Note: This rock was immediately adjacent to a parking lot. Dogs are not allowed on trails at Yellowstone National Park.
“The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living.” Jules Henri Pointcaré, French mathematician, physicist, and philosopher of science, “The Value of Science,” 1905
Here’s a shot of Kuiper at Yellowstone National Park last week. Yellowstone only garnered a 1 ear rating from Kuiper because dogs aren’t allowed on the trails or backcountry (this rock was about six inches away from a parking lot.) The rest of us gave it a resounding two ears up. We all took the #yellowstonepledge and promised to be good citizens in the park.
I would have thought Yellowstone was Teddy Roosevelt’s doing, but the park was created about 40 years before his presidency. Geologist Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden surveyed the area in 1871. Twice. The second time, he brought along photographer William Henry Jackson and painter Thomas Moran, whose works helped convince Congress to remove the land from public auction. ? (Go Google their paintings/photographs. They are amazing.) Hayden wasn’t the first to propose the land be made into a park, but he was the most persuasive. After Congress voted on the Act of Dedication, President Ulysses S. Grant signed the world’s first National Park into being on March 1, 1872.
Yellowstone is incredible; I’d give it 3 ears if I could. What beautiful places have you visited that you would rate 2-3 ears?
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BYRRMn6gHZl/