Leaving Yellowstone

At long last on the early afternoon of June 12, after having seen all the sights the Mammoth Hot Springs area had to offer, my wife and I finally prepared to leave Yellowstone National Park.  The drive north was bittersweet.  I'd greatly enjoyed our time in the park and didn't want it to end, but I was also looking forward to the sights we'd see in the days to come.  Of course, this trip north also meant that we really were heading home, even if we had plenty more to see.

We'd entered the park via the West Entrance (twice actually since we'd left the park one day to see the IMAX in West Yellowstone), but I wanted to leave via the Northwest entrance because I wanted to see the Roosevelt arch.  Before that though we passed an unexpected sign.  I actually stopped the car and turned around so that we could get a picture with it.  Later this year on another trip I saw a similar sign in Michigan--but that time there was no place to stop and take a picture.

The landscape certainly was different than the rest of the park, but that was one of the fun things about driving to virtually every corner of the park--we got to see many different environments.

What is different about the northern range soils?

While most of Yellowstone is a high volcanic plateau composed of rhyolite, the northern portion of the park is more complex geologically.  Here you find landslides, erodible shales and sandstones, and glacial till deposits of mixed rock types.  This particular area of the northern range is composed of soils that have a high clay content.  These soils bind water tightly to the clay particles, which results in little water being available for plants to use.  The soils are also poorly aerated, resist root growth, and have high levels of sodium and salts.  All of these factors combine to limit the plant communities that can grow here.
--from roadside signage

Interestingly though there is plenty of wildlife in the "northern range" as you can see on the map below.

As we came up to the arch we weren't the only one who wanted to stop for pictures.

The first major entrance for Yellowstone was at the north boundary. Before 1903, trains would bring visitors to Cinnabar, Montana, which was a few miles northwest of Gardiner, Montana, and people would climb onto horse-drawn coaches there to enter the park. In 1903, the railway finally came to Gardiner, and people entered through an enormous stone archway. Robert Reamer, a famous architect in Yellowstone, designed the immense stone arch for coaches to travel through on their way into the park. At the time of the arch's construction, President Theodore Roosevelt was visiting the park. He consequently placed the cornerstone for the arch, which then took his name. The top of the Roosevelt Arch is inscribed with "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people," which is from the Organic Act of 1916.
--from Yellowstone website, Mammoth Area Historic Highlights section

 The arch isn't quite as wide as a modern two-lane highway, but it is still well worth driving through and I'm glad the road goes through it to this day.

You can learn more about the arch and its construction via a short video on the Yellowstone website.

 Gardiner, Montana is located right outside the arch.

The Yellowstone Association also has a large building at the edge of town.  I knew that there would be a passport stamp here, so we stopped for a few minutes to look around.

The building looked to have a very interesting history, dating from 1903 it had started life as a general store.

This counter was a display showing some of the items that had been sold in the store during its heydey.

On one wall were several vintage photographs.

After leaving Gardiner behind it was strange to drive at a speed above 45 miles per hour (since that is the top speed inside Yellowstone).  However, we did adjust and headed towards Billings, Montana where we were to spend the evening with my Uncle Jim's family.

~Matt