At the lower end of the valley stands the striking cliff known as El Capitan, three thousand three hundred feet high, while from near its lower corner the Virgin’s Tears Fall descends one thousand feet. But the eye turns from it to the remarkable fall opposite, happily named the Bridal Veil, which leaps from the brow of a cliff nine hundred feet high, and descends in a broad sheet of spray and finally mist, swaying in the wind and constantly changing its form of fleecy beauty. Farther up the valley are Cathedral Rock (two thousand six hundred and sixty feet), the Three Brothers (three thousand eight hundred and thirty feet), Sentinel Rock (three thousand and forty-three feet), and directly opposite it the grand Yosemite Falls. (See [Famous Waterfalls].) Above the falls are the North Dome (three thousand five hundred and sixty-eight feet) and the vast Half Dome, nearly one mile (four thousand seven hundred and thirty-seven feet) high, whose summit can now be reached by a long climb. Two miles above the great falls the stream enters the main valley in two arms, coming out of two canyons. In that of the south fork is the Illilouet Fall, some six hundred feet high; in the main canyon are Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall, the latter one of the finest in the world.
(See [Famous Waterfalls].)
The country surrounding the valley and constituting the National Park is a rolling and hilly region varying from eight thousand to ten thousand feet above sea-level. There is little soil or vegetation except a scattered forest growth. Small glaciers still remain near the summits of some of the adjacent mountains. Bare granite peaks rise still higher from this surface.
Yellowstone National Park comprises a tract of land originally comprising three thousand five hundred and seventy-five square miles in northwestern Wyoming, set apart by act of Congress in 1872 as a national park to preserve from destructive molestation the most wonderful group of natural features and phenomena known within the boundaries of the United States. It is readily reached over the Northern Pacific Railroad, which has a branch from Livingston to Gardiner, just outside the north park boundary, thirty-six hours’ ride from St. Paul; or it may be reached from the Oregon Short Line R. R. from the west side by a more difficult stage connection.
The whole park plateau lies between six thousand and eight thousand feet above sea-level. The mountains rise in great grandeur upon this plateau, giving evidence of their volcanic origin, though now extinct, by their form, and their rock structure, and the many evidences of pent-up heat that one sees in the hot springs and geysers for which the locality is justly famous. Twenty-four peaks rise over ten thousand feet, several over eleven thousand. Electric Peak on the border is eleven thousand one hundred and fifty-five feet. Many have been glaciated. Just outside the Teton Range peaks rise to nearly fourteen thousand feet. It is a part of the continental divide and from Two-ocean Pond the waters may flow into either the Atlantic or the Pacific. The Yellowstone, Snake and Madison rivers are fed by the waters from this area.
The surface of the park is dotted with lakes, the largest being Yellowstone Lake, standing seven thousand seven hundred and forty-one feet above sea-level, ten by twenty miles in average dimensions, the largest body at so great elevation in the United States.
The streams contain numerous falls and rapids, twenty-five of special interest, some as picturesque as the Falls of the Yellowstone, though not on such a grand scale, and some far removed from the usual routes of travel. The falls and canyons of the Yellowstone are considered among the most wonderful in the world. The canyon is cut more than two thousand feet deep into the lavas and sediments, exhibiting the most fantastic carvings of erosion, modified by an exquisite blending of colors. Into it plunges the river by two great leaps, the Upper and the Lower Falls, one hundred and twelve and three hundred and ten feet high respectively, and then flows on as a narrow ribbon scarcely more than one hundred and sixty to two hundred feet wide for twelve miles of this wonderfully beautiful chasm.
Yellowstone Park includes within its borders the largest geysers in the world. There are about seventy in all, included in six groups or geyser basins. Norris, Upper, Middle and Lower basins, ten to fifteen miles apart, are on the headwaters of the Madison, here called Five Hole River. The Upper is most active and is called the Great Geyser Basin. A group is also found at Shoshone Lake, at the head of Snake River, and another group at Heart Lake. Fifty geysers spout water and steam from thirty to two hundred and fifty feet into the air. Some spout from open bowl-shaped basins, and others have built cones or tubes by their deposits. Extinct geysers are marked by the remains of these cones, among which is Liberty Cap. Excelsior geyser is the largest of all. It has a bowl-shaped opening two hundred by three hundred feet, flows four thousand gallons of boiling hot water per minute, and throws a fifty-foot column of water and steam seventy-five feet to two hundred and fifty feet high. Giant throws a five-foot column over two hundred feet high for an hour. Old Faithful, so named because of its exceptional regularity, every sixty-four to sixty-five minutes without a failure within the memory of the oldest observers, discharges a column one hundred and fifty feet high amounting to one and a half million gallons of water at each eruption. There is every gradation in size and violence and periodicity.
In the Mammoth Hot Springs area, near the northern boundary, where there are fifty active springs within an area of one hundred and seventy acres, there is a travertine accumulation of one thousand feet. Others deposit silica in similar manner, both types aided much by algous plant growth in the mineralized warm waters. In some places sulphur has been deposited.