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Which park in America is best known? Yellowstone National Park, hands down. Nowhere else can you find the diversity that distinguishes this park. From the world's greatest collection of geysers and hot springs to sparkling alpine lakes, rugged peaks, and an incredible array of wildlife, Yellowstone packs more into its boundaries than any other American park. Early explorers called it "Wonderland" for good reason.
With more than 10,000 geothermal features in all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and temperatures, Yellowstone is geyser central. Old Faithful is just one of roughly 150 geysers in the park's Upper Geyser Basin. In the Midway Geyser Basin simmers Grand Prismatic Spring, the park's largest spring with its 370-foot diameter. Grand Prismatic is an azure-hued hot spring ringed by yellow and orange algae. At Mammoth Hot Springs, centuries of cascading, mineral-laden hot water have stacked brilliantly white terraces one atop another. These and the rest of Yellowstone's thermal features are constantly changing. Some die out, others get feistier, and new ones spit, claw, and fume into existence through rifts in the earth.
Not to be upstaged by these waterworks is Yellowstone's animal kingdom. This park has the market cornered when it comes to big furry poster animals suitable for environmental issues. With the reintroduction of wolves in the mid-1990s, the park's wild kingdom has been returned to its original state for the first time since government hunters wiped wolves out of Yellowstone in the 1950s. The more than 150 wolves that now lope about Yellowstone share the park with elk, bison, coyotes, bears, and the occasional moose. The animals give Yellowstone a wild, sometimes scary, edge. On spring and fall nights you may hear the baleful howling of wolves. If your timing is right, you may see grizzly bears and wolves tussling over elk and bison carcasses in the Lamar Valley. In the Hayden Valley, you occasionally have to stop your car to make way for bison, which sometimes weigh nearly a ton and have horn-topped heads.
Yellowstone Lake is also unforgettable. Glassy and serene during the early mornings and evenings on calm summer days, the lake can quickly be whipped into a choppy inland sea with 6-foot waves. Dotted by islands and rimmed by dense lodgepole forests, the lake nurtures rich fisheries that lure anglers from around the world. Draining the lake, the Yellowstone River flows serenely to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, where it roars over two towering waterfalls. Standing on the brink of 308-foot-tall Lower Falls, you may feel a passing wave of vertigo, but you'll also understand why 19th-century landscape artists, like Thomas Moran, were so taken by the setting. After crashing to the canyon floor, the river continues to cut the canyon deeper and deeper through yellow- and buff-colored walls.
 | If you can visit only one national park, make it Yellowstone. Granted, the park's immense popularity generates stifling summertime masses, but you can avoid the throngs. In general, remember that, although the front country can get frustratingly crowded during the height of summer when most of the park's 3 million annual visitors arrive, the backcountry provides solitude, serenity, and the same image of the Rocky Mountain West that confronted 19th-century mountain pioneers. |
Must-see attractions
Should you look for geysers? Bison? Wolves? Glassy lakes? Which direction should you head when you arrive in Yellowstone? These questions are always tough, because the park has so many wonderful places to go and things to look for. You'll quickly develop your own favorites, but until then, here's a cheat sheet to get you started:
- Old Faithful Inn: This venerable old inn turned 100 in 2004, yet hardly looks its age. In fact, it's the prototypical "stately national park inn." It also is arguably theworld's largest log cabin. Sitting in a rocking chair in front of the massive four-sided fireplace after dinner is a great way to end a day in the park.
- Artist Point: One of several overlooks below the Yellowstone River's Lower Falls, this vantage point has inspired artists for more than a century.
- Lake Yellowstone Hotel: This Colonial Revival-style hotel, with an interior that might remind you of The Great Gatsby, offers the park's most luxurious accommodations. Its Sun Room, just off the lobby, features 1891 wicker furniture and live music nightly.
- The Lamar Valley: This rolling valley in the park's northeast corner comes to life in late spring when elk, bison, grizzly bears, and wolves all converge for nourishment.
- Mammoth Hot Springs: Located just inside the North Entrance, Mammoth Hot Springs is home to park headquarters and, in the Albright Visitor Center, one of the park's best museums. You also find buildings erected for Fort Yellowstone, which was the military outpost when the cavalry administered the park before the National Park Service took over.
- Mud Volcano: The sulphurous, sputtering machinations of mud pots and hot springs found at this attraction are amazing. Because the springs are heavy with muds and clays, their fizzling, bubbling, and plopping is different from what you see at the other geyser basins.
- The Norris Geyser Basin: The park's hottest, and oldest, geyser basin has more than 2 miles of trails that navigate through the geysers and hot springs. The area contains Steamboat, the world's tallest active geyser, which blasts 300 to 400 feet into the sky. Although spectacular, Steamboat is utterly unpredictable. Eruptions often are many years apart; this geyser last erupted in May 2000, and before that in October 1991.
- The Upper Geyser Basin: One of five basins in the park's front country where thermal features are concentrated, this area is home to Old Faithful, the world's most famous geyser, and the historic Old Faithful Inn.
When to go and how long to stay
 | You should spend at least three days in Yellowstone. Most visitors come in summer and avoid winter, although the weather is unpredictable year-round. Snow can fall any day of the year, and midwinter chinooks (warm, dry winds) can spawn springlike days. Fickleness aside, the park has four distinct seasons. |
Spring doesn't really show up in earnest before mid-May. In fact, April and early May are the worst times to visit Yellowstone. Sure, you won't encounter many crowds. But the mud, the harsh bite of a late-season snowstorm, and the weather's overall rawness can be trying.
Summer begins to show its hand by mid-June as wildflowers erupt into bloom across the park's lower reaches. By late June, the first serious waves of tourists arrive in the park, and their cars, at times choking the roads, begin to crawl along the Grand Loop (the main road). This height of the season is a paradox, capturing the best and the worst of Yellowstone. Comfortable temperatures and long days offer plenty of time for sightseeing. But hotels and lodges are booked, campgrounds fill early in the day, and the narrow roads overflow with cars, trucks, and lumbering motor homes. You'll appreciate having made your room reservations well in advance and heeding my advice for avoiding crowds.
| Fall consists of a handful of weeks of decent weather between Labor Day and the return of winter. If you're not bound by school vacations, early fall — from mid-September to mid-October — is the best time to visit Yellowstone. |
Winter is Yellowstone's longest season, and although the weather can be harsh, the season can be a magical time to visit the park. Winter can settle in as early as October and stay through April. Heavy snows and freezing temperatures (which can plunge far below zero at night and hover around zero during the day) hamper life for both human and animal. Most park roads are closed to automobile traffic between November and May. Only the route from Mammoth Hot Springs to the Northeast Entrance remains plowed during the winter, so the gateway communities of Silvergate and Cooke City, Montana, aren't detached from the world. But cross-country skis, snow coaches, and snowshoes provide a fun mode of travel elsewhere in the snowbound park, and heavy snows create a fairy-tale atmosphere in the forests and around the geyser basins.
Remembering safety
| Yellowstone's thermal features are called hot springs for a reason. Temperatures of some springs, stoked by molten rock miles underground, measure well above the boiling point. (Parents should be particularly mindful of their youngsters around these features.) |
In the backcountry, boardwalks and fencing aren't in place to keep you at a safe distance from thermal features. So be very careful when hiking near these areas. At the Shoshone Lake Geyser Basin, for example, you can walk right up to the edge of the hot springs, but fight the urge to do so. The Earth's crust near these features is often very thin and breakable. Sadly, some hikers have fallen in and died as a result of the water's high temperatures.
Yellowstone's lakes, although picturesque, can also be quite deadly. Their waters are bitterly cold, and if you capsize a canoe or kayak, you could be overcome by hypothermia in a short time. Quite a few people have drowned in Yellowstone and Shoshone Lakes
Grizzlies and black bears both have a good sense of smell, so you need to keep a clean campsite to keep them away. Also, even though moose may look ungainly, they're amazingly quick and won't hesitate to run you down if you threaten their space.
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