Infos zum Yellowstone NP

Grizzlybären im Yellowstone-Park gelten nicht mehr als gefährdet

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Das US-Innenministerium will die Grizzlybären aus dem Yellowstone-Nationalpark und seiner Umgebung von der Liste der vom Aussterben bedrohten Tiere streichen. Dank der Bemühungen um den Schutz der Tiere habe sich der Bestand wieder erholt, erklärte Innenminister Ryan Zinke am Donnerstag. Demnach stieg die Zahl der Bären auf 700 - im Jahr 1975, als sie erstmals als gefährdet eingestuft wurden, waren es 136. In anderen US-Regionen sollen sie demnach geschützt bleiben.

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Man kann es nicht oft genug schreiben:

Two Visitors Injured by Bison at Mud Volcano

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· Wednesday morning, June 28, 2017, a married couple received injuries after being “butted” by a bison at Mud Volcano, just north of Lake Village in Yellowstone National Park.
· Theodore Schrader, 74, and Patsy Holmes, 72, from Heber City, Utah, were taking photographs on a boardwalk at Mud Volcano, when a bison approached them. The bison butted Mrs. Holmes, who then fell into Mr. Schrader and both individuals fell to the ground.
· Park rangers responded immediately and evacuated the couple from the trail, a quarter mile, to the road. The couple was transported to the Lake Clinic.
· Mr. Schrader had minor injuries.
· Mrs. Holmes was transported by Life Flight to Idaho Falls, Idaho. She was in stable condition.
· Citations were not issued to either individual.
· Visitors: Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are wild. When an animal is near a trail, boardwalk, parking lot, or in a developed area, give it space. Stay 25 yards (23 m) away from all large animals - bison, elk, bighorn sheep, deer, moose, and coyotes and at least 100 yards (91 m) away from bears and wolves. If need be, turn around and go the other way to avoid interacting with a wild animal in close proximity.
· This is the first confirmed incident of a bison injuring visitors in 2017.
· In 2015, five people were injured after approaching bison.

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Yellowstone National Park construction to begin July 26

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Construction crews will begin working on South Entrance Road in Yellowstone National Park beginning at the South Entrance and continuing north for 21 miles to the West Thumb intersection on July 26.
Initial work on the project known as the Pavement Preservation Yellowstone 2017 project will include truck hauling to the Lewis Lake Area via the West Entrance and survey crews working along the roadway shoulder.
Crews will begin preparing the roadway surface for micro surfacing operations by cleaning the roadway and pavement patching.
Micro surfacing is anticipated to begin the week of August 7.
Officials said travelers can expect single lane traffic and anticipate up to 30 minute delays Monday through Friday until the end of August.

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New Trail & Overlook Protect Yellowstone's Resources

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Significant resource damage and visitor safety concerns from off-trail travel on the hills south of Grand Prismatic Spring led the park to construct and recently open the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook Trail. To alleviate traffic congestion, safety concerns, and resource impacts, the park also made a parking area near the Fairy Falls Trailhead at Midway Geyser Basin. Parking is very limited at this popular destination.
Trail crew rehabilitated the hillside resource damage. They also designed and built the trail with assistance from the Montana Conservation Corps and Yellowstone’s Youth Conservation Corps. The new trail gradually climbs 105 feet over 0.6 miles from the Fairy Falls Trailhead to an overlook with views of Midway Geyser Basin.
The trail and overlook protects a heavily visited part of the park. Superintendent Dan Wenk remarked that the trail and overlook, “provide a different view of Grand Prismatic Spring and minimize the growth of unsightly, unofficial social trails in the process.”
Visitors: Please pack your patience. Anticipate traffic, limited parking, and delays at this and other popular park destinations.

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Yellowstone History: Apollinaris Spring

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Somewhat off the beaten (or shall we say paved) track in Yellowstone National Park, Apollinaris Spring has an illustrious history with the park.
Indeed, in terms of attractions, Apollinaris has had remarkable staying power, on par with some of the more famous geysers. It flows more regularly, in any case.
But Apollinaris is as much a product of Yellowstone history as it is a natural feature—to the extent it can be called “natural.”

Name Origin
According to the National Park Service, Yellowstone’s Apollinaris Spring reminded the (often wealthy) visitors of a German mineral spring also named Apollinaris, after Apollinaris of Ravenna, a patron saint of gout, among other things.
The water was famed in Europe for its taste. Indeed, in the late 19th century (around when visitor started flocking to Yellowstone National Park), the water had the imprimatur of a drinker’s sophistication. Imbibers of the German drink are referenced in William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham, Arthur C. Doyle’s The Lost World, “Counterparts” by James Joyce, and several O. Henry stories.
Apollinaris, incidentally, is an ancient name, dating back thousands of years. Some famous holders of the name include a correspondent with Roman magistrate Pliny the Younger (nephew of Pliny the Elder, author of Naturalis Historia, one of the earliest encyclopedias), a first century astrologer, and Apollinaris of Laodicea, a fourth century Syrian bishop who promulgated the belief that Jesus Christ had a mortal body but a divine mind—a system that became known as Apollinarism and was later declared a heresy by the First Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.)

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From Past to Present
Visitors can still visit Apollinaris Spring as they tour the park, but there is a crucial difference. Unlike the visitors above (and unlike the children in the top photo of this article) you can’t drink the water. Or, rather, you shouldn’t.
There are a few reasons for this. First of all, as Janet Chapple notes in Yellowstone Treasures, the water has tested positive for giardiasis, an intestinal disease. Secondly, per the video, the water from Apollinaris Spring is used for neighboring restroom facilities. Finally, to drink from Apollinaris today would be a flagrant rebuke of what visiting Yellowstone has become.
As mentioned, Apollinaris Spring has been a tourist attraction about as long as tourists have visited the park, however informally at first. The decision to construct the rock fountain and steps only solidified this notion. But Yellowstone isn’t just for tourists. It’s for the wildlife and the geologic marvels and the cultural heritage and the inheritance of future generations—a fact prior tourists were ignorant of in terms of their behavior.
Artifacts like Apollinaris don’t harken back to a more innocent time as much as a carefree one—in that visitors and managers alike didn’t care about turning a natural source into a manmade feature. It’s a creation of the same line of thinking that spawned travertine tchotchkes and the bison showpen. It’s the same line of thinking that prompted visitors to scrape off bits of geyserite and clog up Morning Glory past the (probable) point of no return.
Which isn’t to say you shouldn’t visit Apollinaris spring. Please do! But be mindful of your behavior and your surroundings. And if you can be generous about the foibles of previous visitors, you can imagine you’ve just stepped off the stagecoach for a little rest in America’s Wonderland.

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Canyon Area Construction Projects

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The following closures are part of the Canyon Overlooks and Trails Restoration Project and other efforts:
Inspiration Point
Inspiration Point and Inspiration Point road are closed for reconstruction: expect completion in spring 2018. This closure also includes the North Rim Trail between Grand View Point and Inspiration Point.
North Rim Trail
The North Rim Trail is closed between Cascade Falls and the Brink of Lower Falls, and between Grand View Point and Inspiration Point. During this closure, people will not be able to walk the full length of the North Rim Trail.
Uncle Tom's Point, Uncle Tom's Trail & South Rim Trail
Uncle Tom's Point and Parking Area, Uncle Tom's Trail (the stairs), and the entire South Rim Trail are closed for reconstruction: expect completion in spring of 2018.
Additional, short-term closures may occur throughout the year.

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Schönes Bild!
Old Faithful geyser at night

Ich dachte, wir hätten erst Herbstbeginn.

Snowfall in northwest Wyoming causes slick roads

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reas of northwest Wyoming, including Yellowstone National Park, have received up to a foot of snow in the last several days.
The National Weather Service post winter weather advisories for Yellowstone and the Absaroka, Teton and Gros Ventre (GROW' VAWNT) mountains.
About a foot of snow has fallen in the higher elevations in the Grand Targhee Ski Resort area.
The snowfall has caused slick road conditions in the area, including in Yellowstone, where some roads were closed earlier this week.
A 25-mile section of U.S. 212 over Beartooth Pass northwest of Cody was closed Thursday because of winter conditions.[/B]

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U.S. ordered to reconsider denial of Yellowstone bison protections

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A judge has ruled that U.S. wildlife managers erred in denying Endangered Species Act protection to bison at Yellowstone National Park and must reconsider extending such safeguards to America’s largest pure-bred herd of wild buffalo.

The decision was welcomed on Thursday by wildlife advocates who petitioned the Obama administration in 2014 to protect bison in and around Yellowstone, where animals wandering outside park boundaries are culled for slaughter by the hundreds each year.
The seasonal culling is supported by ranchers in the region, particularly in Montana, concerned about exposure of livestock to disease, competition for grass and property damage from straying bison.
“This is a victory for bison,” Ken Cole, director of the Buffalo Field Campaign, told Reuters by telephone.
Officials for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said they were reviewing the ruling, issued on Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper in the District of Columbia.
Yellowstone’s herd of 4,000-plus bison constitutes the largest and one of the last free-roaming, genetically pure groups of an animal that once roamed North America by the millions before being hunted to near extinction in the late 1800s.

Conservation groups have argued that endangered species status is necessary to ensure the long-term survival of wild bison, also widely known as buffalo, and help restore the creature to more of its historic natural range.
The bison, a shaggy, hump-shouldered animal weighing up to 2,000 pounds (990 kg) and standing 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall at the shoulders, was officially designated the U.S. national mammal in 2016.
The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 2015 that conservation groups had failed to present sufficient evidence that the Yellowstone buffalo band was imperiled.
Cooper ruled that the Interior Department agency had erroneously failed to consider or otherwise ignored evidence indicating Yellowstone bison may be threatened or endangered.
The ruling hinged on a scientific dispute over whether there are two genetically distinct populations of bison at Yellowstone, known respectively as a central herd and a northern herd. Conservationists cited research suggesting the government’s overall target at the park of 3,000 bison was too low to prevent extinction of one or both of them.
Government biologists dismissed that research. But Cooper said the Fish and Wildlife Service was required by law to explain why it found the research irrelevant, and he ordered a new agency review of whether Yellowstone bison merit protections.
The decision has no bearing on the estimated 160,000 head of privately raised bison, most of them in the West and consisting mainly of animals that carry cattle genes and are bred for commercial production.

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America's first national park: Incredible century-old photos show the black bears tourists used to FEED and ever-so-smart visitors leaning over the erupting geysers of Yellowstone

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This series of incredible images shows the fascinating history of one of the world's most iconic national parks - ahead of the anniversary of the day Yellowstone was given national park status.
Images from the collection, some of which date back over a century, show former Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Calvin Coolidge visiting the park during the 1900s.
Others capture the horse-drawn stage coaches that used to ferry people around the incredible scenery.
Tourists on horseback are seen taking in some of the most breathtaking views the park has to offer in one image, while another shows a woman reaching over one of the park's famous geysers in 1918 – something that is strictly prohibited today.

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World's tallest geyser may erupt at Yellowstone National Park

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ellowstone National Park has reported a series of potential eruptions from the world's largest active geyser for the first time since 2014. Park officials said employees reported seeing an eruption at the Steamboat Geyser in northwest Wyoming Thursday evening.
Geologists comparing the eyewitness reports to remote thermal sensors believe the activity could be a series of minor eruptions.

Steamboat is located in a part of the park that's snowed in much of the year. Roads into the area currently are closed for spring plowing.
Geysers are constricted hot springs that erupt as the water heats up. Steamboat's major eruptions can shoot steam to heights of 300 to 400 feet.
By comparison, steam from Yellowstone's world-renowned Old Faithful Geyser, which erupts like clockwork more than a dozen times daily, averages 130 feet in height.

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Yellowstone's Fishing Bridge Set for Repair Work This Year

The National Park Service is planning repairs to Yellowstone National Park's Fishing Bridge that will mean traffic delays and interruptions this year on the park's eastern access road.

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The National Park Service is planning repairs to Yellowstone National Park's Fishing Bridge that will mean delays this summer and shut down traffic for the winter on the park's eastern access road about three weeks earlier than normal later this year.
The long-planned and discussed project means Cody residents and tourists will not be able to drive into Yellowstone from the east side after Oct. 15. Normally, traffic is shut down for the winter during the first week in November, the Cody Enterprise reported .
Yellowstone Superintendent Dan Wenk said bids are out for the work and he expects a construction contract to be awarded by April 1. Work should begin in May on the 1937 structure and could take two years.
"We're trying to have minimum impact on Cody and the East Gate," Wenk said.
Once vehicles enter Yellowstone from the Buffalo Bill Scenic Byway, they climb over Sylvan Pass and travel over Fishing Bridge to connect with the rest of the Park.
Wenk said bridge workers will be limited to pausing traffic for no more than 20 minutes at a time.
"We will ask them to limit it to 15 minutes," he said.
Overnight shutdown of the road is possible, Wenk said, and would probably be between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.
"There is very, very, very little traffic at that time of night," he said.
Wenk noted that travelers coming to the park from Cody have alternate access to Yellowstone through Cooke City, Montana, and the Northeast Gate.
Cody officials are not thrilled about the interruption of traffic from the Fishing Bridge project but recognize the work is needed.
"It's a necessary evil to take care of the infrastructure," Cody mayor Matt Hall said.

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Road improvements between Fishing Bridge and Indian Pond

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Improvements made to a 3.5-mile section of the East Entrance Road between Fishing Bridge and Indian Pond this year will benefit visitors and improve infrastructure in the park. Road construction efforts will widen narrow roads, improve entry and exit points into developed areas, provide for better scenic viewing opportunities along the road, and repair the historic Fishing Bridge. Anticipate delays if your travel plans include visiting the park from the East Entrance.
The East Entrance Road to Fishing Bridge and Lake is scheduled to open to the public May 4, weather permitting. Visitors should expect 30-minute delays between Fishing Bridge and Indian Pond (excluding Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day weekends).
From October 15 through November 5, 2018, the road between Sedge Bay and Fishing Bridge will be closed. During the closure, the East Entrance Road will remain open from the entrance to Sedge Bay, weather permitting.
Visitors traveling to and from Cody will need to use the Northeast Entrance during this closure. Tower Fall to Canyon (Dunraven Pass) traditionally closes on October 9. Depending on weather, staff may keep it open after October 9 to allow for an additional route to and from Cody via the Northeast Entrance.

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World’s biggest active geyser erupts at Yellowstone National Park for third time in weeks

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The world’s largest active geyser has erupted for the third time in less than six weeks.
Steamboat Geyser, in Yellowstone National Park, erupted at around 6.30am local time on Friday morning, geologists said.
The eruption is the latest event in a rare period of activity at the geyser this year, following similar water discharges on March 15 and April 19 this year.
Before this year, Steamboat had not erupted since September 2014.
The US Geological Survey said all events so far in 2018 had been smaller than recent major activity observed in 2013 and 2014.

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