Yellowstone Scare!

 A few days after we booked our Yellowstone trip, internet bloggers posted videos of Bisons and other animals running away from the park. They were suggesting that this might be due to an impending explosion of the Super-volcano on which the Yellowstone park is sitting on! (http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/593833-yellowstone-volcano-eruption-in-2014-some-believe-animals-are-fleeing-park-see-it-as-an-alert/)

I did not reveal this to the family or friends.. But frantically started reading all kinds of articles about the Geography, History, and Science related to this place, and just decided to go.. It’s like you never believe such things will happen to you in real!

Two days into the trip, while coming back from Grand Tetons National park, my son and I went inside a gas station store. There on the way to checkout, a fellow customer asked me – in front of my son (!!) – if I had heard that a road in Yellowstone had MELTED that morning and all the roads going north into the park were closed. On top of that he pointed out that he had not heard of anything like this in the 30yrs he had lived in Yellowstone!! Whaaaatt?! My son almost panicked and I was trying hard to contain his emotions! 😉 The store owner confirmed having read and heard the news on the Internet that morning. (http://www.weather.com/news/yellowstone-national-park-closes-popular-geysers-attractions-due-melting-road-20140710)

Now with absolutely no signal or internet access in the park, and having to travel north through the park to get to our hotel, my mind was picturizing all the disaster movie scenarios while designing elaborate backup/escape plans. Thankfully my son did not say anything about this to his mom when we got back into the car. Somehow that evening while driving back through the park to our hotel, I saw too many cars leaving the park rather than going in – further fueling my imagination!!

Knowledge can be a pain in the a$$ sometimes! 😉 I had read that the super-volcano had exploded at a frequency of about once every 650,000 yrs and the last one was 640,000 yrs ago!!!! So the next one was due anytime!! With the bisons running away and one of the roads just melting due to the heat from all the volcanic activity – which was unheard of, at least to that local guy at the store – things were heading straight into a Hollywood disaster movie plot 😉

Anyway, apart from making me think and worry, nothing of disaster nature happened! We eventually reached our hotel and did not see any widespread panic like I had imagined.. I saw the road that had melted. For the next 2 days, every crater, every mud volcano, every geyser appeared to me as if it was planning to explode but I kept quiet!! 😉 Didn’t want to start mass panic in the family.

We got out of the park on Aug 13th and that’s when I told my wife why I was a bit ‘occupied’ for the last 2 days! As for Yellowstone, I don’t know what happens next!!!! (http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/597425-yellowstone-supervolcano-eruption-in-our-lifetime-map/)