Yellowstone Insider: Your Complete Guide to America's First National Park

Old Faithful Visitor Education Center Opens to Public

The dedication of the new Old Faithful Visitor Education Center is still ongoing in Yellowstone National Park, but here are a few photos of the opening dedication, still going on as this story is posted.

Yellowstone Club Employee Kills Bear; State Not Happy

Another bear casualty in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem -- this time in the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club -- has officials from the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department steamed about the club's poor practices regarding bears.

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Basics/FAQs

Destination Yellowstone

If you told your friends or family that you were going to spend some of your vacation in an active volcano, they might think you were crazy. Yet every year more than three million people do exactly that. Yellowstone National Park is a volcano. Almost everything that is special in Yellowstone is the result of being one of the world’s largest active volcanoes, in fact, a super-volcano. Fortunately, Yellowstone’s current volcanic activity is limited to hot water and earthquakes -- no eruptions, flowing magma, or cataclysmic explosions. Yellowstone did the cataclysmic explosion thing about 640,000 years ago and is resting for a possible encore in some more tens of thousands of years. Yellowstone the volcano is not going to erupt anytime soon.

Welcome to Yellowstone Insider 3.0!

Welcome to the third version of Yellowstone Insider! You’ll find some old faces and new voices as we continue to bring you the Internet’s definitive guide to America’s oldest National Park. We think you'll be happy with the many, many changes we've made in a complete overhaul of the site.
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Issues

Debate Over Winter Use Plan Basically Over: Snowmobile Lobby is Winner

Snowmobile-advocacy groups, concessionaires and regional outfitters have already won the battle over the next Winter Use Plan for Yellowstone National Park, as the National Park Service has distilled the many public comments into six proposed usage scenarios that would not really change much at all and continue the current ban on cars in the Park during winter months.

Wolves in Yellowstone: About Wolves

No other animal says northern wilderness like the gray wolf. The distant piercing howl of a wolf pack can send shivers up the spine of almost every vertebrate, including humans. In appearance and behavior wolves remind us of man’s best friend, the dog, as they should; dogs are descendants of wolves. However, in the wild, wolves are a far cry from the domestic dog. Wolves are surrounded by myths and legends, most of them dark, forbidding -- scary. Whether their frightening reputation fits the facts...that’s been a subject of controversy, probably since the dawn of human time.

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Plans

Touring the New Visitor Education Center

There is no doubt the dedication of the new Visitor Education Center at Old Faithful was the biggest event of the Yellowstone National Park calendar this year, as dignitaries both local and national showed up to hail the opening of a building afforded a prime location next to some of the most historic and noteworthy landmarks in America. Does the new building measure up to its august company?

Yellowstone Institute Announces Winter Field Seminars

It's never too early to begin planning for that winter trip to Yellowstone National Park, as the nonprofit Yellowstone Association Institute announced its lineup of winter Field Seminars.

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Kids

Joining the Junior Rangers in Yellowstone

In Yellowstone, kids who are between 5 and 12 can participate in the Junior Ranger Program, which is intended to show them all the wonders and beauty of Yellowstone, and how they can help preserve it. All that is needed to participate is the $3 needed to buy a 12-page activity book. Read more...

Must-do items for the younger set

Keeping a kid occupied in Yellowstone National Park is a breeze. Here's our list of the top five all-time greatest things for kids to do in Yellowstone.

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History

Dude-Rancher Writings Donated to Yellowstone

The memoirs of Dick Randall, the turn-of-the-century Yellowstone-area dude rancher whose guests included President Theodore Roosevelt and the King of Prussia, have been donated to the Yellowstone National Park archives in Gardiner by friends of the family.

Historic Yellowstone Haynes Photo Store on the Move

The big construction news in the Old Faithful area today: the Historic Haynes Photo Store, which has been boarded up for several years, is on the move within Yellowstone National Park. We'll tell you where.

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