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Back
in the
Lower
48
(south from Alaska)
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"Yellowstone:
Like No Other Place on Earth"
That's
the title of the book I bought today about this national treasure
of ours. I just really had no idea it would be this beautiful or
interesting a place.
Geologists
refer to Yellowstone as a "hotspot," a concentrated region
of very hot rock that originates deep within the earth, with spectacular
results on the surface. An article in the park newspaper asks the
question that I am sure is on everyone's mind as they drive through
this vast smoking jungle: "Is Yellowstone Ready to Blow?"
The scientists say, "It's a huge breathing caldera capable
of doing a lot of things as far as we know."
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My
favorite spot was a place called Artist's Point at the Grand Canyon
of Yellowstone. This is an area that rivals the one in Arizona for
sure with the beauty and layering of the colors of the massive canyon
and the distant waterfall still looming so large you think you can
feel the spray. When I got to the top of the lookout, there was
a young Eastern Indian couple there and he commented to me in the
most sincere awe-filled voice: "Oh, this is too big for my
eyes!"
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One
of the first explorers of this area in 1870 wrote: "I do
not know of any portion of our country where a national park can
be established furnishing to visitors more wonderful attractions
than here. These wonders are so different from anything we have
ever seen - they are so various, so extensive - that the feeling
in my mind from the moment they began to appear until we left them
has been one of intense surprise and of incredulity. Every day spent
in surveying them has revealed to me some new beauty, and now that
I have left them, I begin to feel a skepticism which clothes them
in a memory clouded by doubt."
I
am not surprised that the first reports of this area were not believed
- it was hard to imagine then that a land like this could actually
exist - it still is...
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I know is that this is special land - a place where you can hear the
voice of the earth and see its breath, sometimes soft and gentle,
sometimes hissing violently. And it's a place with magic pools and
fairy waterfalls that completely enchanted me and made me vow to return
someday. |
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