Lodgepole National Monument

Yesterday’s field trip to Yellowstone was a lot of fun, with good views of wildlife and geothermal features. Our bus tour guide was Don Despain, who is a plant ecologist who has been working in and about Yellowstone since 1971. He says the park should be renamed Lodgepole National Monument, since 60% of the plant cover (80% of the forest cover) is lodgepole pine forest, in many cases it being the sole tree in the forest. (A lot of the soil is sandy and derived from rhyolitic lava, and the spruces and Douglas firs can’t grow on it.) We learned a lot about fire ecology, with large areas of the park reforesting very well following the big fires in 1988.

We did the tour of the geysers and fumeroles as well, arriving in time to see the Old Faithful geyser erupt late in the afternoon. Notable wildlife included elk, sandhill cranes, a bear, moose (seen by the other side of the bus, not me), and a bison who was grazing happily near the Old Faithful Inn, thereby posing nicely for a few sketches.