Mr Abscate - I think we'll be just upwind, so we'll be fine. Really, everything will be fine. Little puff of dust, maybe the earths crust opened up and the contents spewed over many thousands of miles....
Mr Bloke - Yes, I agree. And you know that's why that smooth smile-shaped plain across southern ID - the hot spot under the crust that is now Yellowstone, blew up many times and melted that path as the crust slid west and northwest-ward. Also Craters of the Moon in ID. So soon the hot spot will be under Billings and Missoula will be #1 yay.
Last time we were in the Park, we went to a Ranger talk and he was a geologist, which was cool. He said we're about due, historically. Every X number of hundred years there's been a big event, and it could be any time now! Some of the geysers have quit, others have started back up, Old Faithful doesn't spew on the hour any more... The dome underneath is constantly swelling and moving, so actually your topo map might not be that accurate.
That area is heavily instrumented and studied, so you'd assume there would be quite a bit of warning.....months? ...years? Mt St Helens went off with only a couple of months warning. We got "snowed" on in Bozeman when I was in school with thick sulphur-smelling ash. It was weird and surreal. I knew a guy whose engine was ruined. E Washington was buried - there's still grey ash in the ditches along I-90 out in the sticks. They used front end loaders to clear it in Yakima and Moses Lake.
As a kid in the back of the wagon, (hmm, wagons...) I just remember Yellowstone as a thick forest of skinny lodgepole. You couldn't see anything but trees until you reached a geyser basin or up on the plateau. After the big fire (88?), it was a revelation to see that you were driving over the rim and down into the caldera. The first few years were fantastic - it's still very visible but the forests are growing back in gradually.
Abscate - I once sailed my Laser on Yellowstone Lake. It was brutally cold - in July. The signs at the dock warn you you have about 15 minutes in the water if you go in. My sons were freaked - I flipped and lost the centerboard. I think it's almost 8000' elevation and storms come out of nowhere. They've lost a few unprepared boy scout canoeists over the years.
Mr dyn blin - Yes! My son races his bike sometimes at U of I / Moscow. It's a neat town and a pretty campus on the hill. We especially enjoyed the very nice arboretum on the edge of campus. I love the Palouse hills to the north and west - what a landscape that is.
Squareback Too Low.......

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