Wyoming, USA. Trekking on national parks in the United States

His motto is "Unimaginable Mountains", that is, mountains of such beauty that one could only imagine, and even then with difficulty. But no, they can actually be seen, and for this you only have to visit the Park Grand Teton, which, as it seemed to us, is especially beautiful in autumn.

It's hard to work as a ranger in Grand Teton National Park when people pass it only on the way to the famous Yellowstone. But what can you do, since he is next to such a famous neighbor. The boundary between the two parks is very conditional, and if it were not for the rangers' booth, collecting entrance fees and issuing a map of the new park, it's very difficult to say where the Grand Teton ends and where Yellowstone begins. But to combine these two places into one national park is simply impossible, they are so different. Grand Teton is mountains, forests, meadows and lakes, and Yellowstone is geysers and hot springs.

Grand Teton National Park is located 18 kilometers south of the famous brother - Yellowstone Park. And if you travel around the USA by car, then by no means miss the opportunity to see the beauty of the Teton mountain range by combining a visit to both parks for at least two or three days. It is possible to drive from one park to another along the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Avenue, the world's first dollar billionaire. Moreover, the territories of the parks of Grand Teton and Yellowstone, as well as the nature protection zones located next to them, are part of the Big Yellowstone ecosystem - one of the largest in the world.

Catastrophic volcanic eruptions - is humanity ready for them? We are accustomed to the constancy of the world around us and often painfully perceive all changes in the external environment, which is not surprising: modern humanity was lucky, since the formation and development of our civilization took place in a favorable and relatively "calm" planetary period. However, the life expectancy of a person does not exceed one hundred years, industrial society only a few centuries, and the written history of mankind - no more than several millennia. On a geological scale, such time periods are very short; in the long history of the biosphere, there are "records" of many catastrophic events on a global scale, such as climate changes caused by powerful volcanic eruptions. And scientists have learned to "read" them, but so far they cannot confidently predict the upcoming disasters.

Grand Teton has an area of about 130,000 hectares, includes most of the Teton mountain range and the northern part of the Jackson Hole Valley. Grand Teton Park is known for its magnificent views, numerous shimmering alpine lakes (the largest lake called Jackson has a length of 24 kilometers) and rich wildlife (1,000 species of vascular plants, 300 species of birds, 61 species of mammals, 6 species of reptiles inhabit the park). amphibians and thousands of insect species). The most famous of its inhabitants are moose, bison and eagles. The landscape of the park is amazingly beautiful.

There are more than 10 glaciers in the Titon Range. The park is popular and offers visitors various types of recreation for climbers, skiers and all outdoor enthusiasts. On the territory of the Grand Teton there are more than 1000 places for camping, 320 km of walking routes, several information centers and guest complexes. For tourists, there is the Craig-Thomas information center, located near the park administration building in the village of Moose. The guest center is located in the former Rockefeller family ranch. On the shores of Lake Jenny is the Jenny Lake Information Center, open to visitors from mid-May to mid-September. The Teton Mountain Range is the youngest in the Rocky Mountains. It appeared about 9 million years ago and rises above the rich wildlife and lakes of the Alpine plain, where you can enjoy walks in the virgin nature and tranquility of untouched lands. Teton Ridge is an incredibly scenic place.

Most of the lakes located in the park are located at the foot of the ridge and are of glacial origin. The largest lake in the park is Jackson Lake, which is located in its northern part. The length of the lake is 24 kilometers, width - 8 kilometers, and a depth of 134 meters. The park also has lakes Emma Matilda (Emma Matilda), Two Ocean, Leig (Leigh), Jenny (Jenny), Bradley (Bradley), Taggart (Taggart) and Phelps (Phelps). In the area of the Teton Ridge there are many small lakes, for example, Cascade, Eisflu.

To the west of Jenny Lake is a small Hidden Falls, which is 30 meters high. The Snake River crosses the territory of Grand Teton Park from north to south and flows through all the major lakes of the park. The largest tributaries of the Snake River are Pacific Creek (Pacific Creec) and Buffalo Creek (Buffalo Creek) near the town of Moran, as well as the river Gros Ventre on the southern border of the park. When traveling to America, tourists from other countries are advised to take out medical insurance, since medicine in the USA is very expensive.

Because of their consequences, volcanic eruptions pose no less, but possibly greater threat to humanity than atomic war, the fall of a major meteorite or any other global catastrophe. And, apparently, we underestimate this danger. Atomic war is a very real threat, but it is within our power to prevent it from arising. As for meteorites, we only have guesses, indirect evidence of the biosphere disasters caused by them - there is no reliable evidence. There have been many catastrophic eruptions with noticeable environmental consequences in the history of mankind, including the eruptions of the Toba and Krakatau volcanoes in Indonesia.

But the largest eruption, in fact an environmental catastrophe that threatened to destroy all life on Earth, occurred at the border of Perm and Triassic 250 million years ago. And it was connected with the eruptions of the Siberian traps - an extensive volcanic system in the northeast of the Eurasian continent, where for about a million years many volcanoes erupted simultaneously; as well as with similar magmatic events that probably occurred in the oceans. Unfortunately, the Permian oceanic crust has not been preserved. It is believed that this volcanic activity led to the extinction of almost 80% of all biological species (more than 90% in number) - almost all life on Earth died, although then it recovered quite quickly by geological standards. And what happened once can happen again, but the possibility of saving (or restoring) human civilization after such a catastrophe seems unlikely.

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