Yellowstone National Park: The World's First National Park

Yellowstone National Park is less than an hour from home. I’ve spent enough time there, wandered enough trails, watched enough sunrises and crossings of wildlife, and it has become one of my favorite places. There’s an energy that resonates between me and the park, something like the way people resonate with other people. It’s not just admiration. It’s recognition. I felt something similar when I moved to New York City, and again, briefly, in Santa Fe.

Established in 1872 by President Grant, Yellowstone was the first national park in the world. It’s comparable to nowhere else. The park spans 3,468 square miles across southern and western Montana, eastern Idaho, and the entire northwest corner of Wyoming. It’s home to a staggering diversity of wildlife and the largest geothermal area on Earth: 10,000 hydrothermal features, including half of the world’s active geysers. Yellowstone doesn’t just showcase nature. It reminds you how alive the earth is.

There are five entrances: West Yellowstone, Montana (the west entrance); Grand Teton National Park (south entrance, about an hour and twenty minutes from Jackson); HWY 14 near Cody, Wyoming (east entrance); Silver Gate/Cooke City, Montana (northeast entrance); and Gardiner, Montana (the north and original entrance). Each one offers a different rhythm, a different way in.

Yellowstone is home to the world’s most famous geyser, Old Faithful, named for its predictability, erupting roughly every 110 minutes. The world’s tallest geyser, Steamboat, is located in the Norris Geyser Basin, 51 miles north of Old Faithful. The Steamboat geyser is erratic. It can sit dormant for years, then erupt without warning. I’ve met people who wait for days, hoping to catch it. One couple told me they saw it erupt on their first visit, boiling water and debris hurled 300 feet into the air, blanketing the parking lot and nearly totaling their flatbed truck.

The Grand Prismatic Spring, in the Midway Geyser Basin, is the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world. It’s adjacent to the Excelsior Geyser Crater, a dormant geyser that once rivaled Steamboat. The basin is one of the two most beautiful in the park. During peak tourist months, traffic near the basin can make the Grand Loop Road nearly impassable. The park should address parking there. Still, even if you have to walk in from down the road, it’s worth it. Just park safely. Don’t walk along the main road.

Yellowstone Lake, in the south-central part of the park, is the largest high-altitude lake in North America and the second largest in the world at that elevation—7,733 feet. It’s twenty miles long, fourteen miles wide, with 141 miles of shoreline. I’ve only explored a few miles, mostly near the Potts Hot Spring Basin. The lake was formed by the collapse of a volcano beneath Yellowstone, creating the Yellowstone Caldera. Driving along the lake on Grand Loop Road is unforgettable. The view opens suddenly, and every time it takes me aback.

The lake holds the largest population of cutthroat trout in North America, attracting bald eagles, ospreys, and pelicans. I’ve seen all three along the Yellowstone River near Livingston. The first time I saw pelicans there, I was stunned, fifteen, maybe twenty of them fishing from a river island. Walking through the Potts Basin, I saw the largest elk I’ve ever seen. I thought I was looking at a moose. Coming over the hill from the north, with the lake appearing from nowhere, is one of those sights that stay with you.

Lamar Valley, near the northeast corner of the park, is lesser known but perhaps the best place for wildlife viewing. It’s along the only road open year-round, between Mammoth Village and the Northeast Entrance at Silver Gate/Cooke City. Known as “America’s Serengeti,” it’s where you’re most likely to see pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, wolf packs, elk, grizzly and black bear, bison, and more than fifty bird species. The views of the Absaroka Mountains and Tower Fall are stunning. If you have a few hours to spare, it’s worth the detour.

Yellowstone sits atop a supervolcano. That’s what fuels its geothermal features. As dramatized in 2012 and Supervolcano, an eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera would be catastrophic. But what’s more present—and more preventable—is the way people drive through the park.

Whether you’re a local or a tourist, be considerate. Yellowstone is a physical and visual experience. People are absorbing as much as they can, often for the first and only time. Don’t tailgate. Don’t rush. Don’t forget what this might mean to someone else. And more importantly, please don’t endanger wildlife. Some species are threatened. Some are endangered. There’s no reason to haul through the park risking a collision with a bison, an elk, or a bear. They’re trying to coexist with us, and the least we can do is return the favor.

If you’re unfamiliar with Yellowstone and planning a short visit, follow HWY 89/191 north or south through the park. It’ll take you past or near many of the major roadside features: Mammoth Village, Norris Geyser Basin, Gibbon Geyser Basin, Madison Visitor Center, Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin, and Old Faithful. You’ll also pass the Gibbon, Gardner, Madison, Firehole, and Yellowstone Rivers, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and Yellowstone Lake.

This route is part of Grand Loop Road. If you follow it around the northwest side of the lake, it leads back north to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Norris Canyon Road, or connects with the Northwest Road at Tower Junction, west of Lamar Valley and east of Mammoth.

Yellowstone is a place of raw beauty and quiet power. From its geothermal marvels to its almost shocking wildlife, it’s unlike anywhere else. Reflecting on my time there reminds me of the importance of preserving and protecting it and the rest of our natural world. Yellowstone is a monument to what nature can do. It’s up to us to ensure future generations can still be awed by it.

We don’t just visit Yellowstone. We coexist with it. With the wildlife. With the millions of people who come each year. And if we let it, Yellowstone will change the way we move through the world.