Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The institute can provide unique (and inexpensive) lodging in their two field campuses, in
Gardiner and the Lamar Valley. Or they can include standard hotel lodging at park hotels.
If you take the time to browse through the course catalog, you will likely find something
geared to your interests. This is one of the best ways to get an in-depth insider's view of
Yellowstone.
Other tour operators that offer a range of excursions in the park include
Yellowstone
Tour & Travel
(800/221-1151,
www.yellowstone-travel.com
), a full-service travel agency
in West Yellowstone that can book everything from accommodations and tours to complete
packages, and
Yellowstone Alpen Guides
(555 Yellowstone Ave., 406/646-9591 or 800/
858-3502,
www.yellowstoneguides.com
, from $115 adults, $105 seniors, $95 children un-
der 16), also in West Yellowstone, which offers a fantastic array of naturalist-guided tours
year-round.
Yellowstone is a living, breathing, evolving ecosystem that is home to a diversity of high
alpine, subalpine, and forest plants (1,150 native species of flowering plants, to be exact)
and an extraordinary number of animals (including 67 mammal species). It is fascinating to
understand how the flora and fauna relate—and react—to one another throughout the park.
Flora
What makes the plant life in Yellowstone so interesting is neither the abundance nor the
variety but rather the relationship between the plants and their environment and the way
they are determined and shaped by forces of geology, climate, fire, insect infestation,
drought, flood, and not least of all, wildlife. In various places throughout the park, for ex-
ample, visitors will notice small fenced areas where grazing animals like elk, deer, and
bison do not have access. The flora is decidedly different when it is protected from herbi-
vores. The massive burns of 1988 have given rise to a plant-lover's paradise where hot pink
fireweed is among the first to recolonize the blackened areas. The geothermal areas have
their own rare and unique plant communities. And the reintroduction of wolves caused the
movements of elk to be more sporadic as they tried to avoid being eaten, which led to an
increase in the number of willows and a resulting increase in various animals, including
beavers, that thrive on willows. These chains of events linking plants, animals, and the nat-
ural forces that control the park are endless and fascinating.
