Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
latitude (44-45 degrees N), timberline is usually at 9,500 to 10,000 feet (2,900-3,050 m).
However, the upper slopes of the mountains you see in this part of the park are so steep
that trees cannot grow even at 8,500 or 9,000 feet (2,600-2,750 m).
Botanists use the word
timberline
for the upper limit of fully erect trees and the ex-
pression
tree line
to mean the upper limit of all trees, including those that are stunted.
2.3/26.3
Montana/Wyoming state line. When Montana and Wyoming Territories became
states, surveyors intended the boundary to follow the 45th parallel, the line of latitude midway
between the equator and the North Pole. However, surveying was less accurate in the 1880s,
when the tools were a compass for observing directions and a theodolite for measuring angles.
Mountainous country was especially difficult to survey. The true 45 degrees N latitude is more
than 100 yards (or meters) south of the state line in this vicinity.
3.3/25.3
First crossing of Soda Butte Creek, which the road follows for its first 15 miles (24
km) inside the park. Before the 1930s, the road stayed on the west side of the creek; the old
roadbed is now used as a cross-country ski trail.
4.2/24.4
Sign for
Barronette Peak.
The mountain to the west was named for “Yellowstone
Jack” Baronett, who came to the area in 1864 to prospect for gold. (See also “Baronett's Bridge
and Its Successors,”
page 212
.) The misspelling of his name by members of the 1878 Hay-
den Expedition later became the officially approved name of this peak. In the 1880s a former
miner named Red Sowash built and ran a saloon in this meadow.
Why Do the Mountains Look Striped?
On all the nearby mountains, you can see stripes or horizontal layers, which are high-
lighted until midsummer by bands of snow. Abiathar Peak east of the road is layered by
chocolate-colored lava flows and volcanic mud flows that were part of the Absaroka vol-
canic outpourings about 50 million years ago
[GEO.5].
Facing Abiathar from west of the highway is Barronette Peak (pictured on
page 304
),
which is also topped by similar chocolate-colored volcanic layers
[GEO.2].
The lower
slopes of Barronette, however, consist of buff to gray layers of ancient sedimentary lime-
stones that are about 350 million years old.
