YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK
This is an expedition to study Grizzly, Black bears & wolves of Yellowstone National Park.
An initiative to know their survival strategies, the challenges & problems of the park to help use the
knowledge to implement successful plan to save our tigers & its denizens.
The expedition started from the Jackson Hole airport which is located inside the Grand-Teton National Park & we drone with Tim passing through meadows & open area & the Moose village & we entered the core of the Grand Teton National Park.
Tim is the grizzly expert who was with us for the next few days tracking the teddy with us & help us understand the movement of the land. With him we could many grizzly bears from very close quarters & watched their behavior very closely.
We drove by one of the most picturous locations - Jackson Lake. The lake is made of melted ice from the Grand Teton & is chilling cold. This is the place where pelicans are often seen.
As we traveled we saw a huge mule deer stag sitting peacefully beside the road... I really felt concerned about the road-kills that may take a toll on the beautiful animals.
As we entered Yellowstone, the landscape was full of skeletal trees. The skeletal trees were the sad remains of the deadly forest-fire of 1988 of Yellowstone that burnt 36% of the Yellowstone. I felt happy that the jungle is rejuvenating.
The 1988 fires affected 793,880 acres or 36 percent of the park. Five fires burned into the park that year from adjacent public lands. The largest, the North Fork Fire, started from a discarded cigarette. It burned more than 410,000 acres.
We resided at the famous 'Old Faithful Inn' which is located on the geothermal basin of the Yellowstone National Park. The Geothermal basin of Yellowstone National Park has in-numerous geysers, mud-pots & hot springs that constantly erupt around this fragile terrain. The eruptions & smoke carve out mystic imaginations & a sense of fear for the angry earth behind.
We were then joined by a very nice person - Mike Stevens. He is a waterfall explorer & expert - co-author of a very famous book - Waterfalls of Yellowstone. We did a good trek through the Yellowstone landscape & saw some of the most beautiful terrain, tracks, wildlife & flowers and - waterfalls... The Long Falls the best. We all together had discussions on the how wildlife is in India & how things are US. What are the problems in these parks & in India & their gaps.
Next Morning we drove through the geothermal basin & passed through another very important geographical location - The Continental Divide - - TWO OCEAN RIVER
[A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea.]
We circled through the blue magical Yellowstone lake & traveled beside the Yellowstone river & reached the lovely Hayden Valley. For the next few days, we saw grizzly with cubs, lots of bisons- wallowing, fighting, dating & sleeping, bald eagles & even wolf movements.
Up in the Lamar valley for the wolves, we had to meet Rick for helping us in getting the spot of where wolves can be sighted... he was like a local tracker who knows the law of the land. Then then search started... we waited circled the tracks, drove through the entire wolf kingdom to be treated with the entire pack and also a feeding frenzy.
Weather changes very drastically in Yellowstone. Clouds & rains change the picture of the entire parks & we were fortunate to witness that.
Yellowstone will be always one of the most beautiful parks that I have ever seen.
