Canyon Visitor Center, Yellowstone National Park, was our last chosen visitor center. I chose this visitor center because of the exhibits related to the geologic characteristics of Yellowstone. A helpful guide is the book Lorren Harbin gave me when we visited Grand Junction, CO: "Interpreting the landscape: Recent and ongoing geology of Grand Teton & Yellowstone National Parks" by John M. Good and Kenneth L. Pierce, published 1996. In addition, I have read several fictional interpretations of the possibilities of Yellowstone erupting again in the future. So I had an intense interest in knowing more about this place in which we were driving around. The picture below is a bit confusing. The top of the screen is south and the bottom of the screen is north; which makes the right hand side W Yellowstone, as labeled. The Teton Range is in the upper left hand corner, even though as we entered the south entrance, the Tetons were on our right (east) side. Pretend that you are motoring down through the picture from top to bottom (south to north). We passed Lewis Lake, then stopped at Old Faithful (Tribal Cultural Center) then turned west to our lodging in West Yellowstone.
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| The Caldera Boundary of Yellowstone National Park |
The Canyon Visitor Education Center is filled with exhibits and also has a theater for a short film "portraying Yellowstone's extreme geologic forces as they create unique landscapes that support an abundance of life" (source: https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/canyonvc.htm).
The last time the Yellowstone caldera erupted was 0.65 million years ago. Violent volcanic eruptions hurled cubic miles of Yellowstone ash to stratospheric heights where winds spread it across more than 20 states. The ash is three inches thick in Iowa. (Brown & Pierce, 1996, p. 7).
There are three calderas that define the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Lava Creek Caldera is the largest one that is centered in what is now the primary acreage of the park. It is the one that erupted 0.65 million years ago. But there is another caldera in what is now Idaho, the Island Park Caldera, that erupted 1.3 million years ago. This caldera is just west of the Yellowstone park boundary. In between the Lava Creek and Island Park calderas is the Huckleberry Ridge Caldera which erupted last 2.1 million years ago. The three calderas intersect to form an entire volcanic system.
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| Larger map of the Yellowstone Caldera (source: https://www.usgs.gov/media/images/simplified-map-yellowstone-caldera) |
This map is oriented with north at the top and south at the bottom, but the purple line matches the caldera boundary in the previous map. The solid green line correlates with the Island Park caldera and the dotted green line correlates with the Huckleberry Ridge caldera.
Notice Mammoth Hot Springs, another visitor center and former fort location, which we will visit as we leave the park boundary.
How was the Canyon Visitor Center meaningful to me? I have been a geology nut since elementary school when I collected rocks and fossils. However, reading the dystopic fiction of modern writers really got me more and more interested in the Yellowstone calderas and when they might erupt again.
What did I learn at Canyon Visitor Center? Well, I haven't shown some of the other pics from that visit, so stay tuned.
What would I do differently if Mary and I traveled in the future? I've already mentioned coming in from the west entrance, staying in West Yellowstone at least two nights, and returning to the Tribal Cultural Center. I would love to return to the Canyon Education Center as well.
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| Barbara Schelling -- Red-winged Blackbird |
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| back of Red-winged Blackbird card |
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| Jo Mack -- Elk |
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| back of Elk card |
