Yellowstone National Park-The world's first and foremost national
park. Two contrasting elements have combined to produce this area of natural
wonders; a land born in the fires of thundering volcanoes and since sculptured
by glacial ice and running water. The park features the world's most extensive
area of geothermal activity. Thousands of hot springs dot thermal basins;
geysers hurl thousands of gallons of boiling water into the air; hissing
steam vents punctuate valley floors; and petrified tree stumps, remnants
of a primeval forest buried by volcanic ash, stand starkly on eroded mountain
sides. This thermal theatre had its beginning in an enormous volcanic eruption
thought to have occurred about 600,000 years ago. Heat from a huge reservoir
of molten rock, which produced the massive eruption, remains relatively
close beneath the surface, sustaining the spectacular hot water and steam
phenomena for which the park is famous.
For more information try out the official Yellowstone
page.
Grand Teton National Park-Wyoming's smaller national park, Grand
Teton, lies south of Yellowstone. Known worldwide for its breathtaking beauty,
the Teton Range thrusts abruptly from the floor of the Jackson Hole valley
nearly one and a half miles seemingly straight up into the skies. The Indians
called them Teewinot-Many Pinnacles-while the French trappers referred to
part of the range as Les Trois Tetons-The Three Breasts.
For more information try the official Grand
Teton page.
Devils Tower National Monument-The nation's first national monument,
Devils Tower, looms prominently over the Belle Fourche River in a place
where the pine forests of the Black Hills merge with the grasslands of the
rolling plains. This imposing formation is a stump-shaped cluster of rock
columns 1,000 feet across the bottom and 275 feet across the top. It rises
1,280 feet above the valley to a height of 5,117 feet above sea level. For
centuries, Devils Tower played an important role in the legend and folklore
of Indian people. It became a landmark to stalwart explorers and travelers
pushing their way west from the Black Hill region. It was proclaimed a national
monument on September 24, 1906, by President Theodore Roosevelt. The most
recent fame for the tower came as the site where the spaceship landed in
the popular movie, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
For more information try the official Devil's
Tower page.
Fossil Butte National Monument-Is a ruggedly impressive topographic
feature which rises sharply some 1,000 feet above Twin Creek Valley to an
elevation of more than 7,500 feet above sea level. At the base of the butte
are the brightly colored fossil beds of the Wasatch Formation. Near the
top of the butte are the much steeper buff-to-white beds of the Green River
Formation. The richest fossil fish deposits are found in limestone layers
about three feet thick and lie from 30 to 300 feet below the varying surfaces
of the butte. The fossils represent several varieties of perch, as well
as other freshwater genera, and several kinds of herring whose descendants
now live in the sea. Fossil Butte contains 8,180 acres and was established
as a national monument by public law on October 23, 1972.
For more information try the official Fossil
Butte page.