Emmylou Harris and John Prine To Headline "An Evening at the Arch: Yellowstone Celebrates the National Park Service Centennial" August 25th, 2016 in Gardiner, Montana

 

This is a copy of the news release that came out yesterday.

 

Grammy award winning singer-songwriters, Emmylou Harris and John Prine will headline “An Evening at the Arch: Yellowstone Celebrates the National Park Service Centennial” on Thursday, August 25, 2016 at 7 p.m. MT in Gardiner, Montana. The event will be broadcast live online.

 

“This very special event will kick off the second century for the National Park Service, highlight the importance of public/private partnerships, and recognize the completion of the Gardiner Gateway Project Phase One,” said Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Dan Wenk.

 

The event features a talented line-up of performers: Emmylou Harris, John Prine, Leyla McCalla, the children’s chorus The Singing Angels from Cleveland, Ohio, and Teddy Roosevelt reenactor, Joe Wiegand, with more performances and details to be announced in the coming months. Local, state, and national dignitaries will also speak at the event.

 

Advance tickets are required. Tickets are free, but limited. The first ticket release will be on Sunday, May 15 at noon MT on https://www.ticketriver.com/event/19359. Additional ticket releases will occur on June 15 and July 15. Event organizers strongly recommend that people secure lodging BEFORE getting a ticket because area lodging is limited. Residents of Gardiner and Jardine are encouraged to get tickets from the Gardiner Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber will distribute tickets held especially for local residents as a thank you for their patience and flexibility during the Gardiner Gateway Project construction.

 

For the safety and comfort of all attendees, no alcohol, coolers, umbrellas, or dogs will be allowed at this event. Qualified service animals are welcome; however, they must be leashed and under your control at all times. Additional information about coverage logistics for news media will be released at a later date. For more information, visit https://www.nps.gov/yell/planyourvisit/evening-arch.htm.

 

The event sponsors include: Yellowstone Association, Yellowstone Park Foundation, Yellowstone National Park Lodges, Yellowstone Park Service Stations, Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, Cool Works, D&R Coffee, First Interstate Bank, Gardiner Chamber of Commerce, Kendeda Fund, National Parks Conservation Association, National Park Foundation, Sinclair, State of Montana, State of Wyoming, and Yellowstone Country.

 

“An Evening at the Arch” is a great example of the countless ways there are to find your park. Launched in March 2015, Find Your Park / Encuentra Tu Parque is a public awareness and education movement to inspire people to connect with, celebrate, and support America’s national parks and community-based programs. Celebrating the National Park Service Centennial and setting the stage for the Service's next 100 years, Find Your Park invites people to discover and share their own unique connections to our nation's natural landscapes, vibrant culture, and rich history.

 

 

Yellowstone Roads Open And Geyser Mania Ensues

So every year we have lived in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem we have made it a tradition to head to the park on the opening weekend. This year we took a couple of new friends and headed to Old Faithful. As always it was amazing but this year we had an amazing geyser day in the Upper Geyser Basin (where we spent our whole day).

We pulled up below the Old Faithful Inn and there were maybe ten vehicles. We headed into the visitors center to get the predicted times for the geysers and headed out.

It's always good to know when the predicted times are so you can plan your route through the Upper Geyser Basin.

So we started out on our journey and headed out to get up to Observation Point thinking that it would be a great place to see Old Faithful from. We got to the bridge and our friend noticed that Beehive was erupting! As normal I ran to get next to it and WOW what a great first geyser of the National Park Service Centennial year! After that we caught an amazing show from Old Faithful.

BEEHIVE!!!

OLD FAITHFUL!

After this we headed out towards Morning Glory from Geyser Hill. The boardwalk from Castle to Sawmill Geyser is being redone so you could access the trails from Old Faithful and Grotto Geysers. We did the round and made it to Artemisia and sat there for a while. We decided to head to Biscuit Basin and caught Jewel from the other side of the lollipop loop. We watched some ravens eat a cormorant at Black Diamond Pool and headed back to the trail. I was the first to get back to Artemisia which started erupting upon my arrival. This was my first time as well as all my companions to see this geyser. It erupted for 24 minutes, we stayed the whole time.

Artemisia on the first pass.

Ephydrid Flies on a bacteria mat at Biscuit Basin.

BOOM! ARTEMISIA!!!

Great times with great friends!

After watching this amazing geyser action we headed back towards the main basin area to Riverside which had not gone. It was in overflow when we got there so we waited, it must have just started so we waited almost an hour in hopes that Grand had not gone yet. It was worth the wait because you can see Grotto from the Riverside viewing area. We finally got a show, it was amazing as always.

RIVERSIDE!

We stayed for the majority of the show and headed out to Grand because we had not seen any steam plumes from that area. We waited for two turbans and on the third we got the wave and Grand gave us an amazing show. It had quite a few bursts then paused for an amazingly large explosion of water from below! One of the local Geyser Gazers was super vocal and excited. That made me excited because these people live for these amazing unique features! It was awesome!

This is the large burst! WOW!

On the way back to Old Faithful geyser we were near the Lion Group when Castle Geyser let off a little steam, well and a ton of water. It's always great to see the big, predictable geysers erupt. They are so unique and we should not take them for granted.

Castle Geyser, one of the greats!

After this, on the way back to the car we caught another Old Faithful eruption.

What? No one else is at Old Faithful, this is very strange...

This was the end of our geyser day at Old Faithful but one that will go down in our personal history books as, well an EPIC geyser day.

On the way back home we got another show, thermal in some way but not the same.

Electric Peak at sunset!

The park is opening the roads at the normal rate. Happy hunting!

Thanks for reading my blog! I hope you enjoyed it!

Yellowstone Getting Ramped Up For Centennial Celebration

Yellowstone National Park was the first in the world to hold the designation National Park. The park celebrated it's centennial in 1972 marking 100 year of protection and preservation. This year marks another big event, the centennial of the National Park Service whom protect and preserve Yellowstone and all of the other sites under their care. I'm sure that there will be celebrations happening in all of the satellite communities. I also expect the biggest to be in Gardiner, Montana which is the closest community to the parks headquarters in Mammoth Hot Springs.


I have read that community leaders in Gardiner are trying to attract president Obama to the community for the celebration that will take place on August 25th, 2016. I would expect big things to happen in Gardiner as well as all of the other communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Here's what Arch Park looked like back in the day, I wonder how it will look in 2016.



2016 will bring amazing events to all of these amazing places. I sure hope that you get out and explore your National Parks in 2016 for the Centennial.


For more information please join the Facebook group National Park Service Centennial at:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/579427665532340/

Find Your Park!