Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1920-09-07
X STILL kXR liked Photo by .SXL-ek

at Norris, and at Thumb the hot water has
brought to the surface quantities of white MIN
eral deposits which build terraces of beautifully
incrusted basins high up into the air. often en-
quilting trees of considerable size. Over the edges
of these carved basins pOurs the hot water. MI
croscopc plants called aigae grow on the edges
and sides of these basins, painting them hues or
red and pink and blush gray, which glow bril-
iiantly. At many other points lesser hot springs
occur, introducing strange, almost uncanny. ele-
mems into wooded and otherwise quite norman
landscapes.
The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone affords
a spectacle worthy of national park were there
no geysers. Standing upon Inspiration Point
which pushes out almost Ito the center OF the can
yon, one seems to look almost vertically down
upon the foaming Yellowstone river To the south
a waterfall twice the height of Niagara rushes
seemingly out of the pine-clad hills and pours
downward to be lost again in green. From thar
point two three miles to where you stand ana
beneath you wdenS out the most glorious kaieldo-
scope of color you will ever see in nature. The
steep slopes dropping either side 1000 feet and
more from the pinetOpped levels above, are incon-
ceivaby carved and fretted by the frost and the
erosion of the ages.
The fossil forests of the Yellowstone National
park cover an extensive area in the northern por-
ton of the park, being especially abundant along
the west side of Lamar river for about 20 miles
above it's junction with the Yellowstone one
traversing the valley of the Lamar river may see
at many places numerous upright fossil trunks IN
the faces of nearly vertical walls. These trunks
hot all at particular level but occur at trreg
ular heights; in fact a section cut down through
these 1000 feet of beds would disclose success
sion of fossil forests. That is to say after the
first forest grew and was entOmbed, there was
time without volcanic Outburst-a period long
enough to permit a second forest to grow above
the first. This in turn covered by volcanic
material and preserved. to be followed again by
period of quiet. and these less regular al
formations of volcanism and forest growth contin-
ued throughout the time the beds were in process
of formation
The Yellowstone National park is the largest
and most successful wild animal refuge in the
world 1t is also, for this reason, the best and
most accessible field for nature study. It's $500
square miles of mountains and valleys remain
nearly as nature made them, for the 200 miles of
roads and the four hotels and many camps are as
nothing in this immense wilderness. No tree has
been cut except when absolutely necessary for
road or trail camp No herds invade its val
leys. Visitors for the most part keep to the beat
en- road and the wild animals have learned in the
years that they mean them no harm. To be sure
they are always seen by the people in the
automobile stages which whir from point to point
daily during the season but the quiet watcher on
the trails may deer and bear and elk and an,
telope to his hearts content, and he may
mountain sheep, moose, and bison by journeyng
on foot by horseback into their distant retreats
1t is an excellent bird preserve also; 200 spe-
cies live natural, undsturbed lives. Eagles
found among the crags
Trout fishing in Yellowstone waters is unex-
celled. All three of the great watersheds abound
in trout, which often attain large size Yellow
stone lake is the home of large trout, which are
taken freely from boats and the Yellowstone riv-
err and its tributaries yield excellent catches the
skillfu angler
The criticism often made by persons who have
visited granite countries that the Yellowstone re-
gion lacks the supreme grandeur of some others
of our national parks will TO have weight
when the magnificent Teton mountains just south
of the southern boundary added to the park.
These mountains begin at the foot of the Pitch
stone plateau a mile two below the southern
gateway and extend south and west. They bor-
der Jackson lake on its west side rising rapidly
in a series of remarkably toohed and jagged peaks
until they reach sublime climax 80 miles south
of the park. in the Grand Teton, which rises ca
! thedra-ike to altitude of 1871 feet.
These amazing mountains are. from their ma
ture. component part of the Yellowstone Ma
tonal park. whose gamut of majestic scenery they
within its original boundaries had their supreme
magnihcence been then appreciated. Already Vel.
lowstone visitors have claimed it and automobile
stages run to Moran and back regular schedule
In time, doubt part of it will beaded formally
TO the park territory.