Janet Chapple - Yellowstone Treasures

To my sister, Joan Orvis, whose love and encouragement have always guided my life

(19312001)

2002, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017 by Janet Chapple, 2020 by Granite Peak Publications

23 22 21 20 1 2 3

ISBN 978-1-7331032-0-6

Library of Congress Control Number 2019948749

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication Data

provided by Five Rainbows Cataloging Services

Names: Chapple, Janet, author. | Chapple, Beth, 1964 author. | Giletti, Bruno J., author. | Sherwin, Jo-Ann, author.

Title: Yellowstone treasures : the travelers companion to the national park / Janet Chapple ; updated by Beth Chapple with geological text and advice by Bruno J. Giletti, PhD, [and] Jo-Ann Sherwin, PhD, P.G.

Description: 6th edition. | Lake Forest Park, WA : Granite Peak Publications, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019948749 (print) | ISBN 978-1-7331032-0-6 (paperback) | ISBN 978-1-7331032-1-3 (epub ebook) | ISBN 978-1-7331032-2-0 (Kindle ebook) | ISBN 978-1-7331032-3-7 (PDF)

Subjects: LCSH: Yellowstone National ParkGuidebooks. | GeologyYellowstone National Park. | Hot springsYellowstone National Park. | GeysersYellowstone National Park. | Camp sites, facilities, etc.Yellowstone National Park. | HikingYellowstone National Park. | Automobile travelGuidebooks. | BISAC: TRAVEL / United States / West / Mountain (AZ, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, UT, WY) | TRAVEL / Parks & Campgrounds. | SCIENCE / Earth Sciences / Geology. | NATURE / General.

Classification: LCC F722 .C458 2020 (print) | LCC F722 (ebook) | DDC 917.87/52dc23.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without prior written permission of the publisher, except for brief extracts for inclusion in reviews.

Although every effort has been made to ensure that the information was correct at the time of going to press, the publisher does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for any loss or damage caused by errors, omissions, misleading information, or any potential travel disruption due to labor or financial difficulty, whether such errors or omissions result from negligence, accident, or any other cause.

Park Historian Lee H. Whittlesey reviewed this book for historical accuracy.

Editor: Beth Chapple

Book designer: Alice Merrill

Cover designer: Ponderosa Pine Design, Vicky Vaughn Shea

Typesetting assistance: Marie Weiler, Jennifer Sugden, Maggie Lee

Printed in China by C&C Offset Printing Co., Ltd.

Published by Granite Peak Publications

Lake Forest Park, WA

www.yellowstonetreasures.com

Maps

Geological Figures

So she sat on, with closed eyes, and half believed herself in Wonderland, though she knew she had but to open them again and all would change to dull reality

Alices Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll, 1865

Morning sun on geyser runoff and Firehole River behind Old Faithful Geyser

Some people in our fast-paced age make Yellowstone just one stop on a whirlwind western tour. But if you can allow several days or a week or two to savor it, Yellowstone will reward you fully. This guide is intended for such relatively unhurried first-time visitors and for the many thousands of us who return to explore anew.

I am one of the fortunate few who have spent many summer months in the park, first as an impressionable small child, later as an adult who could never get enough of the Yellowstone country. My association with the park and its surrounding mountains goes back two generations to my maternal grandfather, Fred Inabnit, a Swiss native who organized hiking trips and popularized the idea of appreciating the mountainsparticularly the Beartoothsby exploring them. He spent years constructing a relief map of the Yellowstone area, now at the Museum of the Beartooths, Columbus, Montana. After his death in 1928, a mountain was named for him not far from Montanas highest mountain, Granite Peak, which he just missed conquering.

For four idyllic summers of my childhood I lived near Old Faithful Inn, where my father was transportation agent. My sister Joan and I played countless games of Parcheesi while waiting for Great Fountain Geyser to erupt. Once my parents got us out of bed late at night to see Giant Geyser play. I played hide and seek with Joan when most of Old Faithful Inns guests had left for the days excursions and Mother was rehearsing music in the lobby with the Ladies Ensemble. On rainy days, we read Frances Farnsworths Cubby in Wonderland and Cubby Returns. Sometimes we left Daddy at his favorite hole above Firehole Cascades to catch a mess of trout for supper.

Yellowstone means many things to many people: bears and bison, geysers and colorful pools, hikes and horseback rides, distant vistas and the stillness of the backcountry. It can also mean clear dry western air, spectacular sunsets, and night skies so full of stars you think youre seeing to the end of the universe. Author Owen Wister said it for me back in 1891: I have tested the power of the moon by consulting the second hand of my watch and reading a letter with rapid ease. But thats a poor mathematical way to talk or think about such magic. And all through the still air, the clean sharp odor of the sage. Not dusty, as it smells at noon, but cool, like something a fairy would give you to make you suddenly well. Nobody, nobody who lives on the Atlantic strip, has a notion of what sunrise and sunset and moonlight can be in their native land till they have come here to see.

Yellowstone Park was called Wonderland by many writers in the early days, traceable to the publication of Alices Adventures in Wonderland shortly before the park was created. Since the first Hayden Survey in 1871, scientists and other curious people have learned much about the origin of the parks wonders and how they function, but there are still countless wonders to be explained.

Visitors to Yellowstone Park now span six generations, from the explorers who braved some danger and considerable discomfort, to todays backseat youngsters with their handheld electronic games. Like so many others, my parents and sister and I in the third and fourth of those generations came with a copy of the Haynes Guide in our hands. I have followed that guides organizational plan, and I honor the memory of pioneers F. Jay and Jack E. Haynes, who, for more than seventy-five years, published their comprehensive guidebooks full of information about park features, animals, plants, and photography.

My loving gratitude goes to my three Chapple daughters, Nancy, Beth, and Karen, for the support they gave me toward initial publication of this book.