screw encouraging them! they don't always know where your peanut butter and jelly sammich ends and your hand begins!
Because of the idiot tourists that seem to think that the animals in the park are tame, The forest service in Yellowstone has now made it mandatory to stay a minimum of at least 100 yards away from all animals since three people have been killed there this year.
I remember one time as a kid riding through the park with my grandma, and to the left was the buffalo herds on the plains where everyone was looking, and to the right was a woman trying to feed a coyote from her hand!!! I screamed at her, "what are you doing?!?!". LOL. Yellowstone coyotes take a hand off if upset. LOL
Old Faithful is a geyser that shoots up water many times a day. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Faithful The water is heated by the volcano. I was only there once briefly, but I can't imagine anyone getting in any of those heated areas. I remember a strong sulfur smell.
Yes, Yellowstone sits over a spot in the Earth's crust where magma from the mantle has welled up to just underneath the surface where it heats the ground water until pressure builds up and then the steam erupts out through a hole in the ground. A geyser. No, the mudpits are sulfurous and filled with nasty natural compounds at boiling points that would take your skin off in moments. They are not something you can swim in. Don't feed the bears, and if you see one walk away calmly, do not run. If by some wierd chance it does attack you, lay down and play dead by laying facedown on the ground to protect your soft underbelly if the bear tries to roll you over, roll back onto your belly. If there is a cub nearby, definitely get out of the area.
And don't forget that Yellowstone is the worlds largest active super volcano. The caldera is something like 35 by 25 miles and has the worlds largest magma chamber. It normally blows every 600,000 years and the last eruption was 640,000 years ago which means that it is now 40,000 years overdue to blow it's top again.
I worry not about it because its one of those things that if it goes.. America won't exist anymore and much of the world will starve to death as our breadbasket is choked out by ash and debris.
How big is the volcano and what kind of damage would it cause if it erupted? You can't mean the whole country would be flooded in lava???
It's roughly 55km x 72km in width. That's just the caldera, the volcanic hole. If it goes, it'll wipe out all life around for at least several hundred km and cover the entire Middle US with thick ash. The entire continent will be thrown into chaos probably. It could be big enough to bring on nuclear winter but thats debated. The last explosion 600,000 years ago threw 1000 cubic kilometers of rock, soil and ash into the air. It'll make krakatoa look like a firecracker. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera
Jesus - and you aren't afraid of that? When do the experts reckon it'll blow again? Or does no one know?
No one knows. Could be tomorrow, could be 1000 years from now. As far as being afraid, that would be like fearing an asteroid strike. Its just one of those things.
Funny thing, when you live in the shadow of something like this you don't even think about it. You know that it could blow it's top any minute or not in your lifetime. Most folks that I have talked to about it that live here feel that if it starts to blow that they will have enough time to get away. The experts say that if it really does go full blast that everything within a one hundred mile radius will be destroyed. That means every thing, every tree, blade of grass, animals and humans to.
I wonder what the chances are of that happening. Of course, there should be a few warning signs weeks before it actually happens, though...unless that's only in the movies.
You must see the meteor Crater and the Grand canyon in Arizona. If you can see the giant redwoods in the sequoia national park! That's a BIG tree.
Giant Sequoias grow to an average of 5085 metres (160279 ft) in height and 68 metres (2026 ft) in diameter. They are positively breathtaking sights. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoiadendron#Oldest
You can drive through one? Like through the trunk? Awesome. The one in the picture is 3000 years old. Holy hell, thats one old tree!
If you want something closer to home, try Pemberton in WA: http://www.pembertonvisitor.com.au/pages/pembertons-climbing-trees/ "The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree in the Warren National Park is a 15 minute drive from the Pemberton township. This is one of three fire lookout trees open to the public in the Pemberton area. It was pegged in 1988 as part of Australia's bicentennial celebrations. It is 75m tall." "Some of the tallest hardwood trees in the world grow in this area, and the tallest tree felled here was 104 metres high." http://www.hsptravel.com.au/articles/the-tall-trees-of-pemberton-western-australia.html
We do have some amazing trees here, I remember seeing one many years ago, can't remember where it was, though. There were two, with a wooden bridge strung between them. You climbed up a ladder which had been nailed into one of the trees and crossed the bridge, then climbed down the other side. Both trees were so high you couldn't see the top!
I live in So Cal in the mountains, but I took a sight seeing trip up the coast (Hwy101). I detoured to go through Sequoia National Park, it was well worth it. http://www.nps.gov/seki/index.htm Check out the photo/multimedia page.
^my goodness! I'm not sure if I like the idea of cutting up a tree though...but being able to drive a car through it is pretty freaking cool. The links says something about wilderness trails....is that like with a tour guide? I am loving the pics taken from above the treeline. I am really wanting to see that for myself. Breathtakingly amazing!! These parks are in which state? The bottom of the page says California, but I'm not sure about that...
