Our trip from the west side of Yellowstone begins with a view of a sculpture of two elks dueling for mates. We then proceed into the park itself. after several miles we enter the canyon carved by the Gibbon?? river through the caldera crated by the last great Yellowstone eruption 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone is actually a super volcano that erupts every 600,000 years or so. (seems a bit late as we speak). When viewed from space the remains of a series of previous eruptions that stretch across Idaho can bee seen. Yellowstone is a hot spot similar to Hawaii but cataclysmicly different in one respect. Yellowstone erupts explosivly unlike Hawaii that erupts more or less continuously. The last eruption here blew away a section of mountains over 50 miles in diameter and created an ash cloud that buried everything east to the Mississippi River. The photos here show the caldera interior exposed by the river. The snow fields on the exposed rim of the caldera are quite high and haven't quite yet melted entirely on Memorial day weekend. With all the recent snow melt the river is moving quickly and the lush grass on the banks is attracting the buffalo. In a few weeks they will migrate to the higher pastures for the summer.
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