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
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.
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Last updated May 21, 2003
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