Yellowstone National Park

The world's first national park, with Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, Mammoth Hot Springs and the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, plus bison and wolves in Hayden and Lamar Valleys.

Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872 and is the world's first national park. It covers about 8,983 square km, mostly in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small parts extending into Montana and Idaho. The park sits atop an active supervolcano caldera and holds about half of the world's geothermal features, including more than 500 geysers, and it is also the place in the lower 48 states with the greatest concentration of large wildlife.

The main road is the roughly 230 km figure-eight Grand Loop, which can be divided into five areas: Geyser Country in the southwest (Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic, the Upper, Midway and Lower Geyser Basins); Mammoth Hot Springs in the northwest; Tower and Lamar Valley in the northeast (for wildlife); the Canyon area and Hayden Valley in the center; and Yellowstone Lake and West Thumb in the southeast.

The best season is June–September, when all roads are open; in May and October some sections close because of snow; from early November to late April only the road from the North Entrance to the Northeast Entrance is open to cars, and everywhere else requires a snowcoach or snowmobile. The park sits at an elevation of 2,100–2,400 m, and summer mornings and evenings can approach 0°C.

Getting there: fly into Bozeman, Jackson Hole or, in summer, West Yellowstone Airport, then rent a car and drive. We recommend 3–4 days, staying in different bases such as West Yellowstone, Canyon Village, Old Faithful or Gardiner; lodging inside the park should be booked more than six months in advance. Admission is US$35 per vehicle, valid for 7 days; starting in 2026, non-US residents pay an additional fee, so check the NPS website for details.

Notes: stay on the boardwalks in thermal areas; keep at least 23 m from bison and elk, and at least 91 m from bears and wolves; mobile signal in the park is weak, so download offline maps beforehand.

Top sights

Where to eat

Itineraries