the first national park There is a special place tucked into the northwest corner of Wyoming This natural wonderland includes geysers and hot springs It has towering pine forests and rushing streams Huge bison and noisy woodpeckers make their homes here Visitors can hike through the forests or ride a horse along the trails They can see many amazing natural wonders Yellowstone is part of the United States National Park system National parks do not belong to one person They belong to everyone Yellowstone was the very first national park IT’S A FACT Most of Yellowstone National Park is in Wyoming There are also small parts of the park in Montana and Idaho 4
natural beauty Yellowstone got its name from the Yellowstone River which flows through the park The river is surrounded by yellow sandstone bluffs Native Americans in the area called the river Mi tsi a-da-zi which means Rock Yellow River French fur trappers translated the name to Yellow Stone The Yellowstone River is the largest and most important river of the park 6
The Yellowstone River flows through four canyons One of the most beautiful is called the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone It is located in the eastern part of the park The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is 20 miles long and up to 1,200 feet deep The canyon was carved out by the river over millions of years The canyon includes two waterfalls The larger waterfall is called the Lower Falls of the Yellowstone It falls 308 feet down into the canyon Yellowstone National Park covers 3,472 square miles of wilderness That’s bigger than the states of Delaware and Rhode Island put together The park is on a high flat plateau Mountains surround it on all sides The park includes more than 1,000 miles of backcountry trails It would take years for someone to see everything the park has to offer IT’S A FACT The Lower Falls is almost twice as high as Niagara Falls 7
