Articles

LeHardys Rapids and Trout Lake – The struggle to reproduce

Every year about this time (mid-June to the end of July), cutthroat trout of Yellowstone Park begin the search for the waters of their birth. It’s time to spawn – to lay and fertilize eggs in the gravel of streams and rivers so that the cycle of life continues. But it isn’t easy. Two locations make a good example of …

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Pennsylvania boy tossed by bison

[Friday June 27, 2008]  Somebody shouts, “Don’t do that!” But they do it anyway. The big bull bison is sitting placidly, probably ruminating. Nothing about it suggests irritation, agility, and speed. The family lines up for a picture, a foot or two in front of the bison – a picture never to be forgotten. Quicker than a flash the bison …

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Entertaining the kids with these surefire Yellowstone treats

Picture a family of four on a trip through Yellowstone National Park. There's Mom, Dad, Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill are twins; both ten, and both notoriously impatient. They don't have time to sit around and wait for Grand Geyser or Daisy Geyser to erupt -- they need quick and easy stimuli. Mom and Dad are scared. 

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Artists’ Paintpots area closed after accident

[Monday June 2, 2008] Yellowstone National Park’s Artists’ Paintpots area is temporarily closed after a Park visitor walking on a marked trail  broke through the earth’s crust and suffered burns to an ankle and lower leg. Jeannette Hogan was walking in the popular area north of Norris Junction when she stepped in a puddle of rainwater on the edge of …

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What makes a geyser grand and faithful? It’s all in the water

Text by Sean Reichard; illustration by NH King Anyone who’s been to Yellowstone National Park has seen Old Faithful at least once. It may not be the tallest geyser — Steamboat Geyser is — or even the most impressive — our vote goes to Grand Geyser — but Old Faithful still has its charms and advantages. Though smaller than both Steamboat …

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Yellowstone fires: Cool it

Standing at a pullout on the Grand Loop Road and looking across the Yellowstone River at a vast plume of smoke and cinder rising from the LeHardy fire, it’s easy to think of catastrophe – the fires of 1988. Only that would be wrong, on several counts. The fires of 1988 were bad, sure enough, from the human perspective. We …

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Yellowstone at the Memorial Weekend kickoff

[Tuesday May 27, 2008] This year’s Memorial Day kickoff week, the traditional opening of the Yellowstone National Park tourist season, has been noted for cool, variable weather and the presence of significant winter snow remaining at relatively low elevations of the park. Here’s a compilation of reports (roads, fishing, animal spotting, hiking) on conditions in Yellowstone from the days around …

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Yellowstone in a waterfall year

[Tuesday June 24, 2008]  Yellowstone can be high and dry, well not really that dry; it’s no desert. Still, when most people see Yellowstone in the middle of summer it can seem very hot and dry. But not this year. This is a year of the waterfall. Most people who come to Yellowstone are aware that it has a waterfall …

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Beartooth Pass closed; Sylvan Pass to open during winter season

Roads and their status are the big news in Yellowstone National Park today, as avalanches force the temporary closure of the Beartooth Highway, while a compromise on winter access to the Park via Cody and the Sylvan Pass seems to please all parties involved. First, the news about the Beartooth, which is now closed for the second time in less …

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Most roads open for Memorial Day weekend — but be prepared to battle the snow

[Friday May 23, 2008]  Traditionally Memorial Day is the big opening of the summer season in Yellowstone National Park, and this year should be no different. Park officials say all roads (including the (including the Beartooth Pass) are except for the Dunraven Pass — storms dumped even more snow  and Park officials decided not to rush plowing. The two roads …

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