Yellowstone: The perilous park home to hot springs, geysers, and a supervolcano

It’s hard to imagine a place that is home to 290 waterfalls, three canyons, bubbling hot springs, and geysers shooting water 30 metres into the air all in one place. It almost sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel. But there’s a magic that can be felt throughout Yellowstone. Millions of visitors journey here annually to gain ocular proof of the world’s first national park. 

Spanning nearly 900 000 hectares, this UNESCO World Heritage Site sits above a supervolcano. While it became a park in 1872, it was only in the 1980s that scientists discovered the volcano was active. There is no doubt that this place is as dangerous as it is mysteriously inviting. The hot pools, springs, and other thermal features, although typifying a spa, can cause third-degree burns.

Yellowstone contains over half the world’s active geysers and most of them are in the Upper Geyser Basin. Here you can find at least 150 geysers in just over two kilometres, including Old Faithful, which gets its name from the regularity of its eruptions. The Basin also hosts the world’s largest single concentration of hot springs. The Grand Prismatic Spring is a giant pool of rainbow-coloured sequences, and the outburst of colour is caused by layers of organisms living in different degrees of water. 

This is not the finale as far as unique geological features go – Yellowstone has its own Grand Canyon. To get a good view, take a drive to Artist Point and overlook the cliff’s edge to fully grasp its 2 000-metre width. While on the way, stop at Upper Falls View and Uncle Tom’s Trail to see powerful cascades. The park has over 1 000 kilometres of trails for the avid hiker to embark on. A nine-kilometre traverse through Lamar Valley provides the ideal opportunity to get a closer look at the wildlife. Yellowstone is home to over 60 different mammals, from gray wolves, black bears, and grizzly bears, to bison, elk, and moose. 

This national park is a place of heat and lava, where the ground simmers beneath your feet as you traverse the pathways. Wherever you step, discover the dangerous, yet worthwhile spectacle of Yellowstone.