Travel Tips: YELLOWSTONE National Park

Map of Yellowstone National Park
 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yellowstone was made a national park in March of 1872. Yellowstone is mainly located in Wyoming though parts of the park are in Montana and Idaho. The park is widely known for the geothermal activity and the wildlife that use the park as their homes. Yellowstone Park is made up approximately 80% forest and the rest of the land area is grassland. The park is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined together.  

Yellowstone National Park covers an area of about 3,472 square miles. This area is made up of lakes, canyons, mountain ranges, and rivers. Yellowstone Lake is one of the highest altitude lakes. The lake’s elevation is 7,733 above sea level. The lake is approximately 87,040 acres in all and is close to 400 hundred feet deep. It also has around 110 miles of shoreline for vacationers and wildlife to enjoy. It’s centered on top of the largest supervolcano on the continent called the Yellowstone Caldera. The volcano is considered to be active because of the several eruptions over the last two million years. Approximately half of the world’s geothermal energy is located in Yellowstone because of the ongoing volcanic activity. Yellowstone is covered with lava rock from lava flows that happened hundreds of year ago.

The Continental Divide runs through the southwestern part of the park. This is a topographic feature that separates the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans water drainage. Some of the origins of the river such as Yellowstone and Snake rivers are near each other but due to the divide, the Snake River drains into the Pacific Ocean while the Yellowstone River drains into the Atlantic Ocean thru the Gulf of Mexico.

Yellowstone National Park sits in the Yellowstone Plateau region and is surrounded by mountain ranges on all four sides. The altitude of the park is around 8,000 feet above sea level. The surrounding mountain ranges elevation is anywhere from 9,000 feet to 11,000 feet above sea level. The most visited and prominent mountain peak in the park is Mount Washburn that sits at 10, 243 feet above sea level.

Yellowstone National park is thought to be one of the few remaining intact ecosystems other than in the state of Alaska. The land is virtually untouched by commercialization and with pristine land for the animals to thrive on is a perfect habitat. There are still inhabitants that lived in the region when first explored by white exploration teams.

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