Welcome back to National Parks and other public lands with T!
Wyoming 2023 Trip➤
In September of 2023, my husband and I set out to explore some National Park units in the state of Wyoming. We visited Yellowstone, Grand Teton National Park, The John D. Rockefeller Parkway, and Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. In Yellowstone National Park, we stopped at the Yellowstone Lake.
Yellowstone National Park➤
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law in 1872. This created America’s (and the world’s) first National Park. The US Army managed the park from the late 1800s through 1916 when the National Park Service was created.
The park sits on top of a massive super volcano. As a result, over half of the worlds geysers and geothermal features reside in Yellowstone. It’s also famous for being home to hundreds of animal species, including bears, wolves, bison, elk and antelope. One of our guides compared touring Yellowstone’s Valleys to taking an African Safari.
This park is huge at 3500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Divided into two large loops, the park road takes visitors to the main sites. The Lower Loop Road is 96 miles while the Upper Loop is 142 miles.
Yellowstone Lake➤
Yellowstone Lake is North America’s largest high-elevation lake. Formed around 14,000 years ago by glacial activity and occupying a volcanic caldera, the lake sits at 7,733 feet. This caldera lake is renowned for its unique hydrothermal features, including geysers and hot springs, formed by a massive volcano eruption around 640,000 years ago.
We passed by Yellowstone Lake several times while exploring the lower loop. On one trip, our tour guide saw rangers with a large group by the side of the road. After ascertaining that we were a safe distance, we joined the group to catch a glimpse of Snow the Grizzly and her two cubs. According to the rangers, Snow is 8 years old and these are her first cubs.
Yellowstone Posts➤
- West Thumb Geyser Basin
- Fishing Bridge
- Yellowstone Lake
- Old Faithful Inn
- Old Faithful
- Observation Point
- Upper Geyser Basin
- Grand Prismatic Overlook
- Midway Geyser Basin
- Artists Paintpots
- Lower Falls
- Lamar Valley
- Mammoth Hot Springs: Lower Terraces
- Mammoth Hot Springs: Upper Terraces
- Norris Geyser Basin
- Artists Point
Location: Grand Loop Road, Wyoming
Designation: National Park
Date designated/established: March 1, 1872
Date of my visit: September 23, 2023
Beautiful pictures! Thank you for the history, always. Yellowstone will always be one of my favorite National Parks!
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Yellowstone is probably my favourite place in the whole world. Nearly 30 years ago my wife and I set ourselves the challenge of visiting all 50 US states. It took much longer than expected, because we kept returning to Yellowstone! 🙂 Thank you for the re-igniting the memories.
It is such a special place. We definitely could have spent more time there.
Beautiful photos as usual T!
Yellowstone is epic!
Thanks!
Laughing a bit about the grizzly, T. Yes, a “safe distance’ is critically important. And a grizzly with a cub, triply so! I was stalked by one in Alaska once. They can be scary!
There were two rangers standing by the crowd with shotguns and the bears were quite far. The pictures are with a telephoto and then enlarged in photshop 🙂
Wise. 🙂 Most of our guides carried large guns when we were on our recent African Safari!
I’m taken by the skies. Fantastic photos.
Thanks!