Yellowstone: Wyoming’s Wonderland

Worth protecting: Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park is one of the world’s last intact temperate ecosystems.

On March 1, 1872, U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed a bill to establish Yellowstone, the nation’s first national park. Spanning nearly 9,000 square kilometers throughout Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, Yellowstone is more than twice the size of Rhode Island.

With half the world’s known geothermal features and more than two-thirds of the world’s geysers, Yellowstone is also considered one of the world’s natural treasures.

Although it is not the largest geyser in the park, Old Faithful erupts more frequently than any of the others. This crowd favorite earned its name by performing more consistently than the other large geysers in the park. On average, Old Faithful erupts every 91 minutes, expelling up to 32,000 liters of boiling water over the course of 90 seconds to five minutes. Old Faithful’s outbursts can reach up to 55 meters in height.

Yellowstone is home to myriad other natural wonders. Mammoth Hot Springs, located in the Mammoth District of Yellowstone, showcase geothermal waters rushing over steplike rock formations; and Yellowstone Lake represents the largest freshwater lake in the United States above 2,135 meters. Grizzly bears, wolves, lynx and bison also roam freely in the park. In fact, Yellowstone is home to the oldest and largest publicly owned bison herd in the United States.

Find out more about Wyoming at DiscoverAmerica.com.