Yellowstone National Park

●established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant in 1872

●located primarily in Wyoming, although it extends into Montana and Idaho

●Yellowstone Lake is one of the largest high-altitude lakes in North America and is centered over the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest supervolcano on the continent.

●Half of the world’s geothermal features are in Yellowstone.

●In 1988, nearly 1/3 of the park was burnt by large forest fires.

1. Old Faithful Geyser: Eruptions can shoot 3,700 to 8,400 gallons of boiling water to a height of 106 to 185 feet lasting from 1.5 minutes to 5 minutes. Intervals between eruptions can range from 45 to 125 minutes.

2. Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: The canyon is approximately 24 miles long, between 800 feet and 1,200 feet deep and between one quarter of a mile and three quarters of a mile wide.

3. Lower Yellowstone River Falls: The lower falls are 308 feet high, or almost twice as high as Niagara. The lower falls is the largest volume major waterfall in the Rocky Mountains of the United States. The volume of water flowing over the falls can vary from 63,500 gallons per second at peak runoff to 5,000 gallons per second in the fall.

4. Mammoth Hot Springs