Yellowstone National Park: America’s First Great Park

When you say that word, Yellowstone, images instantly come to mind of towering jets of boiling water from the most famous geyser of them all. But there’s far more to Yellowstone National Park than the lore allows. Join us on a behind-the-scenes adventure through this sprawling wonderland to witness what makes it so legendary.

The History of Yellowstone National Park

Spanning more than 3,000 square miles of diverse landscape situated in the northwest corner of Wyoming and portions of three other states, Yellowstone National Park is a behemoth. 300 miles of paved road, hundreds more of trails, a serene lake, a monumental river with rapids and waterfalls. It’s the world’s first national park according to legislation, and its history is longer and more mysterious than just about any other.

There’s no park like it, and this was understood by the natives who lived and hunted here for centuries before the arrival of the Europeans. It was a place possessed by spirits, magic in its sights, sounds, and wonders. The roiling geysers mystified, as of course they would, the forests entranced, and the wildlife was incredibly diverse.

When a lone explorer named John Colter ventured into the region in 1808 to discover what lay inside, no one back in Virginia believed what he claimed to have seen. Sulfurous pits of mud and bubbling water, sinister forests, bizarre steaming rock formations? Absolutely not, that sounds like a mad hallucination.

Modern Day Yellowstone

What Collter saw was not a fallacy. In the coming centuries, outdoorsmen, poets, vacationers and everyone in between who set foot in Yellowstone National Park would realize Colter spoke the truth. This place is surreal, equal parts unfathomable and life-affirming. Today, people come for the hiking, the boating, the skiing, the snowmobiling, and the swimming. But most of all they come to take in the sights, to witness Earth’s unrelenting power and its most beautiful living creatures.

When you visit Yellowstone, whether by car, train, RV, or motorcycle, you’ll understand why it’s taken on a category of its own. One look at the mountains and meadows and geysers and bears and wolves and bison and…there’s just too much to single out. Do yourself a favor and make Yellowstone National Park a must-do in your lifetime. Whatever you think it is, it’s so, so much more!