Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872.  It is America’s oldest national park, and even though it is very large it is not America’s largest national park.  The park is located in the states of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, but most of the park is in Wyoming.  It is 3,468 square miles (8,983 km2) in size.  This area is larger than the states of Rhode Island or Delaware!  This large park is home to many amazing animals including grizzly bears, wolves, bison, and elk.  It is also home to beautiful scenes of nature.  The entire national park is in fact a large caldera* and the park is considered a supervolcano because it was formed by a very large explosion many hundreds of thousands of years ago.  This volcanic activity under the park is connected to many of the parks natural wonders, like the Old Faithful Geyser**.  Hot spring pools, geysers, large rivers, mountains, valleys, grasslands, waterfalls, and canyons can all be found in this national park.

It takes many days of driving and hiking around to really explore this park well.   This is one of the reasons that Yellowstone is one of the most popular national parks in the United States – there is so much to see!  Since the 1960s, at least 2 million tourists have visited the park every year. The summer months are certainly the busiest time in the park.  If you want to visit in the summer you will need to plan in advance because the park’s 2,000 campsites fill-up fast.  If you do visit you will be able to see many wild animals, but remember don’t feed any of the animals you see.  In the early history of the park, visitors were allowed, and sometimes even encouraged, to feed the bears in the park.  This practice led to numerous injuries to humans each year and to bears who began to expect food from humans.  In more recent years the park officials have educated visitors about the dangers of feeding bears, putting both visitors and bears at less risk.

Yellowstone National Park is certainly a national treasure and a jewel*** of nature.  I think tourists to the United States should always try to visit one of the amazing national parks in this country, after all there are 58 to choose from.  Visiting natural places like Yellowstone National Park is a wonderful way to explore the beauty of the United States.

*a large crater/hole formed by volcanic explosion
**a natural hot spring that sends water shooting into the air
***something precious