Yellowstone Fires

For more information about the land, air, water, and living things of Yellowstone National Park, visit: Yellowstone National Park's Official "Nature" Page

Yellowstone National Park, WY--Climate Summary

Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park was the first national park in the world. It was established in 1872. It is the largest national park in the continental United States. It covers 3,400 square miles (about 2.2 million acres). The majority of the park is located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with some of it extending into Montana and Idaho. Like other national parks, Yellowstone is land set aside by the federal government to be preserved in its natural state. Over three million people visit Yellowstone National Park every year.They come to see its beautiful, undeveloped landscapes.

The land in Yellowstone National Park was formed by the action of volcanoes. Geologic processes--the movement of tectonic plates that resulted in the volcanic eruptions--are still active in the Park. These processes are responsible for Yellowstone's geothermal features, places where steam or super-heated water rise to the surface of the ground. There are over 10,000 geothermal features in Yellowstone National Park. This is more than all the geothermal features in the rest of the world. These features include hot springs, mud pots, and steam vents. Perhaps the most recognizable geothermal features of Yellowstone National Park are its 300 geysers. These make up over sixty percent of all the geysers in the world. Geysers occur when steam and super-heated water rise to the surface of the ground and spray up into the air like water from a whale's spout. One of the most famous geysers in the world, "Old Faithful," is located in Yellowstone. Approximately every 75 minutes, Old Faithful erupts and expels 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of water 106 to 184 feet into the air. Photo: Old Faithful in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of Gayle Croft.

Most of Yellowstone National Park is on a plateau about 8,000 feet above sea level. The Park also features mountains and canyons. The entire Park is surrounded by mountains. The highest mountain peaks in the Park reach a little over 11,000 feet high. A gorge, over a thousand feet deep and created by the Yellowstone River, runs through the park. The gorge is like a small version of the Grand Canyon. Photo: The gorge that runs through Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of Gayle Croft.

In addition to the Yellowstone River, the Park has many other rivers and lakes, including Yellowstone Lake. Yellowstone Lake is twenty miles long and fourteen miles wide. It is the largest mountain lake on the continent. The park also has 41 waterfalls.

Together the geothermal features, mountains, gorge, rivers, lakes, and waterfalls in Yellowstone National Park create an amazing physical landscape. There is also a large variety of living things that contribute to the Park's ecosystem. For example, the majority of this landscape--nearly 80%-- is covered with lodgepole pine trees. The large natural areas of the Park also provide habitat that supports a variety of large mammals such as bear and coyotes. About 40,000 hoofed, grazing animals including bison, moose, elk, deer, antelope, and big horn sheep also live in Yellowstone. Photo: A waterfall in Yellowstone. Photo courtesy of Gayle Croft.