Yellowstone

Established on 1 March 1872 as the very first National Park in the world, Yellowstone National Park spans 8,983 square kilometres (3,472 square miles, larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined) across the high Rocky Mountain plateau of northwestern Wyoming, southern Montana and eastern Idaho on the ancestral homelands of 27 associated Native American tribes, including the Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Crow (Apsáalooke), Blackfeet and Nez Perce. Beneath its pine forests and alpine lakes lies an active continental hotspot, the Yellowstone Caldera, whose magma chamber heats underground water to power over 10,000 geothermal features and more than half of all the geysers on Earth.

Organised around a giant 230-kilometre (142-mile) Figure-8 highway called the Grand Loop Road, the park's highlights unfold across five distinct regions. In the southwest, Old Faithful erupts beside the 1904 Old Faithful Inn inside the Upper Geyser Basin, ten minutes south of the rainbow bacteria rings of Grand Prismatic Spring. At the centre of the Figure-8, the Yellowstone River plunges 94 metres into the golden walls of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone at Artist Point, fed by vast Yellowstone Lake. To the north steam Norris Geyser Basin and the travertine steps of Mammoth Hot Springs, while to the northeast stretches America's greatest wildlife corridor: Lamar Valley. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone has five entrances: the North Entrance (at Gardiner, MT, the only road open to regular cars 365 days a year, running from Gardiner through Mammoth Hot Springs to Lamar Valley and Cooke City), the West Entrance (at West Yellowstone, MT, closest to Old Faithful and the geyser basins), the South Entrance (connecting directly to Grand Teton National Park and Jackson Hole Airport, JAC), the East Entrance (via Cody, WY), and the Northeast Entrance (via the Beartooth Highway). Fly into Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN, 90 mins from the North or West Gates) or Jackson Hole (JAC). See getting to Yellowstone and how to drive the Figure-8 Grand Loop Road.

Because Yellowstone is so huge (driving from the North Gate to the South Gate takes over three hours with bison jams), never try to explore the entire park from a single faraway hotel. A smart strategy is either splitting your nights inside the park via Xanterra (1 to 2 nights at Old Faithful Inn or Snow Lodge for the geysers, plus 1 to 2 nights at Canyon Lodge for the Canyon, Lake and Lamar Valley), or splitting your stay between the two top gateway towns right outside the gates: West Yellowstone, Montana (for the Lower Loop geysers) and Gardiner, Montana (for Mammoth Hot Springs and dawn wildlife in Lamar Valley). Compare all bases in where to stay in Yellowstone.

Watch Old Faithful erupt and walk the 4-kilometre boardwalk to Morning Glory Pool, hike 15 minutes up the hillside to the Fairy Falls Overlook for a bird's-eye view of Grand Prismatic Spring, stand at Artist Point and the Brink of the 94-metre Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, head out at dawn with binoculars to spot bison, grizzly bears and wolves in Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley, stroll the chalk-white limestone staircases of Mammoth Hot Springs, explore Norris Geyser Basin and lakeside West Thumb Geyser Basin, and drive south into Grand Teton National Park. Full list in things to do in Yellowstone.

Yellowstone's historic lodges and gateway towns celebrate Rocky Mountain ranch and berry flavours: chargrilled American plains bison burgers and tenderloin, wild elk bratwurst and huckleberry-glazed ribs, fresh Idaho and Montana rainbow trout, and everything made with wild purple Mountain Huckleberries, from huckleberry ice cream cones at the Old Faithful Haynes Photo Shop and Canyon Fountain to huckleberry pancakes and craft ales in West Yellowstone and Gardiner. Read more in our Yellowstone food and picnic guide.

Known as Mitzi-a-dazi ('River of Yellow Rocks') by the Hidatsa and Minnetaree peoples, Yellowstone preserves over 11,000 years of Indigenous history at Obsidian Cliff alongside the golden age of American 'Parkitecture' at the 1904 Old Faithful Inn and 1937 Lake Yellowstone Hotel.