Mammoth Hot Springs (Home of Terrace Mountain and Historic Fort Yellowstone)

Our trip in Yellowstone had us staying for three nights at Mammoth Hot Springs and two night at Old Faithful.  Since our daily scenic trips never included Mammoth Hot Springs, it was up to us to explore the area on our own.  On one evening, we spent a few hours exploring the boardwalks at Terrace Mountain, which is the largest known "carbonate-depositing" spring in the world.

The mountain, which we could see from our cabins, would continuously let off a hot mist of steam (much like the steam vents and hot springs we would soon see at Old Faithful).  However, as you explore it closer on the boardwalks, you can see that the mountain was created by calcium carbonate deposits that have flowed from the the spring for thousands of years.  The result is beautiful, colorful terraces--some dry and some wet--full of interesting shapes, designs, and patterns.

A view of Fort Yellowstone from Terrace Mountain

On another night during our stay at Mammoth Hot Springs, we went to the Visitor Center to take a historic walking tour of Mammoth's historic Fort Yellowstone buildings.  It was here that we learned all about the history of Yellowstone National Park (which I LOVED)!  On March 1, 1872, Congress established Yellowstone National Park (the world's first national park) in the territories of Montana and Wyoming "as a public park of pleasuring-ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" under control of the Secretary of the Interior.

However, in the beginning, the Secretary of the Interior didn't exactly know what it would take to run a National Park.  They first established a civilian superintendent to manage the park, but, having limited resources and authority, the superintendent wasn't able to control poaching, hunting, vandalism, or random people and interest groups trying to come in and commercialize/privatize park lands.  Thus, in 1886, the Interior Department transferred control of the park to the War Department; the army, the 1st U.S. Cavalry, was sent to Mammoth Hot Springs where they set up Camp Sheridan.  Camp Sheridan, in 1891, was later renamed as Fort Yellowstone, and the army continued to use this fort to control the park until 1918--exactly 32 years later.  (They wrongly thought the army was only needed for a few years.)

Today, of course, Yellowstone National Park is now controlled by the National Park Service, which not surprisingly, has roots from the army (uniforms, hats, boots, policies, protocol, etc.).  The difference, however, is that the National Park Service  (established by President Woodrow Wilson in 1916) was established to protect and preserve our national parks, wildlife and monuments.  Thus, they teach natural and cultural resource conservation in addition to protecting our parks.

The tour was led by a Park Ranger, and she spoke about some of the illegal activities that occurred in the park prior to the army coming in... Some ranchers would put up fencing and stake the land as their own; some would poach--one poacher was famous for killing Bison for their heads; some people would do laundry in the hot springs; and still others would put sticks, rocks, and other things in the geysers to watch them shoot out.  It was kind of the wild west until the army came in, and even then, they had difficulty arresting all the poachers and vandals...

The Visitor Center is one of the remaining Fort Yellowstone buildings.

Buildings at Fort Yellowstone.  (Today they are used by Rangers and people that work for the Park Service.)

The tour ended with lowering the flag.

The historic tour was one of my FAVORITE parts of the trip.  (I'm fascinated by early American history.)  As you will learn from at least three more posts, there is so much to see in Yellowstone, and yet, I find that I cannot fully appreciate the beauty without appreciating the history of this place, too!

Lamar Valley (The Roosevelt Area in Yellowstone National Park)

Our trip to Yellowstone National Park was AMAZING.  My goal was to post about each day as the trip was occurring, but as you can imagine, the internet service in the park is not the greatest, and we went several days without access.  The other truth is that we went on an all-day, week-long tour with three other families, so our days were full, and I often fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.

The first official day of our Yellowstone Forever adventure was at Lamar Valley.  (Part of the "Roosevelt Area," Lamar Valley is known for its broad vistas, open hillsides, and LOTS of wildlife.) Our Yellowstone Forever Bus headed out early (at 7 a.m.), and we spent the day stopping to view animals.  Sometimes we stopped because we'd see a random animal, like a bear, from the side of the road.  Other times, we'd see crowds of people with binoculars, which told us there was something exciting to view!  We'd stop, ask a few bystanders what they were looking at, and then decide as a group if we wanted to be part of the fun!

Along our trip, just on this one day, we saw bison, two black bears, a pronghorn antelope, a family of badgers, a coyote, elk, osprey, wolves, and several mountain goats.  Here are just a few of the pictures I was able to capture:

This guy was holding up five miles worth of traffic.  Good thing for us, we were on the opposite side of the road!

We stopped at a ranch that was used to help breed and protect bison.  When the park first opened,
there were only 24 bison left in all of North America.  Now, the park is home to 5,000 bison!

Do you see the pronghorn antelope?

Remains from an elk.  Our guide, Chandler, had us hike to this spot.

Lewie would not touch the bones, but Amina from our group had no problem grabbing the skull!

Looking at some mountain goats through binoculars...

Our tour guide, Chandler, told us we were very lucky to see so much wildlife in one day.  However, the most exciting moment for all of us is when we saw a real life wolf/bison encounter.  Almost 20 minutes into our trip, our guide pulled to the side of the road because there was a group of 30+ people standing with their binoculars and scopes.  When we asked about the details, we learned that three wolves had killed a young bison calf.  The wolves were trying to get to their prey, but the bison mama (and family) were chasing off the wolves.

As you can see, the pictures of the wolves and the bison are blurry as we were quite a distance away.  Still, I am so lucky to have these photos as one of the families in our group took these amazing shots.  (The bison and wolves in my pictures were way too small.)

As we looked through our binoculars and our scopes, we saw the wolves try to keep sneaking up on the bison to get to the dead calf.  At one point, I watched as the mama bison and one of the wolves had a stare down.  The wolf eventually lied down, and after a few minutes, the mama bison did the same thing.  Then the wolf got up quickly and nipped the mama bison in the butt.  To that, she got up and charged at him.  I couldn't believe I had viewed all of this with my own eyes...

At first Lewie was a little upset by the ordeal.  "Mommy, I thought this was a family-friendly trip," he said half joking-half serious.  We reminded him that this is nothing more than the cycle of life.  After a few minutes of viewing, however, he was hooked, too.  It was amazing to see the stand off between the bison and the wolves.  (This is when Chandler explained that there are over 5,000 bison in the park but only 100 wolves.  The wolves, reintroduced to the park back in 1995, live in packs and are very territorial.  They estimate that there are about 10 wolf packs in the entire park.  The number fluctuates a little, but 100 is the standard--they don't expect this number to increase.)

Yes, this first day of viewing wildlife in Yellowstone was AMAZING.  The best part was watching my son, who is usually tied to his computer at home, out in the middle of nature admiring the beauty and pure magic of it all.  Yes, Lamar Valley was MAGIC!