National ParkPatrimonio Mundial UNESCOReserva de la Biosfera

Yellowstone National Park

United States · Rocky Mountains (USA)

Rocky Mountains (USA)Declared in 18728,983 km²

Spotted something wrong?

The world's first national park, celebrated for the reintroduction of the grey wolf and for its bison herds.

Area

8,983 km²

Protection category

UICN II

Parque nacional — what the IUCN categories mean

Declared in

1872

Region

Rocky Mountains (USA)

Climate

Tropical, Árido / desértico, Templado, Mediterráneo, Polar / frío

Best time

It depends on the region

Length of its routes

3–5 days

Difficulty of its routes

Media

World Heritage Biosphere Reserve

Plan your visit

Best time: It depends on the region
Length of its routes: 3–5 days
Difficulty of its routes: Media
Area: 8,983 km²

Highlight

The world's first national park; over 10,000 hydrothermal features, more than the rest of the planet put together

Declared on 1 March 1872 by President Ulysses S. Grant, Yellowstone is reckoned the first national park in the world (though Mongolia had already protected the sacred mountain of Bogd Khan Uul in 1783, on rather different terms). Its creation owed much to the Hayden expedition of 1871, whose photographs by William Henry Jackson and paintings by Thomas Moran convinced Congress that its geysers and hot springs were not trappers' tall tales but real. Indigenous peoples, among them the Tukudika or Sheep Eaters, had lived and hunted in the region for at least 11,000 years before being driven out once the park was declared. Today Yellowstone is the only place in the 48 contiguous states where the American bison has survived in the wild without interruption since prehistoric times, and it was central in 1995 to the historic reintroduction of the grey wolf, absent for 70 years.