Yellowstone National Park

Yellowstone National Park is the flagship of the National Park Service and a favorite to millions of visitors each year. The park is a major destination for all members of the family. By driving the grand loop road, visitors can view the park from the comfort of their vehicle and also take a rest at one of the many roadside picnic areas. For the active visitor, the park has thousands of miles of trails from dayhikes to backcountry explorations. The main attractions are all located on the grand loop road and here are some of the top reasons to visit the park. This site has a lot of the information you need for your trip and you may also consider our dvd "The Wonders of Yellowstone" to help you plan your visit. 

* World's First National Park

* 2,219,789 acres (Larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined) 

* Wildlife - 7 species of ungulates (bison, moose, elk, pronghorn), 2 species of bear and 67 other mammals, 322 species of birds, 16 species of fish and of course the gray wolf.

* Plants - There are over 1,100 species of native plants, more than 200 species of exotic plants and over 400 species of thermopholes. 

* Geology - The park is home to one of the world's largest calderas with over 10,000 thermal features and more than 300 geysers. It has one of the world's largest petrifiied forests. It has over 290 waterfalls with the 308' Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River as it's showpiece.

* Yellowstone Lake is the largest (132 sq. mi.) high altitude (7,732') lake in north america.

* 9 visitor centers

* 12 campgrounds (over 2,000 campsites)

yellowstone Opens For Winter Season Thursday

Yellowstone National Park will open to the public for the winter season as scheduled on December 15. Beginning Thursday morning, visitors will be able to travel on commercially guided snowmobiles or snowcoaches between the park's South Entrance and Old Faithful. Businesses which normally offer commercially guided snowmobile and snowcoach tours will be temporarily allowed to use either rubber -tracked snowcoaches or wheeled vehicles to transport visitors from West Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful. Rubber-tracked snowcoaches will be permitted to travel between Norris and Canyon.

The rest of the interior park roads have too much ice and snow to allow visitor travel by commercial wheeled vehicles, but not enough snow yet to permit commercially guided snowmobile or snowcoach travel.