Yellowstone National Park pendant
The second National Park inspired necklace I created was inspired by Yellowstone. I had so much fun creating it. Those that have been can most likely see the mineral springs inspiration.
Yellowstone became our first National Park in 1872, although the National Park Service wasn't established until 1916. In the 1870s there were numerous articles written about the nature and wilderness in the west by the likes of John Muir and John Wesley Powell to name just a couple. The park was created through the efforts of Ferdinand Hayden's expedition, artists like Thomas Moran and William Henry Jackson, and congressional support, culminating in President Ulysses S Grant signing the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act. Yellowstone was formed by a massive volcanic eruption 631,000 years ago. The caldera is 30 x 45 miles wide. The geysers and hot springs show how active it still is. Occasionally an article is written about the destruction that the eruption caused and if it happened today how far and wide the ash would go. It's mind blowing.
Grand Prismatic Pool in Yellowstone 2006; photo by NPS/Jim Peaco
I didn't get to see it before the big fire of 1988, which damaged about 36% of the park. Although the scars were there it was magnificent. We saw herds of buffalo in the meadows and walking along the road. There weren't as many elk sightings as I'd hoped, but did catch a couple. Old Faithful did not disappoint, but the mineral springs bubbling and steaming and portraying numerous colors captured my imagination.
We went in September totally unprepared for what could happen in Montana that time of year. I now know after living in neighboring Idaho that the saying that summer is July and August and the rest is winter in Montana can be true some years. We drove into the park late afternoon in sunshine and the next morning woke up buried in snow. We couldn't get our car out so walked through the snow in autumn clothing to the lodge for meals and played cards, read and slept the day away in our cabin. The next morning it was sunny again. They'd cleared the roads the day before, but it had warmed up enough to melt most of it. Although we lost a day we hit every spot we wanted to albeit not spending as much time as we would've liked.
View from our cabin's picture window
The one manmade object within the park I'd recommend is the Old Faithful Inn. It was built in 1903-04 and designed by Robert Reamer. It's the largest log structure in the world. It's magical.
“The parks do not belong to one state or to one section…. The Yosemite, the Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon are national properties in which every citizen has a vested interest; they belong as much to the man of Massachusetts, of Michigan, of Florida, as they do to the people of California, of Wyoming, and of Arizona.”
Stephen T. Mather, NPS Director, 1917-1929
