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Practice dictation & shadowing on the daily life story: Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
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Yellowstone National Park.
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The Rocky Mountains of North America are quite old.
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Even though they were very volcanic 1000000 of years ago, only a couple were still active today.
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In Yellowstone National Park, however, there is a large area of land which indicates recent volcanic activity.
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This area contains hot springs, geysers, and mud springs.
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Hot springs, like geysers, are caused by underground water being heated by hot rocks down in the earth, this hot water is then forced to the surface.
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When the surface rock is soft or porous, then the hot water bubbles up like a spring.
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When the surface rock is hard, then the hot water shoots up through any hole in the rock that it can find.
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These spurts of hot water are called geysers.
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Yellowstone also contains mudpots or mud springs.
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These happen when the hot water is turned to steam, and the steam carries mud and clay to the surface.
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Yellowstone Park is high up in the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming.
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Very few white people went there until the 18 sixties.
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They said that Indians avoided the area because they thought that evil spirits lived there.
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In 18/69, 3 men from Montana decided to explore this remote area.
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They were very impressed with its natural wonders and talked about it to others.
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2 other exploring expeditions followed in the next 2 years.
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These visitors were so enthusiastic about the beauty and majesty of Yellowstone that they asked that it be made a national park.
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At that time, there was no national park system in America.
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Nonetheless, in 18/72, the American government agreed to set aside these lands as a public park.
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Why were the early visitors to Yellowstone so impressed?
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First, the scenery is spectacular.
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The Yellowstone River has created its own Grand Canyon through years of eroding its rocky banks.
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It is the yellow color of these canyon walls that gave Yellowstone its name.
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The area has many waterfalls, including the 308 Foot High Lower Falls in the Yellowstone River.
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There are many beautiful lakes, and the largest is Yellowstone Lake.
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The area is rich in wildlife.
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Among the mammals are black bears, grizzly bears, elk, moose, mule deer, bison, bighorn sheep, coyotes, pronghorn antelope, beaver, and wolves.
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Birds, especially waterfowl, are common all year.
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These include the trumpeter swan, blue heron, cormorants, bald eagles, osprey, pelicans, Canada geese, and many kinds of ducks.
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Sportfish are also plentiful.
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About 80% of the forest consists of lodgepole pine, but there are many other evergreens.
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Wildflowers are numerous and varied.
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But the chief attractions are the geysers and hot springs.
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They occur Kirwan Watt was a very volcanic area a 1000000 years or so ago.
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Here, hot molten lava from the center of the earth has remained close to the surface of the earth.
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This lava heats the surface rocks, which in turn heats the underground water.
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The heated water shoots up to the surface as geysers or bubbles up as hot springs.
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The most famous geyser is Old Faithful, which shoots its plume of water 150 feet into the air every 65 minutes or so.
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The eruption lasts up to 5 minutes.
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There are 200 geysers in Yellowstone Park, and about 50 of them are spectacular.
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Some shoot their spray over 200 feet high.
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Visitors from all over the world are delighted that this region has been preserved as a national park.