Page 175 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL FALL 2024 SPAIN

A Sunday Drive in Yellowstone the conference, determined to get a prime
I was up super early the last morning of

window seat for the day’s big event. Little
did I know our pro organizers had booked
tour buses with window seats for all. Our
loquacious driver headed out on the Buf-
falo Bill All America Scenic Byway through
Buffalo Bill State Park and the Shoshone
National Forest, established in 1891 as the
nation’s first federally protected national
forest. Dawn colored the scenery in deep
shades of green as we approached the
East Gate to Yellowstone National Park.
I’m woefully behind in exploring our na-
tional parks. Many years passed by as I
specialized in international travel. Now I’m
ready to see the USA, as the old Chevrolet
commercial advised. The West was a great
place to start, with Yellowstone as the pin-
nacle.
Established in 1872 as the nation’s first
national park, Yellowstone ranges over
3,468 square miles on the Yellowstone
Plateau volcanic field, mostly in Wyoming
but with bits in Montana and Idaho. Ac-
cording to NASA, it looks from above like a
vast prairie ringed on three sides by moun-
tain peaks. Still-active volcanic rumblings
give energy to more than 10,000 hot
springs, mud pots, terraces, and geysers,
including Old Faithful. Several rivers team-
ing with trout cut through the landscape
through lodgepole pine forests, some
stripped naked by wildfires fires and dis-
ease. Broad meadows and grasslands feed
the largest bison herd on the public land,
plus grizzlies, black bears, pronghorn, elk,
wolves and other animal, bird, and fish
species.
Archeologists have found thousands of
sites inhabited 11,000 years ago by the Clo-
vis people and other Native American
groups. Arrowheads from Yellowstone’s
black obsidian rock are unearthed
throughout North America. The Dakota
Sioux and other Native American peoples

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