Travel Guide: Yellowstone - Wyoming - United States

Sunset in Yellowstone
photo by: Jon Sullivan

Yellowstone National Park is the world's first national park. It is America's favorite park and for good reason. Sixty percent of the world's active geysers are found in Yellowstone. If that isn't enough, nowhere in the Lower 48 is there more abundant wildlife than in the Greater Yellowstone National Park region!

From biking to bear sightings, geyser eruptions to a Grand Canyon, your Yellowstone vacation will be more fun than you can imagine. YellowstonePark.com includes hundreds of pages including their popular online magazine, 99 Things to Do in Yellowstone Country, that is free and full of information about al lthere is to do, written by locals who are experts and have been covering the news and visiting the park since they were small children, 35 years ago. 

In this region, you can go on a whitewater raft trip, take a horseback ride or go on a scenic boat cruise. You can spend hours at a museum or take in a rodeo. Spend a day fishing some of the best trout waters in the country or head into the backcountry for a few nights and camp in some of the nation's most rugged country. Eat a hearty meal at an Old West Cookout or ride in a stagecoach replica.

See wild horses running free or view 4000-year-old petroglyphs. Walk in ruts left by covered wagons carrying emigrants west on historic trails like the Oregon and Mormon trails. Canoe where Lewis and Clark floated during their 1804-06 exploration. Take a scenic drive. Visit Sacajawea's grave or attend an Indian powwow. Walk the streets of a ghost town, complete with buildings that once served mining boom populations. See geysers shoot water over 100 feet high, and enjoy viewing the largest concentration of animals in the lower 48 states.

Yellowstone became the first national park in the world in 1872. There is so much beauty to be found in Yellowstone, many different kinds and types of landscapes. Yellowstone is very large, you can spend a lifetime trying to conquer everything Yellowstone has to offer and still not see everything. The majority of the people who visit Yellowstone stop in to see the Old Faithful Geyser, The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and hike the short 1 mile trail at the paint pots. There is so much to see and most people don't have the time to see all the attractions.

By Act of Congress on March 1, 1872, Yellowstone National Park was "dedicated and set apart as a public park or pleasuring ground for the benefit and enjoyment of the people" and "for the preservation, from injury or spoilation, of all timber, mineral deposits, natural curiosities, or wonders. . . and their retention in their natural condition." Yellowstone is the first and oldest national park in the world.
The commanding features that initially attracted interest, and led to the preservation of Yellowstone as a national park, were geological: the geothermal phenomena (there are more geysers and hot springs here than in the rest of the world combined), the colorful Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, fossil forests, and the size and elevation of Yellowstone Lake.

The human history of the park is evidenced by cultural sites dating back 12,000 years. More recent history can be seen in the historic structures and sites that represent the various periods of park administration and visitor facilities development.

Yellowstone Park is also home to the largest super volcano in the world. The last eruption occured some 60,000 yrs. ago forming what is now knwon as the great geyser basin area and Yellowstone lake. If it were to erupt again it would have the same effect as if an asteroid hit the planet, massive devistation worldwide. The magma in this volcano is just a few miles below the surface in some areas even closer. With all that aside it is one of the most beautiful spots in the world, living only about 100 miles from the park, my wife and I spend alot of time there.

Part or or all of this text stems from the original article at: YellowstonePark.com

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