NORTHWESTERN SECTION - Yellowstone Treasures - page 33

7.5/6.4 Madison River picnic area in a pleasant shady spot.

7.6/6.3 Madison River Bridge, often called the Seven-Mile Bridge, is about that far from the
West Entrance station.

Parking for Gneiss Creek Trailhead is on the east side of the bridge. This nearly level
14-mile (23 km) trail traverses the Madison Valley, where moose, grouse, grizzly bears, and
biting flies abound. The trail meets U.S. Highway 191 a short distance outside the western park
boundary. Gneiss (pronounced NICE) Creek gets its name from the outcrops of Precambrian
gneiss, a very old granite-like rock found in the mountains near the creek's headwaters.

7.8/6.1 Interpretive display about the historical use of this entrance road and about nesting
trumpeter swans.

8.6/5.3 West end of Madison Canyon.

9.7/4.2 River access road and informational sign about talus (pronounced TAY-luhs),
the geological name for the steeply sloping mass of rock debris across the river. To fishermen
this is the Madison Notch.
Immediately north of the road is a good example of columnar jointing in volcanic rock on
Mount Jackson. Look for the regular columns of rock several yards (or meters) high near the
top of the mountain. (See the explanation of columnar jointing, “Lava Columns,” on pages
217-18. )

A Tale of Two Photographers
William H. Jackson (1843-1942), for whom Mount Jackson was named, was the photo-
grapher who took some of the first photographs of Yellowstone. He accompanied the 1871
Hayden Survey around what was soon to become the world's first national park, and his
photographs contributed to its formation. Also a painter, Jackson created four murals for
the Department of Interior building in Washington, D.C. at the age of 92 and continued to
visit Yellowstone until the age of 97.