Yellowstone National Park
United States ·
Description
Yellowstone is Earth's pressure cooker. Geysers like Old Faithful spout boiling water with Swiss precision, while thermal pools paint impossible palettes of turquoise, orange and acid green. Bison herds cross steaming meadows, wolves hunt in glacial valleys, and beneath it all beats a supervolcano reminding us this land is very much alive.
Why It's a World Heritage Site
Yellowstone was the world's first national park (1872) and contains the planet's largest concentration of active geysers. Its ecosystem harbors iconic species like grizzly bears, wolves, bison and elk. The underlying supervolcano is one of Earth's largest.
UNESCO Criteria
Frequently Asked Questions
For being the world's first national park, with the largest geyser concentration and intact ecosystems with megafauna.
It was inscribed in 1978, one of the first 12 sites on the UNESCO list.
Mainly in Wyoming, with parts in Montana and Idaho, USA.
The supervolcano hasn't erupted in 640,000 years; scientists constantly monitor it.
May-September for full access; avoid July-August for extreme crowds.