Explore Yellowstone National Park: America's First National Park | Geothermal Wonders, Wildlife Viewing, and Natural Beauty

Yellowstone National Park is less than an hour from home. The time I’ve spent there and how well I have gotten to know the area contribute to the park being one of my favorite places. There’s an energy that resonates there, between me and the park, people resonate with places in the same way that people resonate with other people. You might feel a sort of vibrant sensation, I felt a similar energy after moving to New York City, New York, and [initially] in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

          Established in 1872 by President Grant, Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world and is comparable to nowhere else. The park is home to a diverse range of wildlife and is the largest geothermal area in the world, with 10,000 hydrothermal features including half of the world’s active geysers—that help to illustrate just how alive the earth is. Yellowstone is 3,468 square miles covering parts of southern and western Montana, eastern Idaho, and the entire northwest corner of Wyoming, with park entrances in West Yellowstone, Montana (the west entrance), Grand Teton National Park (the south entrance, roughly an hour and twenty minutes from Jackson, Wyoming), HWY 14,  an hour from Cody, Wyoming (the east entrance), Silver Gate/Cooke City, Montana (the northeast entrance), and Gardner, Montana (the north, and original park entrance).

          Yellowstone National Park is home to the world's most famous geyser, "Old Faithful," aptly named because the geyser erupts roughly every 110 minutes, faithfully, and the world's tallest geyser, the "Steamboat Geyser" located in the Norris Geyser Basin 51 miles north of "Old Faithful." Steamboat will often sit dormant for years with no eruptions, and suddenly, and without warning will experience regular, although inconsistent, eruptions. I’ve met people who sit in wait hour after hour and day after day hoping to catch an eruption of Steamboat. One couple, in particular, told me that the first time they visited the geyser it erupted, hurling boiling water and debris into the air (Steamboat has been known to reach heights of up to 300ft) blanketing the nearby parking lot and nearly totaling their large flatbed truck.

          The Grand Prismatic Spring is amazing, the largest hot spring in the United States and the third largest in the world, located in the Midway Geyser Basin, and adjacent to the Excelsior Geyser Crater (a dormant geyser that equaled or surpassed the height of Steamboat). The Grand Prismatic Spring is in one of the two most beautiful geyser basins in the park, during the busier tourist months, between June and August, traffic leading into and out from the Midway Geyser Basin parking lot leaves the Grand Loop Road almost impassable (the park should readdress parking in and around the basin). The banner photo for this post was taken of the Grand Prismatic Spring at dusk in May of 2023. Even if you have to park a ways down the road it's worth the walk, but park safely and off the road, and don't walk on the main road. 

          Yellowstone Lake, in the south-central and southeastern parts of the park, is the largest high-altitude lake in North America and is the second largest body of water, at such high elevation, in the world, at 7,733ft. The lake is twenty miles long, fourteen miles wide, and has 141 miles of shoreline, very little of which I have explored, except for a few miles along the Potts Hot Spring Basin. Yellowstone Lake was formed by the collapse of a volcano beneath Yellowstone which created the Yellowstone Caldera. Driving on Grand Loop Road (HWY 191), along the lake shores is a beautiful sight you will remember forever.

The lake has the largest population of cutthroat trout in North America which attracts many birds such as bald eagles, osprey, and pelicans, I have seen all up and down the Yellowstone River that runs along the edge of Livingston. The first time I saw pelicans on the river threw me, especially after seeing so many (upwards of fifteen and maybe twenty) fishing from one of many free-flowing river islands. Walking through the Potts Hot Spring Basin on the shores of Yellowstone Lake, I saw the largest elk I’ve ever seen. I thought at first that I was watching a herd of Moose. Driving up over the hill with the Yellowstone Lake appearing in the near distance from nowhere, coming from the north is a remarkable sight, and it takes me aback every time.

          Lamar Valley along the northeast road near the northeastern corner of the park is a lesser-known area with perhaps the best wildlife viewing anywhere in Yellowstone. Alongside the road (the only road open year-round in Yellowstone), between Mammoth Village and the Northeast Entrance at Silver Gate/Cooke City, Montana, the Lamar Valley is the destination for wildlife enthusiasts and photographers visiting the Park. Known as “America’s Serengeti,” there you are likely to happen upon pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, wolf packs, elk, grizzly and black bear, bison, and more than fifty notable bird species, and picturesque views of the Absaroka Mountains and Tower Fall (one of the many beautiful waterfalls in Yellowstone). It’s stunning, and worth the detour if you have several hours to spare.

          Yellowstone National Park sits atop a “supervolcano,” which stimulates the park’s geothermal features. As depicted in the movie 2012 with John Cusack and Supervolcano with, I don’t know, other people, the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera is going to be very, very bad for us, but in the meantime what’s worse and more present is the way that many people drive through Yellowstone. When driving through the park, whether you’re a local or tourist, be considerate of other people. Yellowstone is a park, the experience is physical and visual, and offering people patience while they are both behind the wheel and exploring the roadside attractions with their eyes and on foot is a human response, and it’s OK to be human. Especially when touring Yellowstone National Park.

For many people, this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and their wandering eyes are observing and absorbing as much as they can in a short time, please be conscious and understanding of that. Please don’t follow their [and my] vehicle unnecessarily close, don’t forget what the experience might mean to them. Also, and more importantly, the wildlife crossing the streets of Yellowstone, some are threatened and even endangered, there’s no reason to haul a$$ through Yellowstone risking hitting and killing one of these beautiful creatures, and damaging your car, yourself, and others. They’re trying to coexist with you, the least we can do is offer the same in return.

          For those of you unfamiliar with Yellowstone National Park, and are planning a vacation, and won’t have a great deal of time to explore. You'll make the most of your experience if you follow HWY 89/191 north (or south) through the park. The route will take you directly along or within a short distance of many roadside geysers, hot springs, mud pots, fumaroles, and steam vents, including Mammoth Village, Norris Geyser Basin, Gibbon Geyser Basin, Madison Visitor Center, Midway Geyser Basin, Biscuit Basin, Black Sand Basin, and Old Faithful, as well as the Gibbon River, Gardner River, Madison River, Firehole River, and The Yellowstone River, and the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, featuring the Upper and Lower Falls, and the Yellowstone Lake. 

This route is part of the Grand Loop Road and if you follow it around the northwest side of Yellowstone Lake leads you back north to either the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone (and Norris Canyon Road, back toward Norris Geyser Basin) or connects with the parks Northwest Road at Tower Junction, west of Lamar Valley, and east of Mammoth Village.

            Yellowstone National Park is a place of natural beauty and genuine inspiration; from the geothermal marvels to its almost shocking wildlife, it's unlike anywhere else on Earth. Reflecting on my time exploring Yellowstone reminds me how important it is to preserve and protect it and the rest of our natural world. Yellowstone is a monument of beauty and evidence of the raw power of nature, it’s up to us to ensure that future generations can experience this beauty. Yellowstone National Park is a destination that can leave you in awe and inspire you to think outside of your familiar processes; be conscious that we coexist with the park, the wildlife, and the millions of people who visit it every year.