Welcome to the Gauja National Park. Welcome to the Matrix National Park

Welcome to the Matrix National Park

For a new generation, the idea of camping in Yosemite seems strange and reminiscent of TV shows of yesteryear where Lucy, Daisy, Fred and Ethel traveled in their air-powered trailer. Some large parks have seen attendance declines over the past few years, a trend that predates the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. It would seem that this reduction could benefit the parks, tired of the excessive influx of visitors and suffocating from automobile exhaust fumes. But there is a certain delayed danger in this.

Numbers first. Overall park attendance has remained roughly the same over the past decade, but a closer look at the statistics reveals that visitor numbers to eastern city parks and historic sites have increased, while attendance at major parks in the west has fallen. “Statistics suggest there will be a further decline in visitor numbers over the next two years,” quipped Oregonian columnist Michael Milytain in an article on the topic. Indeed, in the mirror of numbers the situation looks dramatic. Visitation to Yosemite National Park has decreased by 16% since 1996. Visitation peaked at the Grand Canyon in 1991, at Yellowstone in 1992, and at Oregon's Crater Lake National Park in 1995. The number of visitors to Mount Rainier National Park decreased from 1.6 million in 1991 to 1.3 million in 2002.

Since the late 1980s, their numbers have dropped by nearly half in Carlsbad Caverns National Park.

The main reason for this decline, I think, is the gap that has formed between youth and nature - the transition from the world of real sensations to virtual nature. But an analysis of national parks by Northern Arizona University identified two major obstacles: lack of time for families and the widespread perception that parks are only for occasional scenery. Other reasons include shorter holidays and holidays, fewer excursions (from 3.5 to 2.5 days), an increase in the number of expats, especially in California, who were not previously in the habit of visiting wildlife parks, increased entrance fees (by at the moment, you have to pay $20 for one car to enter) and the belief that national parks are for the rich (a survey of California park visitors found that more than two-thirds of their number had an income of at least $50,000 a year). Camping is being replaced by “sightseeing tours” - this is how this type of recreation in the parks is officially called.

In 2001, the number of visitors staying at national park campsites fell by almost a third, the lowest level in a quarter century. The decline in interest in camping is especially evident among young people under 30; This may be a result of their parents not taking them camping as children. Consequently, they will not teach their children to do this. One California survey used by Milstein shows that more than eight-tenths of campers acquired an interest in camping during childhood. But now more than half of those surveyed were without children at the campsites.

So are parks for children now? The Matrix generation was surgically robbed of the fascination with the mysteries of nature and the risks associated with the desire to know them. As officials work to make parks safer and more accessible to visitors, city dwellers heading out are heading to Disneyland rather than to the wild. Some children are very disappointed that there are so few Disney wonders in the park. Here's what one high school student wrote when he visited Utah's Rainbow Bridge National Monument, the world's largest natural bridge, carved from stone over present-day Lake Powell more than a thousand years ago: “In a way, The bridge disappointed me. It wasn’t as perfect as in the brochure.” Parents diversified their vacation by renting a jet ski.

This is where the danger lies. If, as attendance at parks and forests falls, the age of visitors increases, where will the political electorate come from that will support parks and forests? It wouldn't be a big deal if there was simply a decrease in the number of visitors. But the fact is that this phenomenon is observed at the very moment when the development of society and its energy needs sharply increase pressure on the natural environment.

The political wind is now blowing in their direction. For example, the US Forest Service, when updating its plan for Southern California's Cleveland National Park for the next fifteen years, considered several radical proposals for the northern third of the forest. They include flooding the canyon to create a 40-hectare reservoir, building two high-voltage power lines 46 and 50 km long, and a new highway passing through the forest between Riverside and Orange counties.

Theodore Roosevelt created the Cleveland National Forest in 1908. Since then, its area has decreased from 800 thousand hectares to 170 thousand hectares of fragmented areas. If the number of people dedicated to preserving these endangered forests dwindles in the same proportion, imagine how many forests and parks will remain by, say, 2108, when our swollen population is desperately grasping for any scrap of space?

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In America, in the states of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, Yellowstone National Park is located - a UNESCO World Heritage Site, an international biosphere reserve. The area of the first national park on the planet, founded in the spring of 1872, is 898.4 thousand hectares. Yellowstone is famous for its picturesque landscapes, numerous geothermal objects, including geysers, and rich wildlife.

According to archaeological excavations in the area occupied by the park, people settled eleven thousand years ago. In 1805, the first modern explorers appeared in the region. Until 1860, no scientific or economic activity was carried out on the territory. In 1917 management Yellowstone National Park was transferred to the National Park Service.

The vast territory contains rivers, lakes, caves, and canyons. In the center of the largest volcano on the mainland, Yellowstone Caldera located high mountain yellowstone lake. The dormant supervolcano has erupted with tremendous force several times over the past two million years. Solidified lava covers a significant part of the park. There is a geyser field here, one of five in the world.

Most of it is covered by forests, while the smaller part is covered by steppes. In the park you can find hundreds of species of birds, mammals, reptiles, and fish; up to two thousand different plants. The problem is the annual forest fires. There are hundreds of kilometers of paved asphalt roads running through the park. There are numerous opportunities for active recreation.

Story

During an expedition in 1807, John Copter discovered geothermal springs. The veracity of reports about geysers and springs was confirmed by several scientific expeditions that followed in the 1860s. In 1872, President Williss Grant signed law on environmental protection zone around Yellowstone Lake. Artist's paintings Thomas Moran gave wide popularity to the natural attractions of the park; one of the mountains in Yellowstone was later named after him.

The park's first superintendent, Nathaniel Langford, was not given enough resources. Due to rampant poaching, Langford resigned in 1877. The newly appointed Norris obtained funds from the US Congress for the park. This made it possible to build some tourist facilities and roads.

In 1886, separate units of the American army arrived in the park to combat the destruction of natural monuments and poaching. Near the Mammoth Hot Springs they created the settlement of Camp Sheridan (Fort Yellowstone).

From 1933 to 1941, special units of the Civilian Conservation Corps built campsites, information centers, and a network of roads. The number of visitors gradually increased. In 1956, the National Parks Authority adopted a ten-year development program to increase infrastructure. The most recent construction of Canyon Valley (tourist complex) was built in 2006.

Released in 1995 fourteen wolves, scientists did not imagine that because of this, the whole ecosystem parka. For seventy years, wolves were absent from Yellowstone and deer reigned supreme. Reproducing uncontrollably, they caused severe damage to the local flora.

The presence of wolves forced ruminants to choose grazing sites more carefully and avoid certain areas of the forest. The vegetation began to renew there and there were more berries. After six years, the number of trees increased fivefold, and ducks, muskrats, beavers and fish appeared in the creeks. The decrease in jackals due to wolves led to an increase in hares and mice, which attracted foxes, hawks, and ferrets. Bears appeared in the park, driving the wolves away from their prey and eating the leftovers.

To the surprise of scientists, the flow of the rivers has changed. Bank erosion has decreased and the banks have been strengthened by explosive growth of grass and trees. River beds have stabilized and straightened. Wolves released just twenty years ago changed the very geography of the park.

Geography

The main part of the territory is located in Wyoming and has the shape of a rectangle. Yellowstone Park stretches 102 km from north to south and 87 km from east to west. "Big Loop"— the asphalt road covers all the main attractions and is 230 km, not including the Norris-Canyon jumpers, side branches, and approaches to entrances and exits.

Five percent of the territory is rivers and lakes, eighty percent is forests, the rest is steppes. The Snake River, a major tributary of the Columbia River, flows through the park. All tourist sites, Yellowstone Lake, the Yellowstone River, in general, two-thirds of the park's area is part of the Atlantic Ocean, the rest - to the Pacific Ocean.

The Yellowstone Plateau, on which the park is located, rises 2400 m above the sea. It is bounded on almost all sides by the ridges of the Rocky Mountains up to 3400 m above the sea. All this: from the highest point of the Eagle Peak Park to the lowest point in the Reese Creek valley - forms active supervolcano Yellowstone.

In the northeastern part of the park is the largest petrified forest in the world, the wood was mineralized due to a very ancient volcanic eruption. The plateau is crossed by two deep canyon: Yellowstone River Valley and Lewis River Valley.

Geology

Yellowstone Caldera represents the largest volcanic system in North America, often called a "supervolcano". It was formed by a catastrophic eruption 640,000 years ago. In addition, traces of two more, earlier eruptions can be traced here, which created rock formations from volcanic tuff. The huge amount of dust raised by the three eruptions was carried across the entire continent. Remnants of dust were discovered hundreds of kilometers from Yellowstone. Scientists suggest that the ash and gases that rose into the atmosphere changed the climate and led to the extinction of many animals and plants in North America.

Lava flows regularly flooded the Yellowstone caldera: and today you can see the remains of rhyolite lava on the Obsidan Rocks, and the remains of basalt lava on the Shipeeters Rocks. The most visible layers of lava are on the slopes of Yellowstone Canyon. The steep profile of the canyon indicates that it was carved by a river, eroding layers of lava.

Yellowstone is also a huge geyser field. Three thousand geysers are located in the park. Among which is a large geyser "Steamboat", due to its predictability, the geyser is popular among tourists "Old Faithful"(the height of the hot jets is more than 40 m, the interval is 90 minutes).

The park has up to 10,000 different geothermal springs: hydrogen sulfide and hot, mud volcanoes, which makes up half of the world's geothermal springs. In 2001, a volcano observatory was established to monitor geothermal and volcanic activity to assess possible hazards.

In 2003, after recording increased activity and high water temperatures, the observatory restricted tourist access to the Norris Geyser Basin. Some geysers emitted steam instead of water. Five bison died from geothermal gases in 2004. In 2006, a soil rise of 4-6 cm per year was discovered in two places.

Every year, thousands of small incidents that are invisible to humans occur in the national park. earthquakes. In 1959, an earthquake occurred that led to a landslide that destroyed the dam on Lake Hebgen. The removed sediment blocked the river, and a new lake was formed - Earthquake Lake. In 1985, almost three thousand small earthquakes were recorded in the northwestern part over three months.

Flora and fauna

Yellowstone Park is home to more than 1,800 plants, eight varieties of conifers. Most forest areas are occupied by lodgepole pine. They grow in small groups on the territory Douglas fir, mountain Weymouth pine, whitebark pine. The most common deciduous trees are birch, aspen, and willow.

Most flowering plants bloom between May and September. Yellowstone was found in the wild on the borders of the park. sand verbena, Abronia species typically grow in warm climates. The appearance of this rare plant is associated with the microclimate created by geothermal springs.

Bacterial colonies bizarre shapes from trillions of bacteria are formed in the hot waters of lakes. Bacteria living in the lake are used in genome research.

Relatively recently, the spread of alien plants (timothy grass, brome grass, etc.) has been observed. Most of them are in places where tourists gather and along roads. The movement of these plants deeper into the park threatens the extinction of local species.

The forests and steppes of the park are home to about sixty species of mammals: wolves, bears, lynxes, grizzlies, as well as large ones - American bison, wapiti deer, black bear (baribal), black-tailed deer, elk, bighorn goat, bighorn, puma, pronghorn.

The population is about four thousand bison. Farmers fear that bison can transmit infections (brucellosis) to domestic cows, but so far there have been no such cases.

In 1926, to protect the wapiti population in Yellowstone Park, all wolves. They stopped killing wolves only in 1935. Later measures were taken to protect predators. In the 1990s, Mackensee plains wolves were released, and by 2005 there were 118 of them. Rare species in the park include the puma and wolverine.

There are a lot of fish in rivers and lakes, yellowstone salmon including snakes and turtles, amphibians, 311 species of birds: bald eagle, whooping crane, trumpeter swan, American white pelican.

Forest fires

Every year, about 35 fires occur in the park due to lightning strikes; up to ten cases occur due to people’s negligence. To prevent disasters, regular inspections of the territory are carried out from the air. Researchers are now suggesting that naturally occurring fires require surveillance and control; extinguish if it goes out of control or threatens people or buildings. Man-made fires should be dealt with immediately.

Plants can adapt to fires. Douglas fir has thick bark that can protect the core from fire. As the temperature rises, broadleaf pine cones open and the seeds scatter. Less protected trees grow in damp places and reproduce vegetatively.

Traces are still visible in the park catastrophic fires that occurred in the dry summer of 1988. A third of the park's area burned down, firefighters were killed, and damage amounted to $120 million. And only the autumn rains stopped the fires.

Tourism development

About two million people come to the most popular and visited Yellowstone National Park every year. Nine hotels, shops, campgrounds, and gas stations employ 3,700 people during peak periods. In addition, the US National Park Service employs 800 employees.

Some of the museums and information centers located in the national park are classified as historical monuments. Places in campsites and hotels, especially in summer, should be reserved several months in advance. Many tourists stay in villages outside the park.

In the previous article, which, by the way, was published a hundred years ago, I showed a town called Sigulda, nestled under a barrel near Riga. The city itself is not very big, but the number of attractions in Sigulda itself and its surroundings will impress anyone.

Now, I suggest you leave the streets of the city and go down to the Gauja River, where the national park begins. This place came under state protection only in 1973, but history shows that since the 19th century tourists with canes have been actively roaming here. By the way, the cane is the symbol of Sigulda.

5. Here is the Gauja River itself.

You get to the national park by crossing the bridge to the other side, or, if you don’t want to go down, you can use the cable car. But this pleasure did not seem to us the cheapest, and besides, then we would have deprived ourselves of the wonderful views that open onto the river from the bridge.

The carriage runs at a height of 42 meters, the cost for an adult on a day off is 5 euros. "Yes, well! Better with your legs!"

It is impossible to visit all the historical and natural attractions of the park in one day, therefore, if the time of your visit to Sigulda is limited, as, for example, with us, it makes sense to immediately decide on the objects that you want to see.

We decided to limit ourselves to the natural route, which led us to the Turaida medieval castle complex. I promise to write about the castle in the next publication, and now I invite you to enjoy the amazing landscapes that the park is rich in with me.

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The pre-twilight time shrouded everything in an amazing haze of mystery, the long shadows of the trees intertwined into the figures of ancient lizards and dragons, and rare passers-by did not interfere with immersing yourself in this magic. I’m sure that in warmer times a lot of tourists walk along the park’s paths, but we were lucky, the weather was already warm and clear, but people had not yet had time to come. Even the roadside cafe, where we were treated to excellent kvass, according to the bartender, was opened for the first time after winter hibernation.

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We begin our systematic movement across the United States from West to East in our Duster with Russian license plates.

Do you know what is the most amazing thing about the USA?
Beauty! The USA has incredibly beautiful nature. Especially in National Parks. Crazy!

And as proof, there’s a video about our thorny path to Yosemite Park, about its summits overcome and about the meeting with bears.

And the surprising thing is that we knew nothing about it at all. Well, maybe you heard about the Grand Canyon, but suspected that the wonderful pictures on computer screensavers must have been made in some real place on Earth. They were made in the States. Yes, it really is so beautiful there. Even better.

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So, if you are going to the USA, or, even better, to California, then, I beg you, cross Los Angeles, Las Vegas and other boring cities off your list... San Francisco, so be it, leave it: ) ... And go straight to the National Parks - Yosemite, Sequoia, Bryce Canyon and others - there are plenty of them in the west. And we liked almost all of them.

You can look contemptuously at all these beauties and say that here in Russia it’s no worse. And perhaps this is even true. BUT. We don't know how to sell it. We don’t know how to wrap it in a beautiful wrapper (convenient infrastructure) and wrap it in beautiful legends. As a result, it turns out that our beauty in full is accessible only to a select few crazy people who go on multi-day hikes along untrodden paths with the risk of falling into an unexplored cave or getting lost in a dense forest. And this, of course, has its own romance. And, no matter how hard we try, there will always be places for such hikes in Russia (our country is too big). But how great it would be if we at least built the same convenient infrastructure at key points: we put signs on the road, laid out walking paths indicating their complexity and length, arranged convenient viewing platforms with picnic areas and drew maps where everything this would be indicated with detailed advice and comments.

And let the entrance to these parks be paid, but not $30 per car, of course, like in the USA. And even if these parks are not yet engaged in saving rare species of animals and plants (although if there are those willing to do so, no one will be against it).

But let them be. For our children who have never seen wild animals. For foreign tourists who have never seen such wide open spaces. For ourselves, who yearn for living nature and beauty.

In Yosemite we met the team responsible for international cooperation between the parks. They have a joint project with a team at Lake Baikal - they raised money in California to buy mopeds for our rangers (foresters?) to control the territory. Maybe this is the first step? Or maybe someone is already excited about the idea and wants to get involved in the process? We will be happy to share contacts;)