Cath's quilts and other unimportant things: NP

Friday, May 31, 2019

NP - Yellowstone

"...As I took in this scene, I realized my own littleness, my helplessness...my in ability to cope with or even comprehend the mighty architecture of nature." Nathaniel Pitt Langford 1870

Buffalo 1929

2013 - Welcome

On 1 Mar 1872, Ulysses S. Grant, signed legislation with created Yellowstone National Park, the first National Park in the World. It set aside over 2 million acres for the enjoyment of the US population.

Yellowstone was on the agenda for the English Trip to the West Coast in 1929. I know I was there as a small child, but I didn't find pictures I was sure were Yellowstone from any of the trips from California to Minnesota. It took sixty years for me to get there again.....as part of our tour of the Lewis and Clark Trail in 2013.

I think it cost more in 1889 to get there than it cost us in 2013. Cost for train fare from St. Louis was $120, and then there was $40 for the stage coach grand tour. Of course the train ride eliminated the need for motels along the way but $160 in 1889 was the equivalent of $4051.43 in 2013. Well over the amount we spent on our entire three week trip along the Lewis and Clark Trail.

We stayed in the lodge at Old Faithful, and drove those roads that were opened, many in early May were still closed by snow. Yellowstone is a wondrous place. Hot pools gurgled through the snow. Buffalo roamed everywhere. The majesty of the land was almost overwhelming!

2013

1929

"At the appointed hour we heard the water flying up and down the mouth with the sob of waves in a cave. Then cam the preliminary gouts, then a roar and a rush, and that glittering column of diamonds rose, quivered, stood still for a moment. Then it broke and the rest was a confused snarl of water not thirty feet high." Rudyard Kipling 1889