Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
en times for various reasons, according to Alston Chase's controversial 1986 book,
Playing
God in Yellowstone.
A major difficulty with this site is its proximity to several important trout spawning
streams, where grizzly bears like to fish in late spring and early summer. The expensive
large marina at the east end of the village was closed for many years due to undercutting
of the shoreline by the lake's waves.
In spite of these problems, Grant Village has become a convenient and heavily used
area for campers, boaters, and other tourists. It has more than 400 campsites and 300 motel
rooms.
Continuing on the Grand Loop Road
20.8/0.7
Thumb Creek bridge. This is one of the prime trout spawning creeks in the area.
21.5/0.0
West Thumb Junction. West Thumb Geyser Basin is described in the next section;
Fishing Bridge Junction is to the northeast; Old Faithful Village and Madison Junction are to
the west (straight ahead).
The Fires of 1988
In the summer of 1988, fires raged through Yellowstone Park, generating the most media
attention and the greatest wildfire fighting effort in American history up to that time.
About 36 percent of the park's acreage was affected, either by canopy burns—in which the
treetops burned, trunks were partially consumed, and ground cover turned to ash—or by
less severe partial burns. About 41percent of Yellowstone's 1988 fires were of the canopy
burn type.
More than 40 different fires burned in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem that sum-
mer, ignited both by lightning and by humans. The most destructive one, the North Fork
Fire, began accidentally, started by a woodcutter near tiny North Fork Creek in Caribou-
Targhee National Forest. Along the most severely affected roadsides, from the West and
South Entrances, you still see standing snags, but almost everywhere new lodgepole pines
(see picture,
page 228
) have grown from their
serotinous cones.
