The Absaroka-Beartooth Range
June 24, 1999
June 24, 1999
I left Yellowstone National Park from its northeast corner. Can ahhhhhhhh get a witness from the congregation? The most scenic road that you could ever possibly hope to drive dunks itself straight through the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. The blueish, dew-covered trees of this primitive range (perhaps the most pristine in America), huddle together like woody walls. The rugged perfection of the wildness, whose inhabitants were forged from gristle and sweat, defines the forests. Of course, all types of rare mammals roam its corridors.
I spent a frigid night in my tent as clouds washed the valleys. The next day was no drier, and colder, too, and I explored the road over the Beartooth Pass and into Red Lodge, MT. I bring the funk with the sways and the tone; when I say what's up, you
know where I'm from. I wish I had budgeted more time originally to explore the wilderness here on foot. Undoubtedly, I will come back to do this someday. Judging by the map, there are glaciers and at least one hundred remote mountain lakes to visit in Absaroka-Beartooth's massive 944,060 acres.
As I approached the road's summit, the sun coughed briefly and gave me the most incredible rainbow I have seen in 28 years of bumping around this planet. The photo conveys only about one-tenth of the live grandeur that the actual scene afforded me. Life usually doesn't hit the camera lens with much accuracy.
The Beartooth wilderness is a "buffer zone" for Yellowstone National Park's wildlife and intact ecosystems. It also plays an immeasurable role in the protection of land and species in North America. These types of protection regions in Canada and the U.S., as they're currently defined, are sporadic and still too widely isolated. Land protection cannot be piecemeal, as it currently is. Too limited an effort has been undertaken to ensure that the delicate fabric of the massive Rocky Mountain region will not unravel. Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Banff, and Jackson National Parks are not, in any fashion, enough. They are merely islands of wildness that represent a small fraction of the entire mountain range. Much of the associated wilderness sitting between the parks that acts to "buffer" them are virtually unknown to Johnny Public, but they should be. Even though some of these wildernesses exist officially and are protected by law, there is a lot of developable land that is not protected in the Rockies. That protection must occur before development rages through to ensure the long term health of the entire region.
Future protection and utilization of public land, does not have to limit recreation opportunities for the public, as feared by many people. See my essay on the recreational multi-use and designation of public land.
Get a good map (DeLorme's Atlas) that shows these buffering places and you will realize their importance instantly. The Gros Venture Wilderness pads Grand Teton National Park. The Beartooth Wilderness, as mentioned, gives Yellowstone a furry coat and keeps assurance that the major mammals in that national park survive. I have come to view the Rocky Mountain Range as the heart of North America. It is the health of our continent and, most likely, the world. Just as if the Siberian wildlands in Russia were to perish, we would not survive the destruction of this mountain range's ecosystem, as now seems imminent.
There is a cooperative environmental movement called Yellowstone to Yukon which promotes and is developing the reality of the concept that, from north-to-south, the land between these regions must be preserved in massive chunks if we want to ensure its (and our) survival. It is better known as Y2Y. Have you taken a look at what's happening in these land regions? I have, and I support the Y2Y project wholeheartedly. There is also currently a hiking expedition traveling the Yellowstone to Yukon route to promote the Y2Y concept and should reach the end of the trip in fall of 1999. Check out their website.
I spent a frigid night in my tent as clouds washed the valleys. The next day was no drier, and colder, too, and I explored the road over the Beartooth Pass and into Red Lodge, MT. I bring the funk with the sways and the tone; when I say what's up, you
know where I'm from. I wish I had budgeted more time originally to explore the wilderness here on foot. Undoubtedly, I will come back to do this someday. Judging by the map, there are glaciers and at least one hundred remote mountain lakes to visit in Absaroka-Beartooth's massive 944,060 acres.As I approached the road's summit, the sun coughed briefly and gave me the most incredible rainbow I have seen in 28 years of bumping around this planet. The photo conveys only about one-tenth of the live grandeur that the actual scene afforded me. Life usually doesn't hit the camera lens with much accuracy.
The Beartooth wilderness is a "buffer zone" for Yellowstone National Park's wildlife and intact ecosystems. It also plays an immeasurable role in the protection of land and species in North America. These types of protection regions in Canada and the U.S., as they're currently defined, are sporadic and still too widely isolated. Land protection cannot be piecemeal, as it currently is. Too limited an effort has been undertaken to ensure that the delicate fabric of the massive Rocky Mountain region will not unravel. Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Glacier, Banff, and Jackson National Parks are not, in any fashion, enough. They are merely islands of wildness that represent a small fraction of the entire mountain range. Much of the associated wilderness sitting between the parks that acts to "buffer" them are virtually unknown to Johnny Public, but they should be. Even though some of these wildernesses exist officially and are protected by law, there is a lot of developable land that is not protected in the Rockies. That protection must occur before development rages through to ensure the long term health of the entire region.
Future protection and utilization of public land, does not have to limit recreation opportunities for the public, as feared by many people. See my essay on the recreational multi-use and designation of public land.
Get a good map (DeLorme's Atlas) that shows these buffering places and you will realize their importance instantly. The Gros Venture Wilderness pads Grand Teton National Park. The Beartooth Wilderness, as mentioned, gives Yellowstone a furry coat and keeps assurance that the major mammals in that national park survive. I have come to view the Rocky Mountain Range as the heart of North America. It is the health of our continent and, most likely, the world. Just as if the Siberian wildlands in Russia were to perish, we would not survive the destruction of this mountain range's ecosystem, as now seems imminent.
There is a cooperative environmental movement called Yellowstone to Yukon which promotes and is developing the reality of the concept that, from north-to-south, the land between these regions must be preserved in massive chunks if we want to ensure its (and our) survival. It is better known as Y2Y. Have you taken a look at what's happening in these land regions? I have, and I support the Y2Y project wholeheartedly. There is also currently a hiking expedition traveling the Yellowstone to Yukon route to promote the Y2Y concept and should reach the end of the trip in fall of 1999. Check out their website.
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