When our family visited Yellowstone in 1984 or 5 it was quite different from this past week’s visit. Back then it was before the devastating fires of 1988 that just about decimated the entire park. Our drive through the park this past week showed the evidence of that fire in terms of old, dead tree trunks surrounded by closely growing new pine trees.
A more recent fire at the East entrance to the park was startlingly bare with the entire hillsides covered with dead trees. The green grass and wildflowers at the base helped soften the effects of such devastation.
The other difference after 25 years was the decrease in activity in such areas as the Mud Pots, Cauldron and various geysers. However, all the rivers were at high flow so all the cascades and waterfalls were spectacular! I especially like water features so we took just about every side road to see them.
Someday I would like to re-visit the area with our two kid’s families. Maybe we can work out soemthing of that nature…