Yellowstone River Area, Continental Divide

After visiting the geysers around Old Faithful, I spent the night in the nearby town, Old Faithful Village. I hiked for some miles after leaving the town, en route to Shoshone and the Heart Lake Region. This was the real backcountry of Yellowstone National Park, a world away from the touristy area around Old Faithful. I enjoyed walking through the strange volcanic landscape, the yellows and whites and browns, and the billowing steam coming from the nearby geysers, creating a scene that could only be from Yellowstone.

I arrived at the shores of Heart Lake. This is one of the largest backcountry lakes in the National Park and is famous for the huge trout that it produces. I walked past lots of fishermen, enjoying the peace and solitude, hoping to make a good catch. Then I took a side trip to Witch Creek, a stream that flows into the lake, which is a famous site of geothermal activity. Here, there are crystal-clear sapphire thermal pools and powerful geysers. I had to be careful walking around, as there are no boardwalks, and the thermal pools were surrounded by a thin crust, easily broken by a careless foot. 

After a couple of days hiking and camping, I finally arrived in the magnificent Yellowstone River Area. This is a land of deep canyons, crashing waterfalls and charismatic megafauna. I followed the river until I came face-to-face with some members of Yellowstone’s bison herd.

The great American bison, with its huge, shaggy head and pointed horns, is a symbol of this part of the USA. They were once widespread all over the Great Plains, their herds numbering between 25-60 million individuals. By the 1880s, hunting and extermination projects by the U.S. Army had all but destroyed their populations, except in Yellowstone, where, in the 1900s, about 25 specimens hung on. 

Great effort was put to replenish their numbers in the intervening century, and now the Yellowstone herd is the largest in the USA, with about 450 individuals, and the area is the only place in the whole of the USA where bison have lived since prehistoric times. The bison here enjoy browsing the Alpine meadows and prairie and are a common sight all over the park. I sat for a while in some dappled shade and watched them drinking from the river, the calves playing in the sun, and thought that when I think back to my journey through Yellowstone, this is the moment I’ll remember.