PBS: Christmas In Yellowstone
Public Broadcasting's "Nature" aired a show tonight well worth catching on the re-run.
"Christmas In Yellowstone" was a breathtaking look at wintertime deep within America's first national park, stretching across more than 2.2 million acres of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho. Yellowstone National Park is one of the greatest expanses of unspoiled nature and wildlife anywhere on Earth.
One day I would like to visit there, when the budget allows.
It was designated America's first national park in 1872, thanks to then-President Theodore Roosevelt, and now receives almost three million visitors each year, compared to the Great Smoky Mountains' 10 million. Yet only a small fraction of those who glimpse the park's stunning vistas, geological wonders, and animal residents do so during the winter months, according to the show's Web site, at a time when nature's inhospitality is matched only by its serenity.
"Nature" follows in the snowy footprints of Yellowstone's red foxes, spies on the predatory warfare of wolves and elk, and climbs into the den of a grizzly bear that gives birth to two cubs while deep in hibernation. In addition to mesmerizing footage of landscapes and wildlife, trail alongside author and photographer Tom Murphy, who has been coming to Yellowstone for the past 26 winters, camping and photographing amid the silence and solitude of the park.
Go behind the scenes with filmmaker Shane Moore on the Web site to find out how he kept up with Murphy during an at times harrowing trek, reminiscent of the legendary John Colter's first journey into the park nearly 200 years ago.