America’s oldest national park still has its fair share of surprising facts.
It’s the sort of destination that doesn’t just feel wild itiswild.
Here are 18 surprising facts about the wondrousYellowstone National Park.
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The park is so big that it sprawls into three U.S. states.
The park is also larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined.
Yellowstone became a national park almost 20 years before Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana became official U.S. states.
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It got its name from Native Americans, who were referring to the yellow sandstone along the Yellowstone River.
In the park’s early days, visitors came to watch bears eat garbage.
They even built bleachers for the event.
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The park is home to the largest concentration of mammals in the lower 48 states.
That includes mammals like grizzly bears, bison, wolves, elk, and moose.
Yellowstone is the only place in the U.S. where bison have lived continuously since prehistoric times.
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The herds in Yellowstone are special, as they’ve lived in the park continuously since prehistoric times.
The park is situated over a supervolcano that is capable of a magnitude 8 eruption.
In fact, the supervolcano has had three massive eruptions the first occurring some 2.1 million years ago.
While the volcano remains active today, geologists are constantlymonitoring it.
Magma is estimated to be a mere three miles below parts of the park.
Yellowstone is home to half of the world’s hydrothermal features from hot springs to geysers.
The vibrant colors you see in the park come from trillions of microorganisms called thermophiles.
The Best Times to Visit Yellowstone National Park
11.
The time between Old Faithful’s eruptions has lengthened.
But over the last few decades, the time between eruptions has lengthened and become less predictable.
That said, it still erupts around 17 times a day, sometimes reaching a height of 184 feet.
Every year, between 700 and 3,000 earthquakes occur in Yellowstone but most are too small to feel.
The park’s temperature swings from below freezing to burning hot.
Theweather in the parkis dramatic, withrecord lows at -66 degrees Fahrenheitand record highs at 99 degrees.
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16.
Yellowstone is home to hundreds of waterfalls and at least 900 miles of hiking trails.
While Yellowstone contains at least 45 named waterfalls, there are estimated to be hundreds more.
The park also has almost 2,000 archeological sites.