Yellowstone NP in 1946

As we watch the first episode of the "National Parks" this evening, it seemed appropriate to reflect on my first visit to the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone NP. It was during the summer of 1946 when 4 of us farm boys borrowed my sisters 1930 Model A Ford and made the trip. We slept in a tent, bought gas in South Dakota at 6 gallons for $1.00 and stopped at the Wall Drug Store.

We were fascinated with Mt. Rushmore and remembered having read about it in our "Current Developments" while in HS. While we were greatly impressed with the natural features of Yellowstone NP,  we cut our visit short since gasoline was $0.25/gallon, food and camp sites were expensive in our judgment. While I took some pictures, these shown were purchased. I'm not sure the one of the geyser is actually of Old Faithful. I do remember that we pulled up to a parking area at the base of the geyser and waited along with no more than 25 people for it's display. Ten years later, we were back to the park and couldn't believe the large number of tourist and the distance they were kept back from the geyser's base.  We have been back to Yellowstone several times and bought a Passport years ago that covered our entry fee. One of our Motor Home trips there with Carolyn and Julie enabled us to witness a minor earthquake. We have a Passport Booklet in which we have collected stamps and dates of our visit to NP's. I may have to write a story on all our Park visits after listening to the TV series on National Parks.