All About Yellowstone National Park

Due to the size of this park, I thought I would make a separate post about it to help you familiarize yourself with the park. It is huge! The park has seen many milestones, with 2022 being its most recent milestone when the park celebrated its 150th birthday. On March 1, 1872, this park was set aside by the United States Congress as the first national park in the world. 

• It has a land area of 2.2 million acres.

• It is 3,472 square miles. 

• Its highest elevation is 11,358 feet. 

• In the entire world, there are about 1,000 geysers and Yellowstone has 500 of them. The Upper Geyser Basin has over 150 of the 500.  

• There are 10,000 hydrothermal features. 

• There are 290 waterfalls. 

• There are 900 historic buildings. 

• There are over 100 miles of trails and 466 miles of road. 

• Yellowstone National Park is home to the largest log cabin in the world, the Old Faithful Inn.

• There are five kinds of geothermal activity in the park: hot springs, geysers, fumaroles, mudpots, and travertine terraces.

  • Hot springs are large pools of hot water with living rings in various colors. The rings are    microorganisms that can only exist in 200-degree temperatures.

  • Geysers are similar to hot springs but they erupt due to trapped water within the bottleneck. There are six geysers within the park that erupt with regularity.

  • Fumaroles are known as steam vents and are the hottest geothermal. They burn the water before it reaches the surface.

  • Mudpots are acid melts that surround the rock into clay and mud which boils and sputters.

  • Travertine terraces are only found in Mammoth and are white caused by the limestone below them. Water seeps to the top and will cascade down.

• There are five entrances to the park:

  • Northeast Entrance which is closest to Cooke City, Montana and gives travelers access to Lamar Valley and the Beartooth Highway.

  • North Entrance which is closest to Gardiner, Montana and a few miles from Mammoth Hot Springs. It is the only entrance that is open year-round.

  • East Entrance which is closes to Cody, Wyoming where Buffalo Bill Cody was from.

  • South Entrance which is the gateway to Jackson, Wyoming and Grand Teton National Park.

  • East Entrance which is the busiest with all the shopping and dining available in West Yellowstone.

• Grand Loop Road is the name of the road that travels through the park. 

  
  

Here is a map that shows you the distances between entrances. It also shows how each section is divided so you will understand where the location is when I say we were at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, for example. 

• All lodging in the park is reserved through Xanterra at this website: https://www.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/stay/BeaKeep in mind that the lodges have no WI-FI, air conditioning or television. 

• Dining in the park is debatable. I've heard people say the restaurants were not that good. I'll mention what we ate as I go through each day. What I will say is that the dining is expensive, even at the grills or deli-type establishments and a lot of the locations were busy!