National Park Guide: Yellowstone
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. -- It is the mother of the park system, a diverse, ever-changing environment that on one day in May offered glimpses of a grizzly bear, wolves, bald eagles, coyotes, elk, bison and antelope on a canvas of snow-tipped mountains and Serengeti-like savannahs.
A third larger than Delaware, Yellowstone National Park's size and diverse natural offerings alone would set it off from any other place in the world. But as the first national park — not only in the USA but in the world — it has won the test of time. Yellowstone was designated in 1872, seven years after the Civil War, decades before the invention of the automobile, 44 years before the establishment of the National Park Service.
Its wonder never surprises those who live it, day by day.
"It's a place where humanity meets humility," says Casey Anderson, a Montana naturalist and grizzly expert whose America the Wild premiered this spring on the Nat Geo Wild channel.
Yellowstone's 3-million-plus annual visitors come for reasons as expansive, and varied, as Yellowstone itself.
Its 2.2 million acres, spread over northwestern Wyoming and parts of Idaho and Montana, include the iconic Old Faithful and 300 lesser-known geysers, the largest concentration in the world. Yellowstone has the largest grizzly population in the Lower 48 states; herds of bison and elk; and packs of wolves re-introduced to the park a quarter-century ago. Yellowstone's iconic thermal basins — with geysers and bubbling pools of deep-blue water and colorful clay mud — are constant reminders that the park sits atop a super volcano whose eruptions in past years spread ash as far away as Ohio. The park's unique geography was further sculpted by glaciers scraping over lava fields.
Yellowstone has more than 290 waterfalls that are 15 feet or higher, including the 308-foot Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River; the 131-square-mile Yellowstone Lake, which in places is more than 400 feet deep; more than 1,150 species of native plants; and more than 900 historic buildings. Its climate varies from arid plains of the northeastern corner to 500-inch winter snowfalls in the southwest.
The park's size and variety can be overwhelming, which is why many visitors keep coming back.
Michael Motyka, 48, CEO of a Chicago law firm, visited Yellowstone as a child. Last year, he and his wife, Mary, 47, took their children, Lara, 8, and Alex, 10, for a 10-day Yellowstone tour. They liked it so much they are coming back this August.
"One of the things we really wanted to get out of it was an appreciation of the outdoors and an appreciation of nature," Michael Motyka says. "In that one park, there is such a diversity of engaging, interesting things that can pique a child's interest. They were so excited about everything, from the geysers to the bison to the waterfalls, the beautiful scenery, the trees, the flowers. More than anything it is just the incredible range of interesting things you can see."
Michael Landis, 68, a retired teacher from Guilford, Vt., took his family on three Yellowstone visits and worked the front desk at a lodge in the park in the summer of 2009.
He says he likes "just the incredible geo-thermal features and the fact that in the center of the park it is sort of like the (African) Serengeti, where you can see not hundreds, but thousands, of buffalo."
Landis and other frequent park visitors recommend that tourists bring layers of clothes to handle cool evenings, even in summer, and up to 90-degree days. Reservations at lodges and hotels inside the park and in gateway communities near any of the five entrances should be made months ahead.
Come with your imagination: Hotels in the park have no televisions, and wireless and cell service is spotty. Many roads are closed in winter but are open to restricted snowmobile and snow-bus tours.
You don't need to hire guides, but frequent visitors say ranger-guided tours provide insights that make the sites relevant and manageable.
"Sometimes people think they can see it in one day, and that is just not possible," says Cameron McCune, a retired school superintendent from Palm Springs, Calif., who has taken his family on several trips to Yellowstone. "You want to be able to go off on the trails. We really enjoy the ranger talks and going on the walks where you have a ranger interpreting and telling you what you are seeing."
Because of the park's growing grizzly population, rangers and park signs constantly urge visitors to heed bear warnings — don't hike alone, carry pepper spray, make noise on trails, do not run from a grizzly. Last year, Yellowstone had its first two fatalities from bear encounters in 25 years.
Kevin Sanders, a private guide known around the park as "Bearman," has given backcountry tours searching for bears since 1988.
Since then, he says, better roads have made the park far more accessible. But be prepared for traffic jams, especially in June and July, height of tourist season. Sanders complains that better roads have made some visitors "feel like they have an interstate highway system and they speed through the park at 70 mph."
But those distractions can be remedied by getting out and walking Yellowstone's always changing trails.
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About the park
Size: 2,221,766 acres
Visitors: 3,394,321 people visited in 2011, about 6.8% fewer than 2010
Established: 1872
History: Yellowstone was the world's first designated national park, and its formation predated the National Park Service by 44 years.
When visiting: Yellowstone is located primarily in Wyoming, with parts in Idaho and Montana. It has five visitors' entrances and nine visitors' centers. Visitor info: 307-344-7381.
Of note: Yellowstone is a designated Biosphere Reserve, and hosts 67 species of mammals (including the largest grizzly population in the 48 contiguous states), seven species of reptiles and 4 amphibians; it has an active volcano, nearly 300 geysers and has up to 3,000 earthquakes in a year.