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Narrator: In this extraordinary place, a new idea was born...

on March 1, 1872 President Ulysses S. Grant signed into

existence the world's first national park,

Yellowstone National Park.

The 2.2 million acres of wilderness was "Set apart as a

public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit

and enjoyment of the people."

This glorious park contains over one-half of the world's

hydrothermal features...

indeed, the largest and most varied collection of natural hot

water phenomena on Earth...

including over 300 geysers.

[montage]

(Jennifer) Yellowstone is a caldera;

it's had several very large eruptions and a caldera is

basically where the earth has had gas and magma pressure from

underneath stretching the earth's crust.

Eventually cracks and fissures form around that bulge and hot

ash and lava spew out the side of the volcano and then the top

part of it, that stretched earth collapses in on itself forming a

big crater caldera and since our last eruption,

which was about 640,000 years ago,

we've had subsequent lava flows that have filled it in so it's

really difficult to tell there's a huge caldera inside of

Yellowstone, but there's some evidence of the edges of the

caldera but you can defiantly tell there's a hot active

volcano in Yellowstone.

(Mike) I start each presentation that I give throughout this

region by saying Yellowstone.

Just that word has something sacred to it,

something sacred in it's meaning.

I'm a firm believer that Yellowstone is in many ways a

holy place for those whose temples are

the mountains and the wilderness.

It's a place unlike any other that I've had the opportunity to

experience and I think the wildness that exists here in

Yellowstone, the dynamic nature of this region from a geological

standpoint an ecological standpoint,

the water sheds, the rivers, the wild life,

it's just such a unique place and it's a place that brings

people from all over the world.

You look at the arch and it's truly a place of pilgrimage,

it's a land that brings people from all over the world to

experience something wild, something primeval.

Narrator: It's a unique place in the world...

the only complete temperate mid-latitude ecosystem left on

the planet, that's big enough to contain

the entire range of large mammals...

the large predators -

bear...

wolves...

coyotes...

fox...

osprey...

owls...

and eagles.

And big enough to contain their prey...

elk...

deer...

moose...

big horn sheep...

pronghorn...

and of course, the ancient American Bison.

Yellowstone country is the American equivalent

of the African plains.

(Mike) People travel from all over the globe to visit the

Serengeti of Africa and I think this is the closest thing we

have to that in North America and yet when you add the spirit

of the geysers you add the fact that we have over 10,000

thermal features in this region.

You add the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone with the 308-foot

plunge hole; I think that's one of the most remarkable

landscapes certainly in the west.

To me it's the most inspiring landscape we have in the

northern Rockies, to stand at Artist Point where Thomas Moran

stood in 1871 and created his famous water colors that helped

to inspire the establishment of Yellowstone National Park which

has subsequently become so important to people from all

over the globe.

It's a place that's humbling, it's inspiring and it's moving.

(Jennifer) My favorite thing about Yellowstone is that I'll

never know it all there's always something new to learn and so it

helps me become curious to learn about it and there's a special

magic to Yellowstone that just taking a hike through the park

you can experience and one of my fondest memories of Yellowstone

is hiking with a friend to Artist Paint Pots early in the

morning and we walked through the forest to get to the mud

pots and on our way back all of a sudden the sun was glistening

on all these spider webs in the trees that we had passed earlier

in the morning that we didn't even notice.

It was like, just like a magic spell.

All those things had appeared just out of the blue in a short

amount of time, so there's always something new to see and

to discover and we'll never see it all.

Narrator: The Yellowstone ecosystem - Yellowstone country

- is more than just one park.

It's thousands of acres of national forests...

national forests encompassing mountain ranges.

And there is the most spectacular mountain park in the

country: Grand Teton National Park...

a park containing breathtaking mountain peaks,

glacial lakes,

wetlands

and gravelly moraines.

The forces that shaped this land...

the great thermal features...

the jagged mountain peaks...

and the forces that created the greater Yellowstone Country are

the most powerful and violent

geological forces on the planet...

volcanoes and glaciers.

It all waits for you...

waits for you to experience.

It's simply called: Yellowstone.

Narrator: There is only one way to fully grasp the vastness and

beauty of Yellowstone country...

by air.

The journey departs from Jackson Hole, Wyoming...

the southern gateway to Yellowstone.

Immediately below is the Snake River.

Originating in Yellowstone Park to the north and flowing south,

the Snake, which eventually joins the Colombia,

is over 1,365 miles long, the largest North American river

that empties into the Pacific Ocean.

You are now over Grand Teton National Park.

Between the river and the Teton mountain range are numerous

mountain glacial features - moraines and kettle lakes.

Suddenly, looming almost out of nowhere

are the Grand Tetons themselves...

Matterhorn peaks...

glacial valleys...

and stunning ice fields.

While Yellowstone's journey to becoming a park was swift and

easy, Grand Teton National Park's journey,

on the other hand, was long and arduous.

In 1897, Congress set aside Teton Forest Reserve.

Thirty-two years later, the central peaks seen here were

given National Park status.

However, in order to preserve the views and the territory's

complete ecosystem, the post-glacial features to the

east of the Tetons also needed to be protected.

One of America's great philanthropists,

John D. Rockefeller Jr. came to the rescue.

He bought over 35,000 acres of farm and ranch land in Wyoming's

Jackson Valley along the Snake River

and donated it to the Federal Government.

Then in 1943 Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued a presidential

proclamation creating Jackson Hole National Monument...

a 221,000 acre Jackson Valley track of land

including Rockefeller's donation.

By 1950, the National Monument and the original Park were

joined into today's spectacular Grand Teton National Park.

In the northern reaches of Grand Teton National Park is the

breathtaking Jackson Lake.

The lake was created during the last ice age when a massive ice

field gouged and cut its deep reservoir.

It is still fed by runoff from small glaciers

in the Teton Mountains.

The main source of water, however, is the Snake River.

At an elevation of 6,772 feet above sea level,

Jackson Lake is one of the largest

high altitude lakes in the U.S.

- 15 miles long, 7 miles wide and 400 feet deep.

As the plane leaves the Jackson Valley and enters Yellowstone

Park striking changes take place.

The land rises dramatically into Yellowstone's youngest lava

flow, the 70,000-year-old Pitchstone Plateau...

the Pitchstone Plateau is one of 9 named plateaus

in Yellowstone National Park.

These plateaus make up the greater Yellowstone Plateau.

Even in the summer the pitchstone

remains covered in snow...

snows that average over 50 feet per year.

Below the snow is a vast area of unwooded lava,

resembling, as more than one writer has described it,

a moonscape.

Contained within the Pitchstone plateau are two of Yellowstone's

treasures: Lewis Lake and Shoshone Lake,

the second largest lake in the park and one that can only be

reached by backpacking or canoe.

The overall Yellowstone Plateau was created through three

volcanic cycles spanning over two million years...

volcanic cycles that produced some of the world's largest and

most violent volcanic eruptions.

Traveling further north is the 200,000 acre wilderness area

known as Yellowstone's Central Plateau.

Surrounded by the Park's lower loop road system, the Central

Plateau Wilderness consists of a vast Lodgepole Pine forest.

(Jennifer) Yellowstone is covered mostly

by lodgepole pine forest.

lodgepoles are a tree that is very well adapted to growing in

area were the soil might not be as rich as in other areas,

so it's very volcanic, a pretty young volcanic area and

lodgepoles grow very well here.

The lodgepole is a tall thin pine tree and if you drive

around Yellowstone you'll see thing that look almost like

telephone poles with a Christmas tree on top.

Those are the lodgepole pine, they cover about 80% of the

park, they are very well adapted to fire,

some of the pine cones are covered in a waxy resin so when

fire runs through the forest the wax from the resin protects

those pine cones and the heat melts the resin off and the pine

cones kind of pop open and scatter their seeds

on the newly opened forest floor.

Because the canopy has been burnt by fire,

the sunlight, water and nutrients can reach the forest

floor and those lodgepole pines grow best

where they get a lot of sunlight.

Narrator: In Yellowstone, there are vast areas where fire has

raced through the lodgepole pine forest and the grand scale of

the fires can be seen from the air.

The central plateau, while devoid of high peaks,

abounds in meadows, wildlife, thermal features and rivers.

(Jennifer) Yellowstone has some great rivers that offer people

great chances to view wildlife

and to fish and that sort of thing.

We have the Yellowstone River that starts actually outside of

the park and flows into the Yellowstone Lake and then flows

out of Yellowstone Lake and flows in a north fashion.

Gibbon Madison and Firehole meet at Madison Junction and they

flow out of the park and those are also spectacular places for

watching wildlife and fishing.

So, we do have a number of rivers,

they flow based on where they are on the Continental Divide.

The Continental Divide is kind of like the crest of the

continent and as the water hits either side of that Continental

Divide it determines which path these rivers take and so the

ones that flow on the west side of the continental divide will

eventually flow into the Pacific Ocean,

the ones on the east side of the Continental Divide will

eventually flow into the Mississippi

and down the Gulf of Mexico.

Narrator: Here is a map of the greater Yellowstone area...

the Continental divide runs through it like this...

here is the famous lower Loop Road...

and here is The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone...

a canyon that is a primary geologic feature of the park.

It is roughly 20 miles long, and contains a place where the

Yellowstone River drops a distance

greater than Niagara Falls...

almost 400 feet.

However, the reason the park was set aside in the first place

lies in its magnificent thermal features -

its geysers and hot springs.

From the air the hot springs appear as shimmering blue pools

of water surrounded by

light-colored, barren landscapes.

These are called thermal basins.

What's exclusive to Yellowstone is its concentration

of over 300 geysers...

thermal areas where super heated water

periodically erupts into the air.

The most famous is, of course, Old Faithful...

a spectacular geyser that erupts like clockwork

- every 65 minutes if an eruption lasts less than

2.5 minutes, or 91 minutes if the eruption

lasts more than 2.5 minutes.

(Jennifer) It's very unusual for geysers to be predictable;

the fact that we can predict about five or six different

geysers in Yellowstone is quite unusual.

Old Faithful has been really reliable and really predictable

over the history of the park.

It's how it got its name; it's very faithful

and erupted regularly.

Over the years a lot of observers of Old Faithful have

been timing it and recording the times of eruptions and noticing

very distinct patterns,

and that's how we predict Old Faithful.

Plumbing systems for a geyser have chambers that have to fill

up between eruptions, so after an eruption those chambers have

been emptied and there's a certain amount of time they have

to fill up again.

The Old Faithful has kind of a regular set pattern,

the longer the eruption the more water erupts out of it the more

water that has to fill in, so we time Old Faithful with basically

a stopwatch and the longer the eruption the longer the interval

to the next one.

Narrator: The highlight of any aerial trip is a thermal feature

that can only be fully appreciated from the air...

a Thermal feature known as the Grand Prismatic.

The Grand Prismatic is the largest hot spring

in the United States.

The deep blue spring extends over an area approximately 250

by 300 feet and is 160 feet deep.

The spring discharges an estimated 560 gallons of 160

degree water per minute into the surrounding landscape.

Surely this is one of the most unearthly

beautiful sites on the planet...

it is a sight worth savoring and remembering for a lifetime.

The Grand Prismatic is just one of countless thermal features

that are derived from Yellowstone

country's matchless geology.

Narrator: The geology of Yellowstone country begins with

the rising up of the Rocky Mountains

about 55-80 million years ago.

The Rockies are a spectacular mountain system that stretches

from Canada to central New Mexico.

The Rockies were once massive and tall...

nearly 4 miles above sea level.

Today, while still splendid, erosion has reduced them to

nearly half their former glory.

However, one range, the Grand Teton Range,

recaptures a bit of that ancient stature.

Without any foothills the Grand Teton Range seems to spring up

directly out of the earth...

it's Cathedral group of peaks energizes and delights the eye.

Each perspective...

Each season...

Each passing hour brings a new sense of awe.

Rising up only 10 million years ago,

the range is the youngest in the Rockies.

However, it was the ice ages over the last 1.8 million years

that carved the Tetons into their rugged pose.

A pose accented by its present day mountain glaciers.

(John) The requirement for a mountain glacier,

or any glacier for that matter is that the snow that has fallen

the previous winter doesn't melt the following summer and so we

have to have a continual buildup of the ice,

and clearly the place where the snow has the best chance of

remaining through the annual cycle through the next summer is

at the highest altitudes where the temperatures are the

coldest, so when the snow falls in the mountains over the

wintertime, obviously it's above the snowline and it's going to

be at the highest elevations.

When the snow accumulates and doesn't melt the following

summer then we start to build up the mountain glaciers.

Glaciers at all times are going to be flowing,

the ice deforms plastically or ductaly and the ice is always

flowing and it's drawn down hill by gravity and so if we're

constructing glaciers at the highest peaks of the mountains,

gravity is drawing that ice downward and as that ice moves

downward it starts to erode the rock

over which it's been laid down.

As the rock begins to erode there's preferential areas that

the glaciers are going to flow just like preferential river

valleys that rivers will flow, and so when we look at the

highest mountain peaks the glaciers will start to sculpt

certain sides of the mountains and they generally do this in a

more or less triangular fashion so that there are faceted

slopes, or faceted scalloped slopes on

three or more sides of the mountain.

It's those faceted areas or scalloped areas that are called

cirques and the cirques are separate from one another by a

knife point edge generally that called an arête,

so it goes cirque, cirque and in between is the arête.

Those cirques are really the birthplace of the glacier and

when you're in the high mountain areas that's where the

continuation of snow is really going to feed the glaciers,

as they tend to move down the valley

and continually carve out those cirques.

Narrator: There is perhaps no better place in the continental

United States to view cirques and the pyramid-shaped peaks

called glacial horns, than in the Grand Teton Range.

Oddly, the Rockies disappear as one enters

Yellowstone National Park.

The reason is a bizarre geological feature

known as a hotspot.

American soil is home to three hotspots.

One rests below Flagstaff Arizona and has been quiescent

for thousands of years.

The second created the Hawaiian Islands and is actively spewing

lava on the largest of the islands:

the big island of Hawaii.

The third now sits below Yellowstone National Park.

What is a hot spot?

(Ted) A hotspot is a plume of molten magma from deep within

the mantel, which is sort of like a candle that's flickering

beneath the earth's crust.

And it stays stationary, and the crust itself is moving

over top of that feature.

And from time to time over the last 20 million years,

there have been these enormous eruptions that have occurred as

a result of that mantel plume.

The most recent of those events

is beneath Yellowstone National Park.

It happened only 600 thousand years ago.

Narrator: The effects of what is now called the Yellowstone

hotspot have been moving in a southwesterly direction at a

rate of about 1 inch per year.

Starting near the Oregon-Idaho border it has produced a

dramatic trail of volcanic effects...

wiping out everything in its path.

15 to 20 massive eruptions have left behind a series of immense

craters that dot the landscape from its origin...

through Idaho's Snake River Basin...

and on into Yellowstone National Park.

A hotspot is clearly one of the most powerful

forces in nature...

powerful enough to swallow up a vast

stretch of the Rocky Mountains.

(Jennifer) There were a lot of mountains when Yellowstone,

before there were the caldera eruptions,

there were chains of mountains that ran through the whole park

and as the caldera, after the caldera exploded and collapsed

in on itself, it basically swallowed up part of those

mountain systems and as the lava filled in it built up a high

plateau, so you'll see different mountain ranges radiating out of

Yellowstone but the middle part with out mountains has a built

up plateau from those lava eruptions.

Narrator: Lava that could erupt again at any time.

Here on the map is the edge of the caldera...

the edge of the Yellowstone Volcano.

Multiple fault lines across the region make it earthquake prone.

(Jennifer) Yellowstone is very geologically active,

not just with volcanic activity but there's

a lot of ground movement here.

We get many earthquakes, about one thousand to three thousand

earthquake tremors per year and most of those cannot be felt.

Narrator: But it's the heat produced by the hotspot that is

today generating Yellowstone's thousands of thermal features.

(Jennifer) When people come to Yellowstone they see a great

variety of hot springs and geysers.

Yellowstone is home to more than

ten thousand hydrothermal features.

Hydrothermal means water and heat together and so we have hot

springs, geysers, mud pots and fume roles.

A fume role is a hot steam vent a hot spring is a hot pool of

water and geysers are where the hot spring erupts out of the

ground shooting water at various heights.

As you drive around Yellowstone

you see a great variety of those.

The difference between the hot springs and the geysers is that

a hot spring is relatively calm, it might be bubbling a little

bit from the heat or gas bubbles and a geyser has a different

kind of plumbing system, it has a constriction under ground that

acts as kind of a stopper as the pressure builds up underneath it

and as the little bit of pressure is released the water

and gas erupts out in an eruption,

so the basic difference is the plumbing system between the two,

although some hot springs are not hot enough

to erupt as a geyser.

Narrator: There are a dozen or so thermal basins that are

readily accessible to the Yellowstone visitor.

Narrator: Yellowstone National Park has over half of the

world's geysers, and most of them are located

in the Upper Geyser Basin.

This remarkable one square mile area contains at least 150 of

these hydrothermal wonders, making it the most densely

concentrated geyser region in the world.

Three major geysers - Grand...

Castle...

and Old Faithful are located here.

Each day, during the high season,

thousands of visitors walk from the parking lot to the circular

boardwalk to experience an

Old Faithful eruption for themselves.

Their anticipation is palpable...

as there are many false starts.

(Jennifer) Old Faithful is rather predictable

which is unusual.

Possibly it's plumbing system is segregated from other acting

features, a lot of underground plumbing the cracks and fissures

that plump individual geysers are connected to each other,

so if you have one that has no regular pattern it can affect

the pattern of the other, and perhaps Old Faithful's plumbing

system is segregated from other active features and that makes

it very regular.

Narrator: Located about a mile north of the Old Faithful area,

is Black Sand Basin.

Some of the most colorful hydrothermal features in the

park abound here.

Originally it was called the Emerald Group, because of the

amazing jewel like hot springs on display here.

But its name changed when tourists began calling it Black

Sand Basin because of the small fragments of obsidian sand that

covers portions of the basin.

A beautifully placed network of boardwalks takes the visitors up

close and personal with its plethora

of hot springs and geysers.

Emerald Pool is the most colorful and famous

of Black Sand Basin's features.

The clear water reflects the blues but absorbs the other hues

of the color spectrum, and the combination produces its deep

emerald green color.

The stunning outer ring is a fringe of yellow and orange.

Here its much lower temperature, 154.6 degrees Fahrenheit,

has allowed yellow bacteria and algae

to grow on the lining of the pool.

Opalescent Pool is a cooler thermal pool.

Early in its history Opalescent was a boiling spring,

surrounded by smaller springs.

However, by the early 1950s it was nearly a dry pool.

Then Spouter Geyser began erupting,

and its run-off brought Opalescent Pool back to life.

Constantly bubbling, Cliff Geyser is named for its

cliff-like wall of geyserite formed around the crater and for

its location on the edge of Iron Spring Creek.

This geyser, like most geysers in the park,

is irregular in its eruptions.

Interestingly, when the geyser is active,

there are usually one or two eruptions a day.

But there are also periods of dormancy

lasting weeks and even years.

There are a couple of aptly named little geyser pools that

constantly bubble and spew to the delight of visitors.

The river running through this area is Iron Spring Creek.

It is as colorful as the hot springs.

Indeed like so many of the thermal areas the hot waters

eventually end up in one of the rivers or creeks...

Creating glorious mystical experiences.

North of Black Sand Basin is Midway Geyser Basin...

the basin that contains the Grand Prismatic Pool.

English short story writer Rudyard Kipling,

who visited Yellowstone in 1889, immortalized this basin by

referring to it as "Hell's Half Acre."

Even today it is still remembered by that name.

Despite its small size, Midway possesses two of the largest

hot springs in the world.

Grand Prismatic Spring, nearly 370 feet in diameter, sits upon

a large mound surrounded by small step-like terraces.

(Jennifer) The hot springs when you come to Yellowstone,

you'll notice that they are very colorful looking.

You'll often see a blue beautiful hot spring and around

the edges you'll start to get this variety of colors.

For example Grand Prismatic is one of the biggest hot springs.

It has a big beautiful blue pool and near the very edges is a

light yellow and as the water flows away and cools you'll

start to get some pail oranges, then the darker oranges,

browns and greens.

Those are little micro habitats for a micro organism so

organisms that you wouldn't even be able to see with the naked

eye you can see because there are so many of them inhabiting

the different temperatures of water that are flowing

out of the hot springs.

Some of these microorganisms are able to

withstand very hot temperatures.

That pail yellow along the edge of Grand Prismatic Springs is

probably about 165 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit and those

organisms often that inhabit the hottest waters are often a pale

yellow and feed on sulfur, so if you drive around Yellowstone and

you smell that rotten egg smell it's sulfur coming out of the

hot springs and geysers.

It doesn't seem very appetizing to us but to those

microorganisms it's food.

As the water cools you start to get some of the photosynthetic

organisms so the cyanobacteria.

Those organisms are able to capture energy from the sun much

like plants do and to create their own food, and in turn

those microorganisms become part of a little miniature ecosystem.

The photosynthetic bacteria might be grazed upon

by ephedra flies.

They're all little black flies you'd see maybe walking around

the surface of the cooler parts of the water.

Sometimes you'll even see the pinkish color of the egg mounds

that are left behind by the ephedra flies right inside the

hot spring waters, so they're grazing on cyanobacteria kind of

like elk graze on grass, and there's predators that wonder in

and out of those hot spring areas,

like spiders will crawl across the water looking for the

ephedra flies and a killdeer bird might go along and peck off

the ephedra flies and the spiders.

Narrator: Greeting the visitors arriving from Cody to the east

is Black Dragon's Cauldron.

This roiling cauldron is a relatively new feature...

Exploding from its subterranean lair in 1948.

The area is eerily intriguing.

Nearby is the famous Dragon's Mouth Spring.

The rhythmic belching of steam and the flashing tongue of water

give the Dragon's Mouth Spring its name.

At the top of the lower loop road is one of the most

beautiful thermal basins in the park.

Because of the long hike, many visitors often bypass the

magnificent Artist Paint Pots.

Nowhere is there such a rich conflagration of color.

(Jennifer) My other favorite is the Artist Paint Pots.

It has the gooey blurpy mud pots and then it also has the

beautiful blue pools.

Narrator: Mud pots form when hot water is limited and hydrogen

sulfide gas is present...

it's the gas that emits the

"rotten egg" smell common to thermal areas.

As a result of these conditions, sulfuric acid is generated,

dissolving the surrounding rock

into fine particles of silica and clay.

They mix with what little water there is to form the seething

and bubbling mud pots seen here.

But it is from the high point of the trail that one can see the

swirling colors of an Artist Paint Pot.

[montage]

Near the north entrance to the park and outside of the

Yellowstone Caldera is a remarkable thermal area...

a thermal area not set in volcanic rhyolite

but in sedimentary limestone.

President of "Yellowstone Country Guardians"

and former park ranger Mike Leach

leads tours of this famous thermal feature.

(Mike) Welcome to the Mammoth Hot Springs

here in Yellowstone National Park.

This is a very historic region, the first hotel in Yellowstone

National Park was built at the foot of the hot springs here and

it's also home to historic Fort Yellowstone.

The U.S. Cavalry came to Yellowstone in August of 1886

when 50 members of Company M marched down Fort Custer Montana

territory with Captain Moses Harris

after being asked by the Department of the

Interior to come and help facilitate the protection of

Yellowstone National Park.

It was features like Mammoth that were actually being

degraded by many entrepreneurs and visitors who were curious

about the wonders of this region.

While many people think of wildlife when they have images

of Yellowstone today: grizzly bears, wolves, bison.

It's important to remember that the boundaries were drawn up in

1872 around Yellowstone National Park as the world's first

national park in hopes of keeping all the geothermal

features and scenic wonders in tact.

It really wasn't the purpose of Yellowstone's establishment to

protect the wildlife as much as it was to protect the scenic

wonders and incredible thermal features,

and well certainly those down in the Norris area can argue why

that is such a dynamic and extreme environment,

as someone who had the opportunity to work as a ranger

naturalist here in Mammoth for seven years I will always argue

that this is one of the most dynamic geological regions on

our planet I always like to say that Yellowstone is not a place

but a process and I don't think any one thermal basin really

represents that and demonstrates that more than Mammoth Hot

Springs, so here we are in the vicinity of Palette Spring.

This is certainly one of the most dynamic

we have in the region.

It's constantly changing.

You can look up here and see some of these

really unique features.

We have four different types of thermal features

in Yellowstone National Park.

We have hot springs, geysers, fume roles and mud pots.

All you're going to see here at Mammoth are the hot springs but

they're some of the most spectacular hot springs that

this world has to offer.

While there's over 10 thousand thermal feature in Yellowstone

National Park, Mammoth and in particular Palette is certainly

one of the more well known, so if you look up top you'll see

where the water comes out of the vent and as that flows over

you'll have a feature that we like to call a pulpit and then

hanging off of that pulpit you'll see stalactites or fluted

columns much like you'd see in a cave and many people like to

describe this as an inside out cave that changes very rapidly,

and then you'll get those unique cascading features when there's

something trying to displace the flow of the water

like one of these trees.

Often you'll start to get the build up of a terrace formation

those stair step like, wedding cake style formations that make

this area so unique and then you'll get down into here and

you'll get some of these really interesting mini terraces or

scalloping effects, but let's talk a little bit about how this

forms and really why this area is so dynamic.

If you were to look up here at Mount Everts,

Mount Everts was once underwater,

approximately 60 to 120 million years ago.

This region was largely sculpted by the absaroka volcanic period

that was about 50 million years ago,

but roughly 60 to 120 million years ago there was an inland

ocean here in this region and when that ocean receded it

left foils, shells and crustaceans that formed a layer

of limestone over a thousand feet thick.

We're sitting on a hot spot here in Yellowstone and the

definition of a hot spot is a plume of magma

very close to the earth's surface.

Where most people throughout North America live that magma

will be 21 to 50 miles beneath the earth's surface,

here it's three to seven miles beneath the earth's surface,

beneath the crust and so that what creates all this dynamic

thermal activity here.

We have a lot of snow.

You can see anytime you visit Yellowstone it's a smart to

bring an umbrella and some rain gear and certainly some warm

clothes because we're at over 6500 feet in elevation right now

and much of the Yellowstone Plateau is at over 7000 feet in

elevation and so the weather can change drastically,

but we have a lot of snowfall in fact we're sitting at about 226%

of our annual snowfall on the upper Yellowstone River drainage

and while most of that snow will work it's way into the river

systems and we'll get spring run off and we'll have this scouring

effect of this regions most powerful erosive process which

is the water, the rivers coursing throughout this region.

Some of that will work its way into the ground water,

so in this region where you have the several most likely streams

and channels working their way through the limestone,

that water is heated up by the magma and when that magma heats

the water the water wants to rise,

but not only does the magma send up heat but it also send up

gasses and the most important of the gasses in the Mammoth region

is carbon dioxide because when the carbon dioxide mixes with

the water it forms a week acidic solution,

a carbonic acid, so now as the water is rising through the

cracks and fissures in the limestone,

it's eating away at that limestone and carrying it in

solution form until it reaches the earth's surface.

If you were to walk up to the vent here at any of these

springs like High Manor Palette Spring you would see what looks

like boiling water.

The boiling temperature at this elevation is approximately 199

degrees, the higher in elevation the lower the temperature in

terms of your boiling point, so what you're seeing up there is

actually gasses being released.

You'll smell a little of that hydrogen sulfide.

We certainly don't have the concentration of hydrogen

sulfide you'd see throughout some of the other thermal areas,

the geyser basins where they have a compact center where

rhyolite is the bedrock thus a presence of sulfur and hydrogen

sulfide, but the carbon dioxide is released.

Once the carbon dioxide is released the bond is broken and

the water can no longer hold the limestone in solution form and

thus it precipitates out so where ever you see water flowing

here, it's actively participating limestone.

We used to say that we could see a growth of about eight to

twelve inches in a one-year time period but in my last year

rangering here in 2007 we documented a growth at Palette

Spring of over a meter, and so that's one of the things that

makes this region so dynamic.

As this continues to grow it can either cap itself off or plug

it's own plumbing system and since this water is all coming

from one source and looking for the path of least resistance,

if it can't come out of a spring where it's come out in some

cases for decades, it'll come out somewhere else,

so we're always asked here at the Mammoth Hot Springs,

"Why are the springs drying up?"

because people remember springs like Minerva Terrace and when it

was in it's heyday it looked like this whole hill was active,

but we believe the water level stays relatively constant in

this region, it's just always changing,

so when you visit the Mammoth Hot Springs take some pictures

some of these springs that are very dynamic and active now

because when you come back 20-25 years from now,

when you come back three months from now it could be dry.

A dry area could be active, this was an area that was never

active during my time from 2002 to 2007 working as a ranger up

here, and so it just speaks to the dynamic nature

of the Mammoth Hot Springs.

The colors here are quite unique.

When you travel around Yellowstone National Park and

you visit the thermal areas most of the colors you're going to

see are similar to what you see here at Mammoth but you'll also

see a lot of iron oxides and minerals.

The mineral here is calcium carbonate or travertine,

its deposited limestone that's the white and grey stuff the

grey stuff is the weathered limestone,

but all the colors you're seeing here: the yellows,

the oranges, the greens they are what we call thermophiles.

They're thermophilic meaning heat-loving microorganisms

primarily bacteria and algae that need the heat and need the

water to survive, and so you can see a lot about the dynamic

nature of this region by looking at the colors because typically

the hotter the water the lighter the colors.

You can see the main run off channels there are white,

there are most likely organisms living in that water but they're

so microscopic we're not seeing their pigments and then the

further you get from that you'll get into some of these darker

colors: the algaes, the browns, the greens.

Another thing that's really dynamic about this mammoth area

is you can look at and area, like you see right up to the

left, where there's no water flowing but there's color.

If there is stark white rock with no water flowing that

typically tells you that there's been water flowing sometime in

the last year to year and a half,

because after about a year and a half the rock will begin to

weather and turn gray, but if you see colors what you're

looking at there is essentially dead or dying thermophiles

because they need the heat, they need the water,

the water's not flowing there and so you're looking at their

pigment and if you see that pigment,

and it's bright, that can tell you that there's been water

flowing sometime, most likely in the last two weeks,

and so even as an amateur naturalist you can come here to

Yellowstone, visit the Mammoth Hot Springs and certainly begin

to experience the wonders of this incredibly dynamic area and

it really speaks to the enigmatic and mysterious heart

of this wild landscape.

Narrator: With a thermal history similar to Mammoth Hot Springs,

yet not a thermal area, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

would qualify as a national park in itself.

(Jennifer) In the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone that water

that the Yellowstone River is flowing through is rhyolite that

has been decayed by thermal activity underneath,

so steam and heat are percolating through that

rhyolite, it's kind of softening the rock and as the river flows

through it, it is more easily cut

and quickly erodes into the Steep Wall Canyons.

(Mike) I certainly would not make a visit to Yellowstone

National Park or the Yellowstone ecosystem without

stopping at Artist Point.

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone I firmly believe is

one of the most inspiring and remarkable landscapes we have in

the northern Rockies.

To see that canyon that is been created over the coarse of the

last 480 thousand years.

With all the vibrant colors you're essentially looking at

canyon, a landscape that is rusted.

You're seeing the oxidation of the iron

and the colors are brilliant.

The sulfur, that canyon has been hydrothermally altered and thus

allowed the most powerful and erosive force we have in this

ecosystem, water and there's no more powerful source of water

then the Yellowstone River, the longest free flowing river in

the lower 48 to just create that incredible canyon

with the 308 foot plunge fall.

Narrator: Traveling throughout Yellowstone Country,

at any moment one can have a personal

and unique animal experience...

spot a bushy marmot scurrying across the hillside...

hear the call of the Sandhill Crane...

encounter a Black Bear...

or come across migratory pronghorns

in the lush Lamar Valley.

That is the promise of wild Yellowstone...

the promise of the Yellowstone experience.

(Mike) Yellowstone National Park is the heartbeat of the greater

Yellowstone ecosystem, but Yellowstone National Park itself

as large as it is at roughly 2.2 million acres in size,

it's approximately 3,472 square miles,

larger that the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined,

is not an intact ecosystem in and of itself.

The greater Yellowstone ecosystem or the greater

Yellowstone area we love to call Yellowstone Country,

which includes countless communities,

six national forests, portions of three states,

two national parks it adds up to over 18 million acres and that's

what really makes this region so unique.

Yellowstone National Park in and of itself means very little

without the land surrounding Yellowstone.

It certainly is the lifeblood of the region but with grizzly

bears, bison, wolves with everything that makes this place

so unique, Yellowstone National Park can't support a viable

population of those animals, so for instance with the grizzly

bear and adult male grizzly bear can have an average home range

between 800 and two thousand square miles.

Narrator: The highlight of each spring in Yellowstone country is

to see a mother grizzly emerge from her winter's den

with her playful cub in tow.

(Mike) The grizzly bear, which I thing really speaks to the wild

heart of Yellowstone.

I personally as a former bear education ranger in Yellowstone

don't believe there is a more authentic representation of

wildness in the lower 48 than the grizzly and they've been

reduced to less than two percent of there historic

range in the lower 48.

Where there was once upwards of 50 thousand grizzly bears in the

1800s there's approximately 14 to 15 hundred left in the lower

48 and they reside for the most part in two distinct

populations, the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem

outside of Glacier National Park and the Greater Yellowstone

Ecosystem, so this place is truly remarkable.

It's home to one of the last genetically pure continually

free ranging wild bison population.

The story of the bison here is one that is treasured by people

from all throughout the west and all over the globe.

To go out there and see on a day like today in June where you

have all the succulents and fecundity returning to the

ecosystem and to see a burnt orange bison calf out there

spastically frolicking among the grasses is just,

it's unique to Yellowstone.

The return of the wolf in 1995 speaks to the wild heart of this

region, and so it really is a place like no other when it

comes to the lower 48 states because it is so intact

ecologically and biologically.

Narrator: It is also home to North America's largest members

of the deer family...

elk...

and moose.

Behind only the bison, the moose is the second largest land

animal in North America.

This majestic, if somewhat ungainly appearing,

1500 pound giant is the icon of Grand Teton National Park and

one of the main reasons tourists flock to the park each year.

Nowhere else is there a better chance of seeing one of these

magnificent solitary creatures.

Moose favor damp areas of brushy vegetation...

such as that along the Snake River habitat.

There is not a more surprising sight than a bull moose with a

full rack of antlers...

No more surprising sight...

unless it is a newborn elk calf lying under an SUV in one of

Yellowstone's campgrounds.

Elk are the second largest antlered animals in the world,

only moose are larger.

Bull elk are four and a half to five feet tall at the shoulder

and weigh between 550 and 800 pounds.

Cow elk weigh from 450 to 600 pounds.

While most members of the deer family are primarily browsers

feeding on twigs and leaves of shrubs and trees,

elk are both browsers and grazers,

feeding extensively on grasses and forbs, as well as shrubs.

An astonishing 30,000 elk from 7 to 8 different herds

summer in Yellowstone...

and approximately 15,000 to 22,000 winter in the park...

while another 7,500 elk winter around

Grand Teton National Park.

Winter is the longest and most difficult time for many of

Yellowstone country's elk

and many of its non-migratory animals.

Indeed, winter lasts more than half the year.

It isn't until sometime in late May, that early wildflowers

herald the arrival of spring in Yellowstone.

It is also the time of calving in the park.

[montage]

Yellowstone Lake's winter ice finally breaks up...

Rushing streams and rivers carry the snow melt out of the park on

its long journey to the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Then comes the high season for tourism.

(Jennifer) Then summer comes to Yellowstone,

things start to get a little dryer a little warmer.

The animals change where they graze.

As the lower elevations dry up the grasses brown up and so at

the higher elevations where it hasn't gotten as warm or hot the

grasses might be a little more lush and green and so the

animals will move up in elevation where it's a little

cooler, the grasses are a little greener and that's often when

some of the mating seasons start to kick in as the summer

progresses, so in august the bison will start their rut.

You'll see big bull bison charging at each other

and doing battle.

They'll be rolling in the dirt and kicking up dust and

competing for the females.

Narrator: The arrival of fall brings cool crisp days...

the parks' deciduous trees turn their vivid fall colors...

and the mist from the hundreds of hot springs

becomes more robust.

By November winter returns...

Whatever the season, there is no place like Yellowstone country.

(Mike) I think when people come to Yellowstone

they come here to get unplugged.

They come here to experience something their grandparents

experienced, to experience something that I think is in our

blood that's something important for us on a spiritual level.

I think that places like Yellowstone help to provide some

level of spiritual sustenance.

I think there are tangibles here and then there are the

intangibles and the intangibles I think are one of the things

that make Yellowstone such a remarkable landscape.

This is a place that deeply inspires people.

It's a place that people love, a place that people are moved by

and I think when people visit this region and when they come

to the Yellowstone ecosystem as a whole but certainly to

Yellowstone National Park in many ways they're not only,

they're not really getting unplugged,

they're plugging into something deeply important to all of us

who have the opportunity to visit these wild western

landscapes and Yellowstone I believe

is in a class all of it's own.