Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone: America's Best Known National Park
First established as a National Park in 1872, Yellowstone remains America's best-known National Park for its geothermal features, array of wildlife and stunning scenery. It covers three states--Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana--however, most of the park lies in Wyoming. The best known parts of the park are the Old Faithful Geyser and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
The largest volcanic system in North America lies in Yellowstone National Park. With constantly erupting geysers, bubbling hot springs, and a "supervolcano" system historically erupting every 600,000 years or so, Yellowstone is a huge attraction drawing nearly 3 million visitors per year.
Castle Rock Geyser
The Super Volcano
Yellowstone National Park is under great scrutiny from geologists for its geothermal activity. Most of the park is actually a giant caldera, or volcano hole, with a giant magma chamber 4 miles beneath the park's surface. This magma chamber is what powers the parks geysers, pools, and of course, Old Faithful. The giant caldera is referred to as a "supervolcano" because of its catastrophic history. Scientists have confirmed that there is no reason to believe there is an eruption in the near future, nor that we are "overdue."
Sulfur pools
Old Faithful...you've heard of it many times, and probably have seen it on TV. Old Faithful is just one of hundreds of geysers in Yellowstone. It erupts every 74 minutes at a height between 100-180 feet for up to 5 minutes straight. The water temperature has been measured at 204 degrees, while the steam is a scorching 350 degrees!
You'll notice in the picture above the azure blue color of the pools. This is created from black bacteria dying off when the pool heats up from thermal activity.
Old Faithful
More About Volcanoes...
- Volcanoes Are Hot Stuff
Volcanoes are some of the most terrifying and magnificent wonders of our restless planet. Scientists have learned a great deal about volcanoes in the last century or so, but when a volcano stirs, all we can do is get out of the way.
Yellowstone on YouTube
- Old Faithful WebCam
See live pictures of Yellowstone's Old Faithful. - Interactive Canyon Tour
Take a tour of Yellowstone's famed canyon with pictures, maps and links. - Yellowstone Weather
Find out the forecast, snow depth and average temperatures for Yellowstone. - Yellowstone Wallpaper
Be sure to check out Wallpaper by Design for more images of Yellowstone! - Where to Stay in Yellowstone
The best places to stay in the Yellowstone vicinity, in and outside of the park.
Not as well known as the Grand Canyon in Arizona is the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. However, this waterfall canyon may be just as visually impressive with its half mile width and 900 foot drop. The Yellowstone River cascades through the canyon eroding away and carving into the rock.
Wildlife in Yellowstone
Yellowstone offers an extensive array of animal wildlife, including the reintroduced gray wolf, the american bison, lynx, and foliage particular only to Yellowstone. It's one of the few places where it isn't hard to spot wildlife.
American Bison
Gray Wolf
Lynx
More Wildlife...
- The Mighty American Bison
These large, intimidating creatures were once on the verge of extinction until they were reintroduced into Yellowstone National Park and on Elk Island in Alberta, Canada. Bison are commonly called "buffalo" by many, however, they are technically biso - Grizzly Bears
The brown bear (known as the grizzly in the Lower 48 states) is a large predator distinguished from black bears by a distinctive hump on the shoulders, a dished profile to the face, and long claws about the length of a human finger. - Gray Wolves are being taken off the Endangered Species List
Wolves were once abundant over much of North America and Eurasia but now inhabits a very small portion of its former range because of widespread destruction of its habitat, human encroachment of its habitat, and the resulting human-wolf encounters th - The Magnificent Moose
A lens all about moose, featuring moose merchandise and more.
Nearby to Yellowstone and included in the Greater Yellowstone area is the Grand Tetons National Park. Its high peaks contrast with the comparatively low-lying valleys, lakes and meadows below offer some of the best photography, hiking, and camping of any of the National Parks. What makes the Grand Tetons unique are its lack of foothills leading up to the glacier-topped mountains.
- Hikes & Drives
Find hikes, driving trails, bird watching spots, and day trips in the Grand Tetons area on this National Geographic page. - Grand Tetons WebCam
Get a view of the park live via this WebCam.
A Poll on Yellowstone...
Do you plan on visiting Yellowstone National Park?
Greater Yellowstone
The area surrounding and leading into Yellowstone National Park remains a spectacle as well. Covering 14 million acres, there are many more lakes, streams, rivers and mountains to be discovered.
A winding road outside of Yellowstone
A rainbow hits in the early morning hours outside of Yellowstone
The closest major town you'll find to the Yellowstone region is Jackson, or Jackson Hole as it's commonly referred to. Expect to see temperatures around 79 degrees during peak summer in July and August. With lows around 42 even in summer, you'll need to pack warm clothes with you for this trip. Winter temperatures rarely crack above freezing, and often dip down to single digits at night.
Yellowstone Books & Guides
Yellowstone is a very large area. Large enough that you could miss some of the hidden gems located in the park! It's so large that bison hid out here in the 1800's (unintentionally?) to avoid being totally decemated as a species and managed to be virtually undetected. An area this large needs a good guide book! Read up on Yellowstone with this top rated guides on Amazon. All have excellent reviews.
An Interesting Take on Yellowstone
This is very different, morbid take on Yellowstone. The author airs on the side of caution, telling the tales of the unfortunate people that have perished in Yellowstone National Park. Some 250 people have died from incidents natural and man made...some could have been prevented, some not. There are many perils in the parks that you may not know about! From landslides, avalanches, hot geyser blasts, car accidents, bison goaring (!), bear attacks and plane crashes, anything can happen here.
