Animals in Yellowstone

8/1/16

Dear I-

How are you? I hope you are having a good week.

I am so excited to tell you about all of the animals I saw today! First, I saw two baby mule deer drinking milk from their mother. I was surprised to see deer in the middle of the day. I should also mention that the deer weren't in a forest. Instead, they were next to travertine hot springs (hot springs where the minerals in the water made cool formations).

Next, I saw buffalo! When driving in the park, you can just look out your window and see herds of them. A park ranger told me that there are about 3,000 of them in the park. Many people pull off of the road and park in order to see these animals better. That's what I did. I watched a herd of buffalo migrate from one side of the road to the other. It is so funny to watch what happens when a buffalo walks into the middle of the road. The cars have to stop, and the buffalo kind of just hang out, annoying the drivers. A car can sit there waiting for a long time before the buffalo decides to move.

At night on the way out of the park to the only available campground, I saw a pronghorn antelope and a fox! I went to a spot that often has wolves, but I didn't see any. I wonder what kind of animals I will see tomorrow.

I hope your week is going well, and I look forward to hearing about what you are doing.

Your teacher

Elaina

Mammoth Hot Springs

8/1/16

Dear A-,

How are you? I hope that camp has been fun this week.

Right now, I am in Yellowstone National Park. The park is beautiful! Have you been to Yellowstone before? Today, I saw so many beautiful sights. One of the main sights I visited was called Mammoth Hot Springs. In this area, water from hot springs that is full of minerals trickles down over terraces. If you can, look for "Mammoth Hot Springs terraces" on the computer to find pictures to get a better idea of what this spot looks like.

Basically, when the water trickles down, the minerals inside the water attach themselves to the terraces. More minerals are being attached all the time which means that the terraces look a little bit different every day. If you go back to see the terraces in one year, they will look totally different! I'm really excited to be in this park, and I'm having a great time.

I look forward to hearing about all the things you have been doing.

Your teacher

Ms Elaina

Geysers in Yellowstone

8/1/16

Dear B-,

How have you been doing? I hope it hasn't been too hot this week!

Yesterday, I arrived in Yellowstone. It's my first visit here. I entered the park through the entrance at West Yellowstone, Montana. Many years ago, a train used to take some visitors to the park. The train went through West Yellowstone. Can you imagine what it would be like to ride a train for many hours to get to the park?

After entering the park, I went south toward Old Faithful, the famous geyser. There is actually a lot of geothermal (heat inside the earth) activity in the park. There are many geysers, fumeroles (holes near a volcano where steam comes from), mud pots (hot springs filled with boiling mud) and hot springs. The best geothermal sight was definitely Old Faithful. It was impressive, even though it didn't erupt when it was predicted to. Old Faithful was nine minutes late!

hot springs

This is actually a mud pot, you just can't see the boiling mud

hot springs

Old Faithful

I look forward to seeing you in about a week and a half. I hope you will get a chance to do a couple more fun things before school starts.

Your teacher,

Elaina

P.S. I just read an interesting fact. Two-thirds of the world's geysers are in Yellowstone!