Mount Washburn

Hikers at Grand Prismatic Spring in the Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park.

The Ultimate Family Tour of Yellowstone

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By Michael Lanza

Every American should see Yellowstone—and not just for the historical significance of it being the world’s first national park. Few places in the United States still host the range of wildlife thriving in Yellowstone: You are likely to see numerous bison and elk, bald eagles, osprey, possibly wolves, maybe black and grizzly bears (usually from a distance), and trumpeter swans among the park’s 285 species of birds. With more than 10,000 thermal features including hot springs and more than half the planet’s geysers, and nearly 300 waterfalls, it often feels like the park is putting on a live performance.

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Lower Yellowstone Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River, Yellowstone National Park.

The 10 Best Hikes in Yellowstone

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By Michael Lanza

Yellowstone National Park is a place where the earth comes alive, with more than 10,000 hydrothermal features and 500 active geysers—that’s more than half the world’s geysers—as well as 290 waterfalls, not to mention having some of the greatest diversity of wildlife remaining in the contiguous United States. America’s first national park is also famously busy, drawing between three and four million visitors a year. Thankfully, most of those visitors never wander far from the roads, which means that hiking provides one of the best and quietest ways to explore Yellowstone.

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A hiker watching sunrise at Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park.

Photo Gallery: Yellowstone in Autumn

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By Michael Lanza

My goal that first day in our first national park: hike the North Rim Trail in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. I walked along the brink of the canyon rim, looking down a thousand feet at the river’s whitewater, and stood at the lip of 308-foot-tall Lower Yellowstone Falls. Before that autumn visit was over, I dayhiked to a grand, 360-degree view of Yellowstone from the top of 10,243-foot Mount Washburn and saw a herd of elk and four black bears (the latter from the safety of my car). I hiked at dawn around Mammoth Hot Springs, serenaded by the bugling of a bull elk, and solo into the magnificent silence of the Black Canyon of the Yellowstone River. And I capped it off with an entirely unplanned event: getting stuck in a classic Yellowstone “bison jam.”

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