Yellowstone National Park is a Hot Spot, Literally.

Yellowstone will always be special to us because, well firstly, its Yellowstone. If you’ve ever been there, you know what we’re talking about.

If you haven’t, then you probably don’t, and we’re not just trying to be sassy by saying so. Its just that you have to go-there-to-know-there.

While this is true of any place, its particularly true in Yellowstone. The reason is, its hard to imagine what Yellowstone actually is, until you see it firsthand.

Thermal Pool in Upper Geyser Basin, near Old Faithful

You may have read of the Yellowstone “hotspot.” If you haven’t, Google it. Literally, the entire park exists inside of what used to be an ancient volcano caldera.

The caldera rim doesn’t exist much anymore (there are a few spots to view it throughout the park), but the geothermal activity roiling at, and below, the surface, still does. 

Thermal Features Everywhere Across Yellowstone

In every corner of the park you find things bubbling and boiling. Geysers, thermal pools, mud pots, steaming rivers. Hydrothermal features of every configuration. All driven by lava far beneath the earth’s surface.

What’s more, Yellowstone is HUGE. It can take up to 2 hours to drive from one side of the park to another. Yet, you can leave one area which is bubbling and boiling, drive two hours away, only to find more bubbling and boiling.

Where is all this energy coming from? How is it so vast? The answer lies underground.

Another thermal feature in Upper Geyser Basin. There are hundreds!

All of Yellowstone, millions of acres, is sitting on top of an incomprehensibly vast geothermal boiler. This is the part that’s so hard to get wrapped around until you see it, in person.

Once you get here and begin checking out several different areas, it slowly begins to dawn on you. We’re sitting on our powder keg of cataclysmic proportions! 

Yellowstone is for Families

Yellowstone is special to us also because it was one of the few western parks we visited while still living in the east. What a pleasure to revisit and relive memories from 6 years prior. And to create new memories for ourselves and our children.

Our kids were rather young at the time of our first visit. They had a few memories of it, for sure (they were 3 and 5). Now that they’re older (8 and 10), they surely have a special place etched in their hearts and minds by this otherworldly national park.

In Our Classroom

What Makes Yellowstone Special?

Any way you hack it, Yellowstone is a big deal. We didn’t know how big until we visited it. And you won’t either.

Of course, we’re happy to have you travel and to visit special places, vicariously, through our blog. But you should see Yellowstone firsthand, too.

Trust us.  No digital representation of the real experience will ever come close to the real experience.

Said another way, a blog post can light your fire for travel. But, to quench that fire, you must go-there-to-know-there. 

Grand Prismatic Spring is the largest discreet hotspot in Yellowstone National Park