Where's Yogi?

Yogi isn't here because that was Jellostone Park, not Yellowstone. Still we're here anyway Yogi or not.
At this time of the year most of the park is still closed, the altitude means thick snow for long periods of the year, but the long north road is ploughed for visitors.
Yellowstone was the first national park created in the world. Franklin Roosevelt conceived the national park system and Yellowstone was the first to be inducted in 1872. It's also a giant volcano. It could even be the starting point of life on earth as a massive explosion from here could have changed the air content on earth to the fine balance of gases that now enables us to breath.
Just before we enter the park we drive slowly past large Buffalo grazing around in a nearby children's playground. As soon as we drive beneath the Roosevelt arch into the park we encounter plenty of Bison, or Buffalo depending on how you feel, strolling in groups along the road. We later find out that the Buffalo in Yellowstone and around the park aren't native to the area. They were brought in as the original 3 million or so Buffalo in the area were hunted with no thought that the population would die off. Genius. You can get quite close to them but it's not really advised, they may plod around like cows but they can get aggressive and are pretty speedy with it.

We also spot cow elk, it's hard not to when they gallop out in front of you as you round a blind corner.
Through the park runs the Yellowstone River, this meets Boiling River with dramatic steamy effect. It's called Boiling River for a reason. The reason Yellowstone is so popular is due to this hot stuff. People are bathing in the sulphurous water even though there's snow everywhere and I'm wrapped up in hat, coat and a scarf.
In the visitors centre is a display of stuffed animals, Americans love to shot defenceless animals to make themselves feel manly and then display their proud kill. The young deer elk is especially grim. In another room is an artist's display of paintings from the park from the late 1800's. I don't like the style but it's interesting to find out the artist was from Bolton.
Near the centre is Mammoth Hot Springs, now that's a descriptive name right there. Boiling water pours out from the earth and runs down the hill side creating levels of residue in which blue, red and green pools of water, similar to that of New Zealand, sit melting the snow around and solidifying trees in it's wake. It's a film set moment yet again.
We drive along the 56 mile road encountering bison every 5 minutes or so. I've never seen so much wildlife roaming around, it's like Knowsley Safari Park! Stag and elk are grazing on the hillsides and as we head further along the road it becomes more and more like wilderness. As the roads quieten and snow covers everything from the fields up to the bottom of mountains it feels like what I imagined Alaska to be like. Then we see some wolves in a pack running along the river's edge to confirm the view. Yellowstone is a massive place and we've only seen the top quarter of it.
The icy road runs out in the small hamlet of Cook City, not a city at all. It's blocked off from there beyond and only inhabited by snowmobilers and us in the only moving car.


Back through the park, avoiding the hoards of bison, to stop in Gardner on the outer edge just as the sun goes down. The chilly wind has picked up and blown snow across the road we came in on.


Yellowstone is without doubt stunning and we've only scratched the surface. Once the full park is open the huge lake and geysers make up the huge geothermal crater that's one of the highest visited parks in the land, but that's not for another month at least but at least we've seen something. It's thought that an volcanic eruption from this place could very well change the earth's atmosphere no matter what us mere mortals did to try and change it and unsurprisingly it's overdue another explosion.