our podcast My Heart Radio,

43:14

visit the heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

43:17

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows, and

43:19

as always, thank you for listening.