Yellowstone National Park, now 145 years old, was the first national park established in the world. In 2016, the 2.2-million-acre park was visited by a record 4.2 million people who came to experience the wilderness, explore countless geothermal features, witness the gorgeous vistas, and try to catch a glimpse of the resident wildlife. Gathered here are a handful of compelling photos from Yellowstone’s past, as well as some from recent years.
A Photo Trip Through Yellowstone National Park
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Read moreThe Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River in Yellowstone National Park, photographed on September 2, 2006. #
Stewart Tomlinson / U.S. Geological Survey -
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Read moreThe lower basin of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park in the 1870s. #
William Henry Jackson / Library of Congress / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreIn 1905, a stagecoach takes tourists past Jupiter Terrace in Mammoth Hot Springs, Yellowstone National Park. The buildings of Fort Yellowstone can be seen in the distance. #
Detroit Photographic Company / Library of Congress / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreA brave flapper feeds a bear along the shores of Yellowstone Lake, circa 1925. #
Kirn Vintage Stock / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreTourists drive their car on a dirt road along the Yellowstone River in the early days of Yellowstone National Park. #
Library of Congress / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreVisitors stand near geysers in Yellowstone Park, Wyoming, in this undated photograph. #
George Rinhart / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreIn near freezing weather, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stops to admire the Lower Falls in Yellowstone Canyon, on September 26, 1937. #
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Read moreA black bear walks among visitors to Yellowstone National Park in this photo, circa 1960. #
Dean Conger / Corbis / Getty -
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Read moreA coyote walks in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, on August 11, 2011. #
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters -
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Read moreCanary Spring terraces, part of Yellowstone's Mammoth Hot Springs, photographed on December 2, 2016. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA bison group in the road, near Frying Pan Spring, on February 24, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreTourists view the Morning Glory hot spring in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, on May 14, 2016. The distinctive colors of the hot spring are due to bacteria that survive in the hot water, although its vivid color has changed from its original blue to yellow and green after an accumulation of coins and debris thrown by tourists. #
Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreAn erupting Old Faithful geyser and the Milky Way crisscross on a clear summer night on June 24, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA bison jam in Hayden Valley on August 25, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreThe setting moon and an elk, photographed in Mammoth Hot Springs in March of 2015. #
National Park Service / Neal Herbert -
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Read moreA lone coyote on Yellowstone Lake on February 15, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreTourists watch Old Faithful, which erupts on average every 90 minutes, in Yellowstone National Park on June 1, 2011. #
Mark Ralston / AFP / Getty -
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Read moreA trumpeter swan takes off from a pond on May 5, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA bison group on the move at sunrise in Lamar Valley on June 30, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA black bear runs across a bridge spanning the Yellowstone River near the Lamar Valley in Yellowstone National Park on June 24, 2011. #
Jim Urquhart / Reuters -
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Read moreAlder Fire in Yellowstone National Park, photographed from above, on August 19, 2013. #
Mike Lewelling / National Park Service -
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Read moreA male pronghorn, photographed on Blacktail Deer Plateau on May 14, 2017. #
National Park Service / Neal Herbert -
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Read moreLooking down from the brink of the Yellowstone River's Lower Falls, on August 25, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA marten in a tree, photographed on February 12, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreA bison calf following a cow on Little America Flat, photographed in May of 2005. #
National Park Service / Jim Peaco -
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Read moreHikers ascend the north side of Electric Peak on July 15, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreIt may appear frozen at first glance, but the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River flows among the snow and ice on February 8, 2016. #
Carol M. Highsmith / Library of Congress -
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Read moreA white-tailed deer in velvet, photographed on July 12, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jacob W. Frank -
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Read moreAn aerial view of Upper Geyser Basin, photographed in June of 2006. #
National Park Service -
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Read moreA grizzly bear near Frying Pan Spring, Yellowstone National Park, photographed on May 19, 2017. #
National Park Service / Jim Peaco
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