Grand Teton

Snowmobiles will be allowed in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park under a compromise announced yesterday that satisfies the builders and users of the machines but guarantees challenges from the environmental community and members of Congress. The proposal, which is expected to be signed March 24, reverses a decision by the Clinton administration that would have banned snowmobiles from the parks by next winter. The park service now plans to cap the number of machines allowed in Yellowstone daily at 950 and limit Grand Teton to 150. Yellowstone now averages 840 snowmobiles daily, but on holidays such as Presidents Day weekend, the total can soar to nearly 1,700.

Biologists studying pronghorn antelope in Wyoming are calling for measures to protect what they say is the longest remaining migration route used by any mammal in the continental United States. Beginning in October each year, as many as 300 antelope leave their summer feeding and fawning areas in Grand Teton National Park, and walk more than 175 miles to lower winter grazing land between Pinedale and Rock Springs in southwest Wyoming. From March to June, they follow the same route in reverse, part of it crossing high mountains and threading narrow canyons.

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. - There are days, more than Kitty Eneboe cares to count, when being a ranger at the nation's oldest national park is more like being part of a NASCAR pit crew. Hundreds of snowmobiles roar up to her entrance station at Yellowstone National Park and turn crisp evergreen-scented winter air into a malodorous blue-tinged haze capable of inducing headaches and watery eyes. On those days, Eneboe checks park passes from behind the glass of her kiosk as a blower forces clean air inside.

The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The hot substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive that a speck can cause cancer. Federal officials say the program would produce 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls, about 100 miles to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

Biologists studying pronghorn antelope in Wyoming are calling for measures to protect what they say is the longest remaining migration route used by any mammal in the continental United States. Beginning in October each year, as many as 300 antelope leave their summer feeding and fawning areas in Grand Teton National Park, and walk more than 175 miles to lower winter grazing land between Pinedale and Rock Springs in southwest Wyoming. From March to June, they follow the same route in reverse, part of it crossing high mountains and threading narrow canyons.

Elk were all around us -- big bulls with magnificent antlers, calves and babies staying close to their mothers -- at the %J National Elk Refuge just north of Jackson, Wyo.From October through December, more than 8,000 elk, the nation's largest herd, make their way from the slopes and meadows of Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks and national forest lands down to the the refuge. Here they are fed pellets of pressed alfalfa hay, 7 to 8 pounds per animal per day -- 30 tons for the herd -- during the most severe winter months when deep snow makes it difficult for them to find any grass or shrubs to eat.We went to see the elk at the end of a ski trip to the Tetons.

A University of Maryland administrator was recovering last night in a Jackson, Wyo., hospital after a ski accident forced him to crawl four days to safety along snowy backwoods trails in the Teton mountain range. After Vito J. Seskunas of Towson was found by another hiker at Grand Teton National Park, he told rangers "he hoped to make it to his car before he was rescued because he wanted to drive to the store and buy some Coke," a park spokesman said. "He was tired of eating snow." On Tuesday, hours after starting what was to be a five-day solo ski trip, Seskunas, a seasoned outdoorsman, fell at the base of a ravine and broke his ankle, according to the National Park Service.

Winter has always been the most serenely beautiful time to visit the volcanic wonderlands of Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Geysers and hot springs cast delicate veils of steam and ice crystals over forests and meadows.Amid these steaming marvels congregate many of the park's 4,000 buffalo, innumerable deer and antelope and hundreds of migratory birds that use the warm streams as a comfortable winter resort.The beauty isn't likely to change. But nowadays, scratch the serenity.From mid-December to mid-March, as many as 1,500 snowmobiles a day race through the park on more than 50 miles of well-groomed trails, clustering around Old Faithful in a buzzing, smoky gridlock and occasionally riding herd on hapless animals that also use the trails.

On the eve of the opening of snowmobile season at Yellowstone National Park, a federal judge ordered the National Park Service yesterday to scrap a Bush administration plan to expand snowmobile use in the park and reimpose a Clinton-era policy phasing out the machines. The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by a number of environmental groups, also affects neighboring Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, which connects the two parks in northwest Wyoming. The plaintiffs, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, argued that the Park Service had ignored its own research that shows that prohibiting snowmobiles would be the best way to protect the parks' resources.

Dads are often our first teachers when it comes to the outdoors. They teach us to cast a line and steer the boat and shoot a tin can. But when their children are girls who are interested in the outdoors, dads also can be overprotective or under-supportive or just plain clueless. Geoffrey Norman is a dad who struggled to find a way to connect with his two daughters. He tried coaching softball and teaching Sunday school and learning to ski, but still felt "empathy impaired." He says he "was an old-fashioned man" who "liked life in the barracks, the saloons, the hunting and fishing camps."

On the eve of the opening of snowmobile season at Yellowstone National Park, a federal judge ordered the National Park Service yesterday to scrap a Bush administration plan to expand snowmobile use in the park and reimpose a Clinton-era policy phasing out the machines. The ruling, in a lawsuit brought by a number of environmental groups, also affects neighboring Grand Teton National Park and the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway, which connects the two parks in northwest Wyoming. The plaintiffs, including the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, argued that the Park Service had ignored its own research that shows that prohibiting snowmobiles would be the best way to protect the parks' resources.

Snowmobiles will be allowed in Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park under a compromise announced yesterday that satisfies the builders and users of the machines but guarantees challenges from the environmental community and members of Congress. The proposal, which is expected to be signed March 24, reverses a decision by the Clinton administration that would have banned snowmobiles from the parks by next winter. The park service now plans to cap the number of machines allowed in Yellowstone daily at 950 and limit Grand Teton to 150. Yellowstone now averages 840 snowmobiles daily, but on holidays such as Presidents Day weekend, the total can soar to nearly 1,700.

WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. - There are days, more than Kitty Eneboe cares to count, when being a ranger at the nation's oldest national park is more like being part of a NASCAR pit crew. Hundreds of snowmobiles roar up to her entrance station at Yellowstone National Park and turn crisp evergreen-scented winter air into a malodorous blue-tinged haze capable of inducing headaches and watery eyes. On those days, Eneboe checks park passes from behind the glass of her kiosk as a blower forces clean air inside.

Dads are often our first teachers when it comes to the outdoors. They teach us to cast a line and steer the boat and shoot a tin can. But when their children are girls who are interested in the outdoors, dads also can be overprotective or under-supportive or just plain clueless. Geoffrey Norman is a dad who struggled to find a way to connect with his two daughters. He tried coaching softball and teaching Sunday school and learning to ski, but still felt "empathy impaired." He says he "was an old-fashioned man" who "liked life in the barracks, the saloons, the hunting and fishing camps."

A University of Maryland administrator was recovering last night in a Jackson, Wyo., hospital after a ski accident forced him to crawl four days to safety along snowy backwoods trails in the Teton mountain range. After Vito J. Seskunas of Towson was found by another hiker at Grand Teton National Park, he told rangers "he hoped to make it to his car before he was rescued because he wanted to drive to the store and buy some Coke," a park spokesman said. "He was tired of eating snow." On Tuesday, hours after starting what was to be a five-day solo ski trip, Seskunas, a seasoned outdoorsman, fell at the base of a ravine and broke his ankle, according to the National Park Service.

The rain poured down all night. The lightning flashed and the thunder crashed. We didn't mind, not even when the power went out. We were snug in our log cabin in the middle of Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park wondering how all the animals -- not to mention the campers -- were faring in the storm. Even the children were glad we'd opted for a cabin that night rather than a tent.The next morning, with the rain gone, they couldn't get outside fast enough. The hardest decision was what to do: hike, canoe or fish?

The cuteness of babies can only get you so far. In the case of ABC's new sitcom, "Baby Talk," it gets you through about five minutes before the banality of one of the season's worst new shows comes through clearly."

The Bush administration is planning the government's first production of plutonium 238 since the Cold War, stirring debate over the risks and benefits of the deadly material. The hot substance, valued as a power source, is so radioactive that a speck can cause cancer. Federal officials say the program would produce 330 pounds over 30 years at the Idaho National Laboratory, a sprawling site outside Idaho Falls, about 100 miles to the west and upwind of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

I discovered I was pregnant with my second child on Thanksgiving Day 1994. From the start, it was a license to eat.I felt sick only when my stomach was empty, and there was hardly any risk of that. At a neighbor's holiday open house, I camped near the crab dip. The hostess wrapped a gingerbread man for me to take home to my 3-year-old daughter. He was out of my coat pocket and decapitated before I was off her front porch.But even as the pounds came on fast and furious, I knew I'd have to find a way to take off the weight after the baby was born.

Winter has always been the most serenely beautiful time to visit the volcanic wonderlands of Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Geysers and hot springs cast delicate veils of steam and ice crystals over forests and meadows.Amid these steaming marvels congregate many of the park's 4,000 buffalo, innumerable deer and antelope and hundreds of migratory birds that use the warm streams as a comfortable winter resort.The beauty isn't likely to change. But nowadays, scratch the serenity.From mid-December to mid-March, as many as 1,500 snowmobiles a day race through the park on more than 50 miles of well-groomed trails, clustering around Old Faithful in a buzzing, smoky gridlock and occasionally riding herd on hapless animals that also use the trails.