Original subtitles

- You know, the origin story of Yellowstone National Park

really is the ultimate battle

between David and Goliath,

the regular guy against the impossibly huge behemoth

that is the United States government.

Ferdinand Hayden spearheaded the whole thing.

The truth was, he'd been fighting

against the odds his whole life.

He grew up destitute.

His dad was an alcoholic who died when Hayden was 10

and his mother abandoned him.

He went to work on his uncle's farm,

and when he turned 18, he packed the few things he had

and walked, I mean, actually walked,

300 miles to Oberlin College in Ohio.

Imagine that, he just walked to a college,

went to the president's office and said,

"Hey, I don't have any money, but if you enroll me,

I intend to change the world for the better."

And they did.

And he did too.

They didn't expect to see what they saw,

and when they saw it, they could never forget it.

Ferdinand Hayden was hired to lead a team

into the Northwest Territories,

and the 32 men headed west.

They weren't here to protect Yellowstone.

They were here to tear it to shreds in the name of progress.

Gold interests, railroad parents, Congress.

Powerful people wanted this land for themselves.

But something happened during their three month journey,

and slowly but surely, their mission changed.

So, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary

of Yellowstone National Park,

we take a look back in time at the events that led

to the preservation of this magical place.

After nearly six months under the crushing grip

of winter in Yellowstone, the brutal conditions ease up,

temperatures rise, and it's finally time for

Yellowstone's wildlife to take center stage again.

Some are returning from long journeys away from the park,

some have been taking refuge for the winter,

and some are seeing spring for the very first time.

This is an entirely new Yellowstone,

transformed and filled with vibrant burgeoning life

in every corner.

Even the Hayden Expedition

hard at work surveying the land took note

as the newest members of each species were put on display.

A little nicer than when we were here last time, no?

You know, spring is definitely on its way.

All that snow up there, that's lifeblood of Yellowstone.

You can see a lot of it's already melted off.

You know, the runoff here feeds the park

with over 60,000 gallons of fresh water every second.

It's like the alarm clock that wakes up

all of Yellowstone, signals of coming seasons.

Maybe life's gonna get a little easier here for a while.

All the animals come out to play.

This whole place gets reborn now.

As the days get longer and warmer,

snow and ice melt into life

giving water that soaks the ground

and trickles into Yellowstone Lake.

The water refreshes the lake,

and the sudden overflow drains through

to Yellowstone River at roughly

20,000 cubic feet per second.

The longest un-dammed river in North America,

the Yellowstone is wild and untame.

Nothing can stop it from doing what it wants to do.

And as it drops in elevation, it only grows stronger

and the power of its force goes on full display.

The lower falls feed the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone,

where rushing water has plowed through the earth

for 160,000 years,

leaving behind a ravine 4,000 feet across,

1,200 feet deep and 24 miles long.

It's a testament to the river's power

and the vastness of time.

But sometimes the river shows off its strength

in much more destructive ways.

In 2022, higher than expected rains in the spring combined

with the melting snow to create an unprecedented series

of floods that overtook the park.

The river spilled over their banks

to never before seen heights,

causing some of the roads and bridges to be washed away

and affected all of Yellowstone's residents.

- Things were changing in the matter of minutes.

- It's left us totally severed from the outside world

- And it's utter devastation.

- [Kevin] The park had to evacuate over 10,000 visitors

as entire sections became submerged in water.

The damage to the manmade structures in the park

and gateway communities will take years to replace.

But even though this was a once every thousand years flood

the ecosystem will fix itself.

Flooding is just a part of the cycle of Yellowstone's life.

Balance will be restored without any help from mankind.

Destruction is actually needed for the park

to maintain balance.

Sometimes it's in the form of water, sometimes it's fire.

When the Hayden Expedition first approached Yellowstone

150 years ago, they took note of multiple

forest fires in the distance.

They'd arrived at the beginning of fire season,

which runs from July to late September.

Hayden and his men were laying eyes on something

that affected Yellowstone repeatedly

ever since the last great glacial retreat 14,000 years ago.

Put simply, Yellowstone had burned before

and it would burn again.

- In the American West,

fires continue to crackle through thousands

of acres of brush and timberland.

- [Kevin] In 1988, Yellowstone faced

its largest fire on record.

- [Reporter] Firefighters say they are battling

the worst fire conditions they've ever seen

in Yellowstone National Park.

- [Kevin] A perfect storm developed

when several smaller fires merged into a single raging

inferno that scorched nearly 800,000 acres of park land.

More than a third of Yellowstone.

- [Reporter] Firefighters are hosing down roofs

at Mammoth Hot Springs, the Yellowstone Park's headquarters,

directly in the path of the fires.

- [Kevin] It led to America's largest firefighting effort

at the time, costing 120 million dollars

- Army soldiers are being sent

to the front lines to battle a very stubborn enemy:

forest fires.

- But despite the money and the manpower...

it was mother nature that did what it always does;

restoring order through massive rain and snowstorms.

Fire is actually a necessary part of Yellowstone's balance.

High above, the cones of lodgepole pine trees require

the extreme heat of forest fires to open.

They then release their seeds

over newly charred areas...

and replant the forest.

The burn scars from 1988's fire will take several

more decades to fully disappear.

But one thing is certain;

the forest, just like everything else in the park,

will be reborn.

The animals in Yellowstone also go

through periods of transition.

Each year in the spring, many of them began their migration

from winter grounds back to their spring and summer homes.

As many as 20,000 elk begin an epic migration

to the higher plateaus of the park.

There they'll be met by fresh green grass

that will keep them fed for the next six months.

But as the waters dash downhill

and thousands of bison embark on a journey uphill...

it's only a matter of time before there's a conflict.

This bison herd has been on the move for several days.

This calf was born in April

and she's about to face her first big test.

She finds herself on the banks

of the raging Yellowstone River

cutting clear across her path.

The entire herd must cross it to get to greener pastures.

Bison are the largest mammal in North America,

but even the adults struggle

against the power of the spring runoff.

For the young, it's trial by fire.

Or in this case, water.

The calf is especially susceptible to the rushing current.

Mom thinks fast, using her massive body

to break up the current,

Other members of the herd are less lucky

and a fully grown cow is taken under.

The calf survives her first test in Yellowstone.

There will be another test tomorrow.

In spring, all of Yellowstone's animals are on the move

as they spread across the park's 2.2 million acres.

But the rocky mountainous terrain makes traveling

a slow and treacherous process.

The bald eagle doesn't have to worry about the terrain,

gliding effortlessly over the massive canyons,

building nests atop the mighty forest

of ferns and cypress trees

and resting comfortably near the top

of Yellowstone's food chain.

Every inch of the park is their kingdom.

Bad news for the ground squirrels that dot the valley.

But the bald eagles aren't the only guns in town.

Yellowstone is also home to an ever growing population

of golden eagles.

With a young hatchling in her nest,

this female golden eagle will be hunting for two this spring

which means the bald eagle will face stiff competition.

With dive speeds of 150 miles per hour,

there's no land animal on earth

that can outrun the golden eagle.

And she swoops in for the kill.

But the bald eagle won't give up his meal so easily.

This chase is costing the bald eagle

valuable calories that he could be using to hunt other prey.

So he relents.

And the golden eagle brings the kill back to the nest.

While many species rely on seasonal migration to escape

the effects of winter,

some endure the months of brutal cold

by hunkering down into states of suspended slumber.

The Boreal chorus frogs freeze into balls of ice.

Their hearts stop beating and they shut down their lungs.

But when the spring thaw brings them back from the dead

their bass-filled guttural croon

is the soundtrack of Yellowstone.

Grizzly bears also emerged from their winter long slumber.

This adult male has been living off body fat

for five months and hasn't had anything to eat

or drink since entering his den for the winter.

It's a misconception that grizzlies wake

up from hibernation ravenous with hunger.

While they do immediately begin searching for food,

they're lethargic for the first two weeks.

It's like a state of walking hibernation

while they wait for their metabolism to restart.

Fortunately, for this bear,

he doesn't have to hunt for a meal today.

This elk carcass is what's known as winter kill,

the end result of the incredibly harsh winter.

The meat stays fresh, preserved by the snow.

As the snow retreats, the easy feasts

are first come first serve.

The bear eats his fill, but he's not alone.

The scent of the decaying flesh has attracted a lone wolf.

He'll wait for the grizzly to fill up,

When the wolf is done,

a pack of coyotes will enjoy the leftovers.

And later, birds will pick the bones clean.

One dead elk taken by the winner

has given life to several.

Thanks to Ferdinand Hayden and his men,

the food chain is still perfectly intact,

just like it was 150 years ago when they fought

to protect Yellowstone.

Many of the sites they saw are the same ones we see today.

But still, I wonder what it would've been

like laying eyes on this land for the first time.

You know, sometimes I wish I could jump

into a time machine and go back

and join Hayden in his Expedition just to see what they saw.

Times like now when I'm starving,

I'm just happy to follow the journals.

But these guys, Congress sent 'em back here to figure

out how to mine, how to exploit this land.

So a lot of the men

on the expedition were scientists, academics.

They weren't necessarily burly mountain men.

And so after a long day of traversing

they still had to find something to eat.

They didn't hunt, they didn't eat,

and they weren't used to that.

Judging by the journals,

they spent a lot of time thinking about food.

When they did get the occasional deer

or elk or even a black bear, times were good.

But other times, 32 men were sharing a couple of grouse.

I'm sure it was times like that when they all

questioned the monumental task that was in front of them.

You know, it's a lot easier

for David to defeat Goliath when David's well fed.

Hot.

Much like the men on the Hayden Expedition,

every living thing in Yellowstone is

in constant search for its next meal.

As the park's newest arrivals enjoy their first spring

they grow bigger and require more food.

This means learning new skills.

These grizzly cubs were born in February,

After two months of nursing and sleeping,

it's time to leave the den so

that their mother can teach them the ways of the world.

They'll need me to sustain their body weight,

and that means learning how to hunt.

It may look like they're playing because they are,

but that's not all they're doing.

It's called play fighting,

and it's how the young cubs learn to use

their teeth and claws.

These young mountain lions do the same.

Harmlessly chasing and pouncing on each other

as they practice the art of survival in the wild.

Wolves also play fight to keep their hunting skills sharp.

Wolves are a native species in Yellowstone

and were abundant when the Hayden Expedition

came through in 1871.

But shortly after the park was established,

they were hunted nearly to extinction.

There were no wolves in the park for a century, but in 1995,

they were reintroduced in Yellowstone.

The revival in the park exceeded

conservationists' expectations.

Exploding elk populations were brought back

to sustainable level.

In turn, plants that the elk fed

on once again began to thrive,

allowing eroding riverbeds to return to their true form.

Some scientists believe that the wolves

have helped rebalance the entire ecosystem.

Now, on Yellowstone's 150th anniversary,

the springtime here looks and feels every bit

as it did when Ferdinand Hayden

and his team first arrived in the 1870s.

As serene as the verdant valleys are,

as playful the parade of youth may be,

along with it comes a dangerous undercurrent.

Spring is the first time when the newest member

of each species learns the ways of the world.

Yesterday, this bison calf learned a dangerous lesson

about crossing the Yellowstone River.

Unfortunately, she'll learn another today.

While winter kill leaves plenty

of easy meals for the wolves,

eventually, those run out

and bison calves are the next in line.

The bison know exactly why the wolves are here.

The wolves use a wide range

of vocalizations to communicate their strategy.

And that strategy is to cut off the bison's path.

The bison can't escape,

so the females form a tight circle around the young

in the middle and the males form the perimeter

circling the females.

These bulls are not giving up

their offspring without a fight.

The bison have won the standoff today.

There will be another tomorrow.

The Hayden Expedition was dazzled

by the confluence of wolves and bison and grizzly bears.

They wrote about it in their journals often.

But there's another creature that they wrote

about even more, one that emerges

from hibernation each spring.

This beast so terrified the pioneers

that they had to find a defense against it

or risk their entire mission.

When the snow melts, it runs

to the lower elevation and fuels the rivers and streams.

But it also creates stagnant pools,

giving mosquitoes the perfect opportunity to lay eggs.

Their onslaught is a theme in their journal entries.

One of the geologists even considered leaving

to protect his sanity.

That was all until they came across some ancient knowledge.

Here's a good one.

Indigenous Americans have been burning bison dung

for thousands of years.

It's actually a great replacement

for wood if you need to start a fire.

And for some reason, mosquitoes just,

well, they just hate it.

So about halfway through the expedition

they started smudging.

That's what they called it.

And after that, no more journal entries about mosquitoes.

You know, if there's something I like less than picking

up bison patties, it's being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

You know, the funny thing is

there's so many things that could have derailed Hayden

and his men from finishing their mission out here,

but it wasn't the wolves, it wasn't the grizzlies,

it wasn't even the US Congress

that almost knocked 'em off course,

it was the damn mosquitoes.

Just don't throw the bison crap

into the fire until after you've eaten.

Hayden and his men found a cure

for the scourge of biting insects,

but one man's wildly annoying pest is the main attraction

for some of Yellowstone's more colorful visitors.

Over 150 species of birds migrate

to Yellowstone each spring to feast on the ample insects.

For many of these birds, where there's mosquitoes,

there's a full belly.

But that's not all.

The abundance of insects lured fish to the surface

of lakes and rivers.

Those fish are a handsome catch for Yellowstone's

birds of prey, including the mighty osprey.

When these raptors hunt, it's a sight to behold.

They use their excellent vision to spot fish

in the river below

and dive talons first to latch onto their meal.

The birds, the insects,

the fish, the trees,

even the rivers, they're all part of the cycle of life

in a land that is reborn each spring.

It's an incredible time to see Yellowstone National Park

so full of life and color.

The vibrance is exactly what Ferdinand Hayden

and the men who joined him wanted to preserve.

It's exactly what they were talking

about when they pleaded with the US Congress,

promising that the American people would benefit more

by just seeing this place than they would

from any railroad or any gold pulled from the ground.

He believed that Yellowstone would be a place

where anyone could come and visit,

come and be inspired by the sight and sounds,

and he was right.

There's something about staring out at the landscape here,

taking in the natural world just as it was intended to be,

just gives you a little reset.

Even if it only lasts a day or only an hour, it's priceless.

You know, sometimes I think what I might say

if I ever got a chance to talk to people who lived

in the past,

I think if I met Ferdinand Hayden,

it'd probably be, probably be just two words.

Thank you.