Yellowstone National Park

The “Yellowstone Road Trip“. That’s how we called our September road trip, because even though we visited three other national parks too (Badlands, Teddy and the Tetons), the main goal of the very long drive was to see the first national park of the world. The Yellowstone National Park was established on March 1, 1872 and it is located mainly in Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It is known for both its many geothermal features and its wildlife. The park is huge; it protects 3,468 square miles (8,983 sq km) of the most unique part of the Rocky Mountains: the Yellowstone supervolcano. Yellowstone National Park has half of the world’s geysers, which are fueled by its ongoing volcanism. We spent two and a half days in the park and saw many of its hydrothermal features and lots of wildlife too. It was already snowing in the park when we arrived and I was happy to be able to photograph some bison (Bison bison) in the snow. I also took some photos of a young bull elk (Cervus canadensis) in the woods. Most of the snow melted on the second day and we spent most of this day at Lamar Valley, which is a famous wildlife-spotting place inside the park. We saw lots of bison in the valley, but one of the highlights of the whole road trip was an encounter with a very hungry black bear (Ursus americanus). We found him on one of the side roads on the way to Lamar Valley. He was munching on berries and everything he found edible and didn’t seem to mind us at all. The air was very hazy so I’m not completely satisfied with the images, but watching a bear in the wild was a total blast. Yellowstone National Park is the center of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, a large, nearly intact ecosystem, so even when we left the park, we could still enjoy the uniqueness of this wonderful area. For instance we found an American pika (Ochotona princeps) while driving through the beautiful Beartooth Highway, east to the national park. The pika is probably the cutest animal on Earth. They actually live inside the park too and also in the Grand Teton National Park, which is also part of this great ecosystem. These two beautiful national parks are very special places in the US and I believe everyone should see them. It was a very long drive from the East Coast, but it was absolutely worth it.