The main road in Yellowstone is the Grand Loop Road. Your Yellowstone trip will start at one of five Park entrances. Start watching well before the entrance gates to the Park. These roads hold many incredible sights and possibilities for animal sightings.

Since Yellowstone gets a lot of snow yearly and the weather can change anytime, you must check gate openings/closings before coming. Tap/click to find the web link to the National Park Services Operating Dates - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service). Call 307-344-2117 to access present road conditions. To get text messages on road conditions where telephone service is available, text 82190 to 888-777. If you have access to the internet, you can go to Park Roads - Yellowstone National Park (U.S. National Park Service to see the current road conditions.

The Grand Loop Road is designed as a figure eight and is 154 miles (249 km) long. Including the five entrance roads, there are 251 miles (405 km) of primary two-lane roads. Since they are Federal highways, they must always be kept open. If you stop anywhere, you must ensure all four wheels are safely outside the white fog line on the road’s edge. You should use the available pullouts throughout the Park. Always park so others can also use the pullouts.

While traveling along the Grand Loop Road, you will see many varied vistas that will amaze you. Your treats will range from mountains to valleys, trees to grassy meadows, bubbling cold streams to hissing steam, grass to sagebrush, rocks to rivers, quiet rivers to rivers that tumble noisily over falls, and desolated areas to lush horizons. You can also see in Yellowstone things that don’t exist in much of the world: geysers, mudpots, fumaroles, hot springs, insects living on the edge of hydrothermal features, and Cyanobacteria mats.

As you travel, watch the roadside, meadows, hillsides, and tree lines for animals that can be seen everywhere/anywhere in the Park. A note of caution: other people will be looking for and seeing those animals. Just like you, they often make sudden stops. Watch those around you; don’t spoil your trip by being involved in an accident.

Make sure to look up into the sky or treetops. You may see a soaring eagle, osprey, or other raptors hunting their next meal. Look down at your feet. You could be treated to the antics of a squirrel or chipmunk.

If you see people stopped and with a big camera lenses or spotter scopes looking at something, there is only one thing for you to do. STOP! Stop and see what they are looking at. If you aren’t interested, that is okay; move on.

Over 1,000 miles (1609 km) of backcountry trails and 92 different trailheads exist in the park. For your safety and the safety of the various features, there are 15 miles (24 km) of boardwalks. Trail guides usually give a difficulty rating for each trail and the elevation change you will experience. Make sure you are in shape to hike, but get out and enjoy yourselves. Make sure you carry enough water for everyone. It doesn’t have to be a long hike to find some magic. I decided to “hike” to Moose Falls one day, maybe a tenth of a mile from the road. However, this 30-foot fall makes enough noise that you can’t hear the road traffic. The Moose Falls is an easy hike.

Landscape

Yellowstone has many rivers: Bechler, Firehole, Gardiner, Gibbons, Lamar, Lewis, Little Firehole, Madison, Snake, and Yellowstone Rivers. Those are the larger rivers, but there are more.

The largest lake in the United States above 7000 feet is the Yellowstone Lake. It has a surface size of 131.7 square miles with 141 miles of shoreline. The lake freezes in the wintertime. When it thaws in the springtime, it sounds like very close explosions, but that is just the lake and river ice breaking and opening up for another season.

There are over 10,000 hydrothermal features. Hydrothermal means hot water — “hydros” is Greek for water, and “thermos” means heat.

Yellowstone has over 500 active geysers of the world’s 900 active geysers. There are around 300 known waterfalls; some are permanent, and other falls are seasonal.

The park’s annual report entitled Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook (year) provides excellent information regarding the status and issues of the Park and park environment. This report is issued annually and is accessible from the internet. Do an Internet search on Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook and pick the appropriate year. You can also buy a hard copy at the Yellowstone Association Bookstore and other retail outlets within the Park.

The Yellowstone Resources and Issues Handbook (year) states that Yellowstone National Park is 80% forest. Of that forest, 80% is lodgepole pine. Driving through the Park, you will see many burned or downed trees. People have asked why the Park doesn’t clean up the mess. That would be prohibitively expensive and go against the park management mandate of keeping the Park natural. Look at each downed or burned tree as the giver of life to future generations of animals and vegetation. As the trees rot, they return nutrients to the earth. The downed trees make good homes for the small animals. The small animals, in turn, make good food for the larger animals and so on up the chain of life.

Animals

Many people come to the Park specifically to see the animals. They are, in fact, my favorite photographic subject. A large number of people come just to see the wolves. Whatever you do, go, come and see.

There are 67 species of mammals. Of those, there are seven species of native ungulates or hoofed mammals and two bear species, black bear and grizzly. One hundred fifty species of birds nest in the Park, and another 135 use the Park as a way-station during their migration in different parts of the year.¹

For the fisherman, there are 16 species of fish, 5 of which are non-native. One non-native fish, the Lake Trout, negatively impacts the native Cutthroat Trout. Those who want to fish in the waters of Yellowstone must get a license at a Visitor Center, general store, or online (do this before you leave home). A Yellowstone fishing license is valid only within the park. You will need a state license to fish on state land.

To check out Yellowstone's fishing opportunities click/tap here.

Since boating is closely associated with fishing here are Yellowstone's boating regulations. Check it out by clicking/tapping here.

Also seen in the Yellowstone ecosystem are six species of reptiles and four amphibians.

After sixty-nine years of not being in the park, there is now a self-sustaining population of wolves. Wolves were considered harmful to the park and were exterminated by 1926. In reality, scientists have found that wolves are essential to the ecosystem. The Park reintroduced wolves in 1995. Check the current Handbook for the current wolf count. For January 2024 there are at least 124 wolves in the park^2. . Wolves are very social animals. Five percent of all mammals in the world live in family groups. Wolves are one species of that five percent. Their family group is called a pack.

One of the things you can expect is that traffic will be slow and often start and stop. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour or lower. Animal jams can be a highlight of a trip to Yellowstone. That jam could be for a bison, bear, wolf, or just as likely an eagle, badger, or other small animal/bird. I drive a mini-van. When an adult bison walks by, it is as tall as my van. That is when I’m glad I don’t drive a smaller car. That is also why I stay in my van when the animal is within 25 yards.

One day, a visitor got a bison excited enough to charge the man. Another driver put his truck between the man and the animal. After the bison went around the truck, it kicked at the agitator’s car, but unfortunately, it missed.

Once, I was also in a bison jam by Gibbon Meadows that stretched over 10 miles (16 km) long when you factored in both travel directions. It lasted an hour as the bison moved from one feeding area to another. Be patient and enjoy the show. The animals in Yellowstone outrank us humans; they have the right of away. It is their home, and we are the visitors!