Yellowstone sits atop one of the world's largest volcanoes. Yellowstone Caldera, erupted 640,000 years ago, is about 1,000 square miles. That's the size of Rhode Island!
Yellowstone has four different types of geothermal features. You can find them all on the Fountain Paint Pots Boardwalk – geysers, hot springs, clay pots and fumaroles.
Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone Park Act in 1872, creating it as the world's first national park.
It is home to the world's most famous geyser, Old Faithful, and the world's tallest geyser, Steamboat. It is located in the Norris Geyser Basin, about an hour's drive from Old Faithful.
The Old Faithful Inn, built in 1903-1904, was the brainchild of 29-year-old architect Robert Rimmer.
The park covers 2.2 million acres, also has 290 waterfalls. But the most famous are the Upper and Lower Yellowstone River Falls with a dramatic drop of 308 feet.
The park has more than 1,000 miles of hiking trails. The most famous is the Upper Geyser Basin Boardwalk Hike which is 1.5 miles long.
It freezes every year in December or January. However, Yellowstone Lake actually stays at a very low temperature of 5 degrees Celsius throughout the year.
It provides a home for a wide range of animals, such as grizzly bears, wolves, moose, elk, etc. There are 67 different species of mammals living in the park.
In the early 90s, a campaign was launched to restore the gray wolf species. More than 14 wolves from Canada were captured and transported to the park.