Most folks are familiar with Yellowstone National Park. It proudly holds the title of the world’s first national park and is renowned for Old Faithful.

“Probably 95% of people that come to Yellowstone visit Old Faithful, but Old Faithful is just a tiny fraction of what Yellowstone National Park is all about,” said Richard Jehle, an interpretive specialist at Yellowstone. “There are so many places in Yellowstone that if they were by themselves, they would be their own national park. Yellowstone Lake, the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, Mammoth Hot Springs, and other geyser basins like Norris Geyser Basin are all just spectacular resources in their own setting.”

Here’s everything else travelers should know about Yellowstone.

What is Yellowstone famous for?

Yellowstone is world-famous for its thermal features, including Old Faithful.

“A geyser is a hot spring that throws water up in the air. That’s the rarest of the thermal features, but we’ve got probably 10,000 or more hot springs, fumaroles or steam vents or mudpots in the park as well,” Jehle shared. “Just the geysers themselves, like Old Faithful, there’s more in Yellowstone than the rest of the planet combined.”

He also mentioned that the park boasts the largest concentration of geysers, hot springs, and thermal features globally, but that’s just part of its allure.

“Yellowstone is also home to the largest concentration of native wildlife anywhere in the lower 48 states. More native species of wildlife like bison, elk, grizzly bears, moose, and pronghorn are found here than anywhere else in the continental United States,” Jehle added, explaining that the park is considered the largest relatively intact natural ecosystem anywhere in the temperate, mid-latitude section of the world. “So it’s a large, more or less naturally functioning ecosystem, which is pretty rare these days. It covers almost 20 million acres, depending on how you want to define it.”

Is Yellowstone in Montana or Wyoming?

It’s in both. The park stretches across parts of three states: Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho.

Where do I fly into for Yellowstone?

Between May through mid-October, travelers can fly into Yellowstone Airport in West Yellowstone, Montana, via Delta or United airlines.

Year-round, visitors can fly into airports in:

• Cody and Jackson, Wyoming
• Bozeman and Billings, Montana
• Idaho Falls, Idaho

How much does it cost to get into Yellowstone National Park?

Entry into Yellowstone National Park by private car costs $35. It’s important to note that if you’re entering from the south, you’ll first pass through Grand Teton National Park, which has its entrance fee of $35 per car. No vehicle entry reservations are required for either park.

Can I see Yellowstone in one day?

No, it’s not feasible to explore Yellowstone in just one day. “At a bare minimum, you need to have two full days to tour the park,” Jehle advised.

He explained that’s partly due to the road system, which is laid out like a figure eight with a nearly 100-mile lower loop and roughly 70-mile upper loop.

“If you give yourself a complete full day – and I mean a full day – on each of those loops to allow yourself plenty of time to get around given traffic, wildlife, and roads, you can get a pretty good feel for what the major features of Yellowstone are all about. But you can easily take a week or even two weeks to dive much more in depth,” he said, adding that he’s been there 35 years and is still learning about it.

What is the best time of year to go to Yellowstone National Park?

“Whenever it’s open,” Jehle said. “Because it’s a remarkable place, and it’s never the same. Every day is different. You never know when you’re going to see something new or something magic.”

Summer is the most popular time for visits, though the shoulder seasons of spring and autumn have grown increasingly popular.

“Visiting Yellowstone in the winter is remarkable. It’s like a totally different national park,” Jehle shared. “Because of the cold, winter air, you will see geysers and thermal features that you don’t even see in the summer because there’s so much more steam… And the wildlife viewing in the winter, in some ways, is better than in the summer.”

Visiting during the winter can be trickier because the park’s interior closes to cars starting in November. There is a 50-mile stretch of road between Gardiner and Cooke City, Montana, that stays open all year, but Jehle noted:

• From Nov. 1 through Dec. 15, interior roads close to the public to allow enough snow to accumulate so roads can be groomed for snow vehicles.
• From mid-December to mid-March, only snowmobiles and snowcoaches are allowed on interior roads, mostly on third-party guided trips. However, up to four groups of unguided visitors are allowed in the park daily with a lottery-based permit and other requirements.
• Interior roads close to the public again after March 15, so the park can begin plowing roads. 
• Interior roads begin to open around the third Friday in April, but depending on conditions, some higher elevation roads might not be cleared until after Memorial Day.

Visitors can find the latest road closures and conditions on the park’s website.

How did Yellowstone get its name?

According to the United States Geological Survey, “the name was attributed as early as 1805 to Native Americans who were referring to yellow sandstones along the banks of the Yellowstone River in eastern Montana, several hundred miles downstream and northeast of the park.”

Are there any Native American people in Yellowstone?

Not residing there presently, aside from park staff. However, the park’s website notes, “For thousands of years before Yellowstone became a national park, it was a place where people hunted, fished, gathered plants, quarried obsidian, and used the thermal waters for religious and medicinal purposes.”

There are 27 Native tribes with historic ties to the land, according to the park.

• Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Montana
• Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana
• Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe of the Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota
• Coeur D’Alene Tribe
• Comanche Nation, Oklahoma
• Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Reservation
• Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation
• Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation
• Crow Creek Sioux Tribe of the Crow Creek Reservation, South Dakota
• Crow Tribe of Montana
• Eastern Shoshone Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
• Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota
• Fort Belknap Indian Community of the Fort Belknap Reservation of Montana
• Kiowa Indian Tribe of Oklahoma
• Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians of Montana
• Lower Brule Sioux Tribe of the Lower Brule Reservation, South Dakota
• Nez Perce Tribe
• Northern Arapaho Tribe of the Wind River Reservation, Wyoming
• Northern Cheyenne Tribe of the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, Montana
• Oglala Sioux Tribe
• Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Rosebud Indian Reservation, South Dakota
• Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation
• Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation, South Dakota
• Spirit Lake Tribe, North Dakota
• Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North & South Dakota
• Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota
• Yankton Sioux Tribe of South Dakota

What else should people know about Yellowstone?

“Yellowstone is your national park,” Jehle said. “I’m lucky enough to work here. I get to live here, but I don’t own Yellowstone. The owners of Yellowstone are the American public, the people of the world.”

“But with that comes a huge responsibility,” he added. “One of the primary reasons national parks exist is to pass on to future generations – to our kids and their kids and their kids – a place in as good or even better condition as we found it. So by all means, come to Yellowstone, enjoy it, but take ownership of it, love it, and pass it on.”