I traveled to Yellowstone National Park in August, 2017, in order to combine a visit to an amazing national park with the observation of the total solar eclipse. Although the eclipse was certainly the highlight of the trip, spending time in Yellowstone was a wonderful experience. Despite this not being my first trip to the park, I saw it with a different perspective on this occasion. Previously I had been more of a spectator, whereas this time I explored some of the hiking opportunities in the park while also keeping an eye out for good photographic opportunities.  I found all the hiking to be very nice. Two of my favorite trails were Wapiti Lake and South Rim. The Wapiti Lake trail went through open plains with expansive views on all sides. The trail splits at one point and gives one the option to go toward Yellowstone Falls. Along this part of the hike, there were many wildflowers on the sides of the path which made for quite beautiful scenery. The South Canyon Rim trail provides a wonderful view of the impressive Lower Yellowstone Falls, which has a drop of over 300 feet. I also enjoyed walking to the lookout point at the top of Upper Yellowstone Falls which, although is only about a third of the height of the Lower Falls, presented an incredible spectacle of power and beauty.

Going in the middle of summer, and around a hugely popular event, presented some challenges. The crowds meant that getting to some spots were not possible during the busier times of the day, however these sites were generally much easier to access in the mornings. Because of the long days and short nights, there are not many opportunities for sunrise, sunset, or nighttime photography (at least if one wants to maximize the daytime hours for hiking or sightseeing). However, if there is one park that can still offer wonderful photographic scenes during the harsher lighting of the daylight hours, I think Yellowstone might be it. Its unique landscapes contain mind-blowing sights of geysers, colorful hot springs, and wildlife, sometimes all at the same place. The animals in the park have found ways to live with the unique conditions that arise from the volcanic activity. Some of them even take advantage of the thermal heat to stave off the biting cold of the harsh winter conditions. The parks valleys sit at an elevation of around 8,000 feet, making for relatively cooler temperatures all year round. In summer the temperatures are warm during the day and cool at night.

Yellowstone was the first place to be designated a national park, which occurred in 1872. Although the first land to be set aside specifically for preservation by an act of the U.S. government was Yosemite, in 1864, the national park designation gave Yellowstone federal, rather than just state, protection. Today there are thousands of national parks around the world. Currently in the United States there are 59 areas that have “national park” in their name, which are the places we generally think of when we think of a national park (there are many other parks that are managed by the national park service). The popularity of the parks has enabled them to actually provide an economic benefit to go along with the priceless worth of the conservation that they provide. The parks produce tens of billions of dollars a year, much of this due to the hundreds of millions of park visitors spending money in the local regions in and around the parks.

The supervolcano that sits beneath the Yellowstone surface has produced some of the largest eruptions of any volcano in the world. The term “supervolcano” refers to the unusually great size of the volcanic eruptions that have occurred in the past. It has erupted  three times in approximately the last two million years, at an average of about 750,000 years in between each event. Fortunately, the chances of another eruption occurring anytime in the near future is extremely low. If such an event did occur, it’s hard to imagine the amount of destruction that would be done to such a spectacular place and to the wildlife that inhabits the region. However, the past eruptions clearly did not prevent the existence of the wonderful characteristics that we see there today; in fact, perhaps many of their aspects are due to it.