Waterton Lakes National Park

improvement district in Alberta, Canada

503km

Calgary

city in Alberta, Canada

619km

Rocky Mountain National Park

national park of the United States

642km

Mesa Verde National Park

U.S. national park in Colorado

658km

Zion National Park

Even among America's National Parks, few can match the stunning beauty of Zion National Park. Situated between the Dixie and Canyon Country regions of southern Utah, the park protects a series of incredible rock formations and high sandstone cliffs, and is a favorite spot for hiking, backpacking, canyoneering and climbing. In fact, Zion has some of the most spectacular trails in the National Park System. Unlike many other parks in the American Southwest, where visitors look down from the rim of a canyon, visitors to Zion walk on the canyon floor and look up. In addition to the magnificent monoliths and cliffs, the park is known for its desert landscape of sandstone canyons, mesas, and high plateaus.

670km

Hayden Valley

Hayden Valley is one of the best places in the park to view a wide variety of wildlife. It is an excellent place to look for grizzly bears, particularly in the spring and early summer when they may be preying upon newborn bison and elk calves. Large herds of bison may be viewed in the spring, early summer, and during the fall rut, which usually begins late July to early August. Coyotes can almost always be seen in the valley. Bird life is abundant in and along the river. A variety of shore birds may be seen in the mud flats at Alum Creek. A pair of sandhill cranes usually nests at the south end of the valley. Ducks, geese, and American white pelicans cruise the river. The valley is also an excellent place to look for bald eagles and northern harriers.

10km

Grebe Lake

Lake in Park County, Wyoming, USA

10km

Virginia Cascades

waterfall

13km

Lake Hotel

17km

Mount Washburn

Mt. Washburn is the main peak in the Washburn Range, rising 10,243 ft (3,122 m) above the west side of the canyon. It is the remnant of volcanic activity that took place long before the formation of the present canyon. Mt. Washburn was named for Gen. Henry Dana Washburn, leader of the 1870 Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition. One of the best places in the park for spotting bighorn sheep and also a great spot for wildflowers, a trail leads up the mountain to a lookout tower near the 10,243-foot (3,122 m) summit. The altitude may affect some hikers, so it is best to be acclimatized to the higher elevation before attempting this hike. In addition, bring extra layers, even in the summer, since the top can be windy and cold.

18km

Fishing Bridge Museum

The Fishing Bridge Museum was completed in 1931 and would eventually become a prototype of rustic architecture in parks all over the nation. It was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1987. When automobiles replaced stagecoaches as the main means of transportation through the park, people were no longer accompanied by a guide, so the museum was built as a "Trailside Museum," allowing visitors to obtain information about Yellowstone on their own.

19km

Norris Geyser Basin Museum

The Norris Geyser Basin Museum is one of the park's original trailside museums built in 1929-30. It has always been a museum. It is an outstanding example of a stone-and-log architecture.

19km

Yellowstone Lake

Like Lake Village and Fishing Village, this area provides access to North America's largest high elevation lake. The topmost layers of the lake rarely exceeds 66 °F (19 °C), and the lower layers are much colder; because of the extremely cold water, swimming is not recommended.

23km

Roaring Mountain

mountain in United States of America

23km

Isa Lake

Lake in Teton County, Wyoming, USA

23km

Gibbon Falls

waterfall on the Gibbon River in northwestern Yellowstone National Park

25km

Shoshone Lake

Lake in Teton County, Wyoming, USA

26km

Tower Fall

This 132-foot-tall (40 m) waterfall is easily accessible from the main park road and is framed by eroded volcanic pinnacles.

28km

Osprey Falls

waterfall

28km

Bunsen Peak

mountain in United States of America

30km

Mount Everts

Mt. Everts was named for explorer Truman Everts of the 1870 Washburn Expedition who became separated from his camping buddies, lost his glasses, lost his horse, and spent the next 37 days starving and freezing and hallucinating as he made his way through the un-tracked and inhospitable wilderness. Upon rescue, he was, according to his rescuers, within but a few hours of death. Everts never made it quite as far as Mt. Everts. He was found near the "Cut" on the Blacktail Plateau Drive and was mistaken for a black bear and nearly shot. His story, which he later published in Scribner's Monthly Magazine, remains one of Yellowstone's best known, lost-in-the-wilderness stories. It has also been published in book form, edited by Yellowstone's archivist Lee Whittlesey under the name Lost in the Yellowstone. Mt. Everts is made up of distinctly layered sandstones and shales--sedimentary rocks deposited when this area was covered by a shallow inland sea, 70 to 140 million years ago.

30km

Kepler Cascades

This is the most easily reached waterfall in the district. A marked pullout just south of Old Faithful and a short walk from the car offers the visitor easy access to view this 125-foot (38 m) cascade.

32km

Fort Yellowstone

All of the red-roofed, many-chimneyed buildings in the Mammoth area are part of historic Fort Yellowstone. Beginning in 1886, after 14 years of poor civilian management of the park, the Cavalry was called upon to manage the park's resources and visitors. Because the Cavalry only expected to be here a short while, they built a temporary post near the base of the Terraces called Camp Sheridan. After five cold, harsh winters, they realized that their stay in the park was going to be longer than expected, so they built Fort Yellowstone, a permanent post. In 1891, the first building to be constructed was the guard house because it directly coincided with the Cavalry's mission - protection and management. By 1916, the National Park Service was established, and the Cavalry gave control of Yellowstone back to the civilians. Since that time, historic Fort Yellowstone has been Yellowstone's headquarters.

32km

Mammoth Hot Springs

town

33km

Old Faithful Inn

Built during the winter of 1903-04, the Old Faithful Inn is one of the few remaining log hotels in the United States. It is a masterpiece of rustic architecture in its stylized design and fine craftsmanship. Its influence on American architecture, particularly park architecture, was immeasurable. The building is a rustic log and wood-frame structure with gigantic proportions: nearly 700 feet (210 m) in length and seven stories high. The lobby of the hotel features a 65-foot (20 m) ceiling, a massive rhyolite fireplace, and railings made of contorted lodgepole pine. Visitor can stand in the middle of the lobby and look up at the exposed structure, or climb up a gnarled log staircase to one of the balconies and look up, down, or across. Wings were added to the hotel in 1915 and 1927, and today there are 327 rooms available to guests in this National Historic Landmark.

33km

Specimen Ridge

Along the Northeast Entrance Road east of Tower Junction, this area contains the largest concentration of petrified trees in the world. There are also excellent samples of petrified leaf impressions, conifer needles, and microscopic pollen from numerous species no longer growing in the park.

34km

Gibbon River

river in the United States of America

35km

Firehole River

river in the United States of America

35km

National Park Mountain

The mountain is part of the lava flows that encircle the Madison Junction area. Near this site, in 1870, the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition is said to have camped and discussed the future of the region they were exploring. Legend has it that this was where the idea of the national park was discussed, but there is no evidence of the campfire conversation ever taking place, and there is certainly no evidence to show that the idea of a national park was discussed.

36km

Gardner River

The North Entrance Road from Gardiner, Montana, to Mammoth Hot Springs, Wyoming, runs along the Gardner River. The road winds into the park, up the canyon, past crumbling walls of sandstone and ancient mudflows. The vegetation is much thicker in the canyon than on the open prairie down below, the common trees being Rocky Mountain juniper, cottonwood, and Douglas-fir. Low-growing willows also crowd the river's edge in the flatter, flood-prone sections of the canyon. Watch for wildlife in season: eagles, osprey, dippers, and kingfishers along the river and bighorn sheep in the steeper parts of the canyon.

36km

Roosevelt Arch

The first major entrance for Yellowstone was at the north boundary. Robert Reamer, a famous architect in Yellowstone, designed the immense stone arch for coaches to travel through on their way into the park. At the time of the arch's construction, President Theodore Roosevelt was visiting the park. He consequently placed the cornerstone for the arch, which then took his name. The top of the Roosevelt Arch is inscribed with "For the benefit and enjoyment of the people," which is from the Organic Act of 1916.

37km

Mystic Falls

cascade type waterfall in Yellowstone National Park

37km

Sepulcher Mountain

mountain in United States of America

38km

Lamar Buffalo Ranch

The Lamar Buffalo Ranch was built in the early part of the century in an effort to increase the herd size of the few remaining bison in Yellowstone, preventing the feared extinction of the species. Buffalo ranching operations continued at Lamar until the 1950s. The valley was irrigated for hay pastures, and corrals and fencing were scattered throughout the area. Four remaining buildings from the original ranch compound are contained within the Lamar Buffalo Ranch Historic District (two residences, the bunkhouse, and the barn) and are on the National Register of Historic Places. Visitors can drive by to view the historic buffalo ranch, however, there are no facilities open to the general public at this location.

40km

Northeast Entrance Station

The Northeast Entrance Ranger Station was constructed in 1934-35 and is a National Historic Landmark. Its rustic log construction is characteristic of "parkitecture" common in the national parks of the west during that period.

67km