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Yellowstone National Park

June 2012 Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone National Park

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  • Gibbon Falls is located in the west central area of Yellowstone.<br />
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William Henry Jackson and John Merle Coulter of the second Hayden Survey discovered this waterfall of the Gibbon River in 1872. Its name seems to have come into usage from the river; by 1877, park superintendent P. W. Norris was using it. In addition, several early park maps used the name “First Cañon Falls.”<br />
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This segmented cascade flows near the Yellowstone Caldera rim which was formed 600,000 years ago. This falls is easily accessible along on of Yellowstone's major thoroughfares makes this an often crowded spot. Not only do people gather at the overlook, but Clark's Nutcrakers, Ravens, and banded ground squirrles are in abundance begging for food (which should not be given). There is a picnic area south of the fall, Gibbon Picnic Area and two picnic areas north of the falls, Iron Springs and Caldera Rim.<br />
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The cascade is a large one which is split in two by a band of rock in the middle. The flow of water on the right is the stronger of the two. As the Gibbon River courses down the right side, it strikes a ledge, shooting the water into the air with a rooster tail effect. The water to the left spreads out into a wide cascade which is more shallow.
  • Sheepeater Cliff<br />
The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The lava was deposited about 500,000 years ago during one of the periodic basaltic floods in Yellowstone Caldera, and later exposed by the Gardner River. The cliffs are noted as a textbook example of a basaltic flow with well defined joints and hexagonal columns. They were named after a sub-band of Western Shoshone known as Tukuaduka (sheep eaters). Many of the exposed cliffs are located along a steep inaccessible canyon cut by the Gardner near Bunsen Peak, but some of the cliffs located just off the Grand Loop Road can be reached by car.
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  • Park Rangers on horseback<br />
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All Yellowstone employees do two things: help visitors enjoy the park and protect and preserve the park for future generations. The majority of the summer employees fall into the positions: Park Rangers and Laborers.Park Rangers: Staff visitor centers; lead naturalist walks; collect entrance and campground fees; issue backcountry permits; patrol roads, and perform law enforcement duties.
  • A Cowboy cookout.
  • TOWER FALL FACTS <br />
GPS Location: 548443 4971117<br />
 Plunge Height: 132 feet<br />
 Tower Creek Map: -Tower Junction, Wyoming/Montana<br />
 Access: 2.2 miles south of Tower-Roosevelt Junction between Tower-Roosevelt Junction and Canyon Village.
  • Tower Fall was named in 1870 by a member of the Washburn party, probably Samuel Hauser, who wrote in his diary: “Campt near the most beautiful falls – I ever saw – I named them ‘Tower falls’—from the towers and pinnacles that surround them.” Prospector A. Bart Henderson had seen it in 1867, noting as did Hauser that it was “the most beautiful falls I ever saw.” Robert Strahorn in 1880 called it “one of the most beautiful falls to be found in any country,”<br />
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“Nothing can be more chastely beautiful than this lovely cascade, hidden away in the dim light of overshadowing rocks and woods, its very voice hushed to a low murmur unheard at the distance of a few hundred yards. Thousands might pass by within a half-mile and not dream of its existence, but once seen, it passes to the list of most pleasant memories.”  Lt. Gustavus Doane 1870.
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  • Over the years the estimates of the height of Lower Falls has varied dramatically. In 1851 Jim Bridger estimated its height at 250 feet. One outrageous newspaper story from 1867 placed its height at "thousands of feet". A map from 1869 gives the falls its current name of Lower Falls for the first time and estimates the height at 350 feet. However the current map lists the Lower Falls at a height of 308 feet.
  • A rainbow of color captured in the Lower Falls.
  • The lower falls (44°43′05″N 110°29′46″W) are 308 feet (94 m) high, or almost twice as high as Niagara. The volume of water is in no way comparable to Niagara as the width of the Yellowstone River before it goes over the lower falls is 70 feet (22 m), whereas Niagara is a half mile (800 m).
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  • Yellowstone Lake at sunrise.<br />
The lake is pretty to look at, and is popular for fishing and boating - the latter activity very much weather dependent as sudden storms can occur at any time of year and make conditions very hazardous. The water is generally too cold for swimming, and the whole surface is frozen solid for several months in winter.
  • Yellowstone Lake.  The lake is the largest in the USA at this elevation, with a surface level of 7,733 feet and a maximum depth of 310 feet, in West Thumb bay. The shoreline stretches for 110 miles
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