Here, suddenly, was the America of Catlin and Moran. This road, unposted with any sort of warning, had veered out of the 20th century into the West of Lewis and Clark, of Crazy Horse and Custer. This was exactly the scene the Shoshone and Bannock had seen, hunting here before Columbus. I had all I could do not to cry. By noon the sun has scarcely risen to ten o'clock.
Mornings begin cool and clear.
But the low sun does its work, and by midafternoon the day is often surprisingly hot. In the sagebrush and juniper of northern Yellowstone's high desert, autumn has little noticeable effect, but down along the stream courses the cottonwoods turn yellow. The pronghorn is the fastest land animal in North America. Once it has a head start, nothing on this continent can overtake it, and it is drawn naturally to the sagebrush desert, terrain free of obstacles and cover for ambush. In the autumn sage the pronghorn stags gather small harems of females at speeds up to 40 miles per hour.