Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone was America’s first National Park.
Rumblings of a super-volcano below the earth’s crust creates a unique landscape that millions of visitors flock to from around the world. Steam rolls from vividly colored pools, muddy cauldrons burp smelly gasses, and spouts of hot water shoot hundreds of feet into the air. This amazing park has half of the world’s geothermic features.
Yellowstone National Park is also home to herds of bison, elk, pronghorn and bighorn sheep. Bears and bison regularly slow traffic through the park.
Places to Stay While at Yellowstone
Inside the park, there are a number of cabins that fill up very quickly. They will need to be booked almost a year in advance. These include Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel, Roosevelt Lodge and Cabins, Old Faithful Inn, Old Faithful Lodge, Snow Lodge and Canyon Lodge and Cabins, among a few others that are tucked inside Canyon Village.
There are a number of towns nearby Yellow stone that may have lodging options (either Airbnb/VRBO, hotels or resorts). The distances listed are for the closest entrance to the park. Yellowstone is huge, so it may still take up to an hour to reach the middle of the park at Canyon Village.
- West Yellowstone, MT (2 miles away from park entrance)
- Gardiner, MT (5 miles)
- Cooke City, MT (5 miles)
What State is Yellowstone in?
This seems to be a common question among those just starting to become interested in visiting national parks. Yellowstone National Park is, in fact, located within parts of three states: Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. The majority of the park is in the top-left corner of Wyoming (96%), with only the small northern and western boundary strips of the park located in Montana (3%) and Idaho (1%).
How do you get to Yellowstone?
The most common way to get to Yellowstone National Park is by flying into Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport (BZN), which is located in Montana in the city of Bozeman. The Bozeman airport is 88 miles/1.5 hours away from the northern entrance of Yellowstone in Gardiner, MT. It is also 91 miles/1.5 hours away from the park’s western entrance in West Yellowstone, MT.
VISIT Yellowstone National Park:
Park Details
Yellowstone National Park was established in .
| Address | |
|---|---|
| Phone | 307-344-7381 |
| Hours | Open 24 hours in May-September. Many roads are closed in Winter |
| Entrance Fee | $35 per vehicle, valid for 7 days |
When to Visit: Weather vs. Peak Visitation
Winter in Yellowstone means fewer crowds, frigid temperatures, and steaming geyser basins. Skis, snowshoes, and snowmobiles become the primary modes of transportation as most park roads close, rivers and lakes freeze, and winter storms blanket the park with fluffy, white snow.
Using Historical Data to Predict
We crunched 30 years of historical weather and/or park service data to find the best months to visit Yellowstone National Park. We looked for the optimal temperatures, the least amount of snow and rain, and stayed away from peak visitation months if we could help it. All this data then helped us paint a picture as to what the absolute best time to visit Yellowstone National Park is.
Our data shows the best months to visit Yellowstone National Park are May, October & September.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Park Visits | 35,338 | 36,897 | 35,611 | 67,508 | 473,799 | 938,845 | 1,080,767 | 921,844 | 882,078 | 316,662 | 33,144 | 37,749 |
| Precipitation | 111 | 88 | 94 | 84 | 78 | 55 | 31 | 23 | 37 | 56 | 101 | 103 |
| Avg Temp | 23 | 24 | 29 | 39 | 52 | 63 | 72 | 71 | 61 | 46 | 30 | 23 |
| Max Temp | 32 | 32 | 39 | 54 | 66 | 76 | 80 | 78 | 72 | 62 | 45 | 33 |
| Avg Temp | 10 | 11 | 16 | 24 | 33 | 40 | 46 | 45 | 37 | 28 | 17 | 10 |
| Min Temp | -15 | -12 | -3 | 6 | 18 | 26 | 37 | 34 | 23 | 13 | -4 | -13 |
Yellowstone National Park Road Trips
Many family vacations consist of stringing one or more national parks together during a week-long trip. Creating these types of trips is our specialty! Here are the road trips we've created where Yellowstone National Park is visited.
Other Nearby National Park Sites
From national monuments, to historic sites to seashores and more, here are the other parks closest to Yellowstone National Park.