The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: January fifteenth, exploring the earth's largest temperate wilderness.

Throughout the early decades of the 19th-century, returning fur trappers told tall tales of vast, wooded mountains in the Wyoming wilderness, where wild rivers roared through deep canyons and valleys carpeted with hell holes spouted boiling water 200 feet in the air. In 1872, just one year after the first official expedition confirmed the trapper's tales weren't so tall, Congress set aside over two million acres of this wonderland as the world's very first national park.

The establishment of Yellowstone Park marked a milestone in mankind's relationship with nature. Instead of being turned over to private developers, the natural wilderness would forever be preserved for the benefit and enjoyment of future generations.

Views of how to preserve wilderness have changed over the years, but Yellowstone remains a showcase of nature's wonders. Centered in an ancient volcanic caldera, the rugged landscape contains some ten thousand hydrothermal features. Elk, bison, bear, moose, and now wolves, freely roam the vast preserve.

Yet, with four million human visitors each year, balancing nature's preservation with the enjoyment of future generations has proven a dilemma. Yellowstone still offers endless outdoor wonders, but many who now arrive between April and October only find the crowds and traffic jams they left at home.

Yet it's still possible to experience the majesty of Yellowstone in pristine solitude. Tune in tomorrow and find out how.

FMI For information about Yellowstone: call the National Park Service at 307-344-7381 or www.nps.gov/yell

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