Facts of Yellowstone National Park

When you begin to study the facts of Yellowstone National Park, which covers 3468 square miles (or 2,219,789 acres) through Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, you are diving into an exciting story of the history of the United States.

Author and Yellowstone expert, Janet Chapple

Yellowstone Treasures, written by Janet Chapple, is an incredible guide to the awesome Yellowstone National Park. It is the perfect companion for visitors of Yellowstone, but it's also an excellent "virtual vacation" for those who are unable to travel there. The vivid descriptions from Janet Chapple along with the stunning photos will make you feel like you can step right through the pages and be there yourself. The perfect escape for when you can't really escape.

Yellowstone Treasures third edition by Janet Chapple

Recently, LoveToKnow had the opportunity to speak with Janet Chapple about her book as well as other facts of Yellowstone National Park.

How did you become an expert on Yellowstone?

When I was very small and my family lived in Billings, Montana, my father worked at Old Faithful Inn as Transportation Agent for four summers. Love for the park was implanted in me then, but much later (in the 1970s) I decided to collect books about the park, since I then lived so far away.

Then in the 1990s, I began to work on updating a guide that my family had used, which was called the Haynes Guide. With one to three trips a year to the park and a great deal of year-round research, it took me five years to create and two more years to publish Yellowstone Treasures’ first edition. Since then I continue to read, visit the park, take classes from the Yellowstone Institute, and generally learn more in order to update that guide. I have also put together another book about Yellowstone; an anthology of early writings about the park to be called Magnificent Playground.

What are the most unique features of the park?

There are more hydrothermal features in Yellowstone than anywhere else in the world. These include something like 500 to 600 geysers and thousands of hot springs, mud pots, and fumaroles (vents where steam escapes from underground).

The variety, number, and visibility of large animals is outstanding: you are sure to see bison and elk. Deer, bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, wolves, and both black and grizzly bears are seen by many visitors.

In addition, high, rugged mountains surround the central part of the park, the Canyon of the Yellowstone River is a scenic wonder, and lovely waterfalls, streams, and vistas abound.

There is no other place in the world with so much diversity of things to see.

What types of wildlife can visitors expect to see and how has this changed over the years?

Visitors who passed through in the late 19th century saw very little big game, surprisingly enough. They wrote of the squirrels and chipmunks, but not about seeing bear and elk and bison. This may be partly because the roadways and paths were limited and didn't go to the places where most herds grazed, and partly because at first the animals were just as afraid of people in the protected area of the park as outside of it.

Then by around 1900, the bears discovered they could make a living by picking up food in the dumps near the hotels that had been built by that time. They also learned to beg along the roads. Roads expanded to the Lamar and Hayden valleys, where large herds of bison graze, and the U.S. government rewarded hunters for eliminating predators, causing populations of mountain lions and coyotes to plummet and wolves to be totally eliminated by about 1926. With few predators, elk populations rose tremendously, until by the time wolves were reintroduced in 1995, there were as many as 35,000 elk in the park during the summer.

By 1970 bears had become such a problem that drastic measures were taken to discourage them from approaching humans: dumps were closed, bear-proof garbage cans were installed, visitors were cautioned against feeding bears or leaving food where they could get it, and they were fined if caught disobeying the rules. Problem bears were transported far from people, and many were killed.

Now if you stay a few days in Yellowstone, you will always see bison and elk and quite likely mule deer, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep, and both grizzly and black bear, as well as many small animals and birds of all sizes.

One of Yellowstone's geysers

Here are ten tips that Janet gives to people who come to see her slideshow talks about Yellowstone:

1. Do plan to camp or reserve lodgings in more than one place. A few nights in each of two to four locales will maximize what you’ll see and minimize driving time.
2. Don't expect to see everything in one trip or visit too many different places. Allow time for the unexpected bison jam or to catch a second eruption of a phenomenal geyser.
3. Be prepared to do some walking. Going a mile or two away from any road can be very enjoyable.
4. Include at least one area just outside the park in your itinerary: the Grand Tetons, Cody, Red Lodge, West Yellowstone, and the Gallatin Canyon are all good choices.
5. Know the Yellowstone seasons. At 7000 to 8000 foot elevations, spring does not come until sometime in May, and even then some roads may be blocked by snow. Autumn begins early in September, and winter is long! Bring layers of clothing but plenty of sunscreen.
6. Be aware that Yellowstone's roads are slow, often full of potholes, and that some are currently undergoing construction.
7. Plan to be on the roads early and late in the day. Avoid crowds by staying away from the main roads between 10 am and 5 pm whenever possible.
8. Take binoculars or a spotting scope as well as your camera, especially for animal watching.
9. Prepare the kids: watch videos, read from Yellowstone Treasures and other books about the area or the animals, tell them how different it will be (wild animals nearby, staying outdoors, no TV). Let them do some of the planning.
10. When at Old Faithful Village, check at the visitor center for predicted geyser eruption times. Your patience in waiting for some of the spectacular predictable geysers will be amply rewarded!

When is the best time to visit?

Most facilities and all roads are guaranteed to be open only from early May through October. Then, there is a relatively limited winter season, when only the northern road from the North to the Northeast Entrance is plowed and most, but not all, other roads are open to snowcoaches and snowmobiles. That season stretches from mid December into early March, and only two hotels in the park are open, although you can stay in gateway communities.

If you want to see the most young animals, May and early June are best, but not everything will be open yet and some mountain roads will still be closed.

Most people visit from early July to mid August, so you’ll encounter crowds then, but everything is open, the wildflowers are wonderful, and so is the weather (most of the time).

Although it‘s likely to be dry and the flowers are gone, late August and September have fewer people, and treats like hearing the bull elk bugle can be rewarding.

What are some common misconceptions about Yellowstone?

• That it is always crowded and traffic is bumper to bumper. (See suggestions above to avoid these.)

• That when you see Old Faithful erupt, that's what Yellowstone has to offer in geysers.

There are five other regularly predictable geysers, all very worth seeing, and many more that you may be lucky enough to catch erupting if you allow yourself time to wait and wander. Besides those, the multi-hued hot springs and the mud pots are fascinating and unique.

• That you can see everything worthwhile in a day or two.

The park is so large and the wonderful features so spread around that you need at least a week to see the highlights. Then you will want to go back many times. There is so much you can enjoy by walking a mile or two!

If you want to learn more facts about Yellowstone National Park, check out Janet Chapple's book, Yellowstone Treasures. You can also visit her website, YellowstoneTreasures.com.

LoveToKnow would like to thank Janet Chapple for this fascinating interview.

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