Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Yellowstone National Park is at the heart of our country's longstanding relationship with
wilderness. The largest intact ecosystem in the Lower 48, meaning that all of the species
that have roamed this sweeping mountainous plateau are still (or are once again) in residen-
ce, Yellowstone was our nation's first national park, signed into being by President Ulysses
S. Grant after a series of important and legendary scouting expeditions through the area.
The region's history is lengthy and very much alive, from its prehistoric supervolcanic erup-
tions, to its occupation by the U.S. Army in the 1880s, to the controversial reintroduction
of wolves in the 1990s and the more recent snowmobile-usage and bison quagmires. And
the stories, both far-fetched and true, and characters that have emerged from the park are as
colorful and compelling as the landscape itself.
A vast 2.2 million acres, Yellowstone is indeed a wonderland, filled with steaming gey-
sers and boiling mud pots, packed with diverse and healthy populations of wildlife, and
crisscrossed by hundreds of miles of hiking and skiing trails. A stretch of the park called
the Lamar Valley is known as the “Little Serengeti of North America,” and for good reas-
on: At certain times of the year, in a single day visitors can spot grizzly and black bears,
moose, wolves, bison, elk, coyotes, bald eagles, and the occasional bighorn sheep. In fact,
the opportunities for viewing wildlife in the park are unparalleled anywhere in the United
States, and although Yellowstone may not be as picturesque as Glacier or the Tetons, it is
magnificent in its wildness and uniquely American.
