Yellowstone National Park is located in the far northwestern corner of Wyoming, directly north of Grand Teton National Park and is also serviced by the town of Jackson Hole on the south.
Yellowstone is our nations largest National Park covering more than 2.2 million acres or more than 4 times the area of Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
People have been visiting and living in the Yellowstone area for thousands of years. In the mid 1800s, explorers and artists brought Yellowstone’s wonders to the attention of the federal government. The park was established in 1872.
Yellowstone National Park is a region once rumored to be "the place where hell bubbles up." Geothermal wonders, such as Old Faithful, are evidence of one of the world's largest active volcanoes.
These spectacular features were a great amazement to the park's earliest visitors, and helped lead to the creation of the world's first national park.
Fantastic tales of cauldrons of bubbling mud and roaring geysers sending steaming plumes skyward made their way back east. Several expeditions were sent to investigate, opening the West to further exploration and exploitation.
In 1871, Ferdinand Hayden led an expedition that included artist Thomas Moran and photographer William H. Jackson. They brought back images that helped convince Congress that the area known as Yellowstone needed to be protected and preserved.
In 1872, President Ulysses S. Grant signed a law declaring that Yellowstone would become the first national park in the United States and in the world.
Yellowstone has some of the most unusual geology in the world. In the same day you can visit vast plains sometimes filled with herds of bison or elk, see towering waterfalls descending into deep gorges, witness incredible geothermal wonders, see pristine lakes and explore dense forests.
Yellowstone National Park forms the core of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE)—one of the largest intact temperate zone ecosystems on the earth today. This 28,000-square-mile region of mainly federal lands preserves and nurtures a variety of wildlife species and the natural processes that sustain them.
To help you plan your activities and trip to Yellowstone National Park, here is a list of maps to get you around the park.
