Our Colorful World: Yellowstone

[music] [music] Yellowstone, the oldest and largest of our national parks, is located mainly in the northwestern corner of Wyoming. It is about as big as the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. There are five such entrances giving access from Montana and Idaho as well as from Wyoming. Over 350 m of automobile roads in the park and about 900 m of trails lead to all principal points of interest. From this southern entrance, we drive north of the shores of Yellowstone Lake, covering an area of almost 90,000 acres. A nesting colony of several hundred white pelicans is located on Molly Island in the southern arm of the lake. They seem rather clumsy on land, but once they get into the air, no bird can equal them in efficiency and grace. Visitors are not allowed to disturb the breeding grounds, for any sudden excitement might drive the old birds to flight and cause breakage or sun cooking of the eggs and injury to the young birds. Among their other functions, our national parks serve as vast game refugees, and it they draw naturalists from museums and schools everywhere to study the birds and animals in their natural state. The nest of the grie looks just like a little top dressing of reeds on a hummock, entirely surrounded by water. But when we look closely, we discover that the mother grieve has carefully put a covering of reads over the eggs to shade them from the sun and to hide them from marauders. The mother bird will not come back as long as people are poking around or home this way. So, we put up a rough blind right out in the water and wait inside, out of sight, until the weary, frightened bird decides to come back within range of our camera. She finally comes and dives back under the water again and again, very uncertain she is, until finally her mother instinct outweighs her fears. Back up on the nest she goes, carefully uncovering the eggs and then settles down once more to the serious business of raising a family. The photographers spend many uncomfortable hours in this wet blind to get these pictures, but at last they are rewarded. In due time, the young greavves pick their way out of the shell and they blink at their new world. Few youngsters are better fitted for life than these. They can swim almost from the very first minute of their lives. Soon, with a few lessons from mother, they'll be champion divers as well. The yellow-headed blackbird is next on our visiting list. No, the birds didn't put up the sign, but they don't seem to mind it or are blind in front of their nest. The mother bird is a rich plain brown, but the father, he has a bright yellow head and neck. He makes a handsome picture as he does his full share of feeding the hungry babies. His cousin, the redwing blackbird, keeps house nearby in very much the same style. Here, the mother is speckled while the father wears bright red orange epolettes on his wings. The stately and beautiful Canada goose feels very much at home in this protected refuge. Quiet, shady lakes back off the main path of travel are their favorite haunts. One of the most breathtaking of the many marvels in this wonderland of nature is the brilliant Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. The stone itself is not really yellow, but for a stretch of some 3 mi of its total length of 20 m, the canyon has taken on this wondrously rich, warm, golden shade as a result of fumes rising from hot springs deep below the surface, acting on the oxides in the originally dark gray riolyte rock. At this point, the Yellowstone River gallops wildly through its golden prison, jumping over two great cliffs. the first 109 ft high and the second 308 ft. They are called the upper and lower falls respectively. And it's just a little confusing to try to remember that because the lower fall is almost three times as high as the upper fall, the upper fall is really quite a bit lower than the lower fall. You try to figure that out. The sides of the canyon walls are rough, tall, sheer pinnacles, often crowned with the nest of the American osprey, sometimes called the fish eagle. Usually, one has to look up to see an eagle. Here, you can look down into their nests. Along the banks of the rushing streams, we also see the lively water oozer, a champion fisherman for his size, and a clever builder who keeps his nest dry by putting the only doorway right up through his basement floor. Credit for the gorgeous coloring of the hot springs and terraces of Yellowstone goes to a very primitive form of plant life, the algae. Certain algae that live only in warm, limey waters thrive here, and the various terraces and pools benefit by some of the most lovely color effects known to the sight of man. This water is heated by boiling lava a mile or more beneath the surface and it rises into such pools through any available opening. But where a layer of hard rock bars the way, a terrific steam pressure explode the powerful column of hot water up through narrow vent holes and we have a geyser instead of a pool. Most famous of Yellowstone's 3,000 pools and geysers's old faithful. At intervals of about an hour, a great column of hot water and steam explodes 150 ft or more into the air. One of the most spectacular sights on Earth. Always the same, yet always different as the hours and the weather change its hue. A very delicate balance of natural forces determines whether a volcanic vent will erupt as a geyser or flow as a pool. Careless dropping of obstructions into holes or attempts to pipe off a hot water supply or even the use of soap in the pools have changed geysers into pools and pools into geysers. Park visitors really should be satisfied to enjoy their great heritage as they find it. Any attempt to feed a geyser or to feed a bear for that matter is more than likely to cause trouble. Never forget that the bear is a wild animal. A bear in camp raiding garbage cans or stealing your food supplies is not a pretty sight. There are a lot of signs warning people not to feed the bears, but the bears can't read, and it seems that many people just won't. All along the road, when people stop to feed and photograph the hold up bears, they seldom realize the dangers they run until it is too late. Hundreds of people are bitten and scratched by bears in our national park each year. And it's always the fault of a human, never the fault of the bear. To see the bear at his best, you really have to get out into the woods. There he is, living mainly on berries and other wild plant food. Of course, he can be seen in safety also at the feeding pits, carefully regulated by the National Park Service rangers to provide a maximum protection for the visitor and something like an even break for the hungry bear. Even the grizzlies go about their own business if they're left alone. They pay no attention to these goss that flock in to share their salad. Here is the most dangerous of all situations. Never under any circumstances get between a mother bear and her cub. She'll not even let another bear, especially a male bear, do that. Usually, the bear has only one cub each year. But twins are not uncommon, and there are cases of triplets. The herds of bison or buffalo as they're popularly called are well worth a visit. Once these animals practically covered our great plains and their meat and hides were of great importance to the settlers of the west and of the Indians too who were there before them. The great beasts are generally as peaceful as the domestic cattle to whom they're related and they tend strictly to their own business as long as they are not frightened or sharply disturbed. Another herd of great interest that enjoys protection in Yellowstone Park is that of the prongghorn antelope. These graceful creatures was threatened with extinction not merely by hunters but by constant encroachment on their grazing areas by cattle and sheep. In the national park, this herd is protected. Hardest of all for the visitor to see in a casual trip through the park, unless he's very lucky indeed, is the great American moose. Our photographers had to work to get these pictures, and their taking was not without its element of danger. The moose is the monarch of his range, and generally he's easygoing and inoffensive as long as he's not bothered. But his great antlers, sharp hooks, and tremendous strength, make him a most dangerous enemy should he become angry. The cow and her calf feed along the banks of the stream. They can wade or swim, too, if need be. A peaceful scene and one worth all the trouble it might have been taken to see these relatively rare animals in a state of nature. So ends another day for those who hunt without guns. We have seen much by no means all of the species of wildlife Yellowstone affords. We've caught brief glimpses too of some of its other better known wonders. As the sun sets behind old faithful's glories, we look forward to other hunts on other days. Happy in the knowledge that the great animals we have shot with our cameras are still wild and free to live their allotted span and to delight other visitors with other cameras who will follow in our footsteps.