Attractions & Tours
Things to Do in Yellowstone
Tours, attractions, and experiences in Yellowstone — booking direct where we can, vetted affiliate partners where we can't.
28 attractions
Geysers & Hot Springs
Yellowstone Geysers & Hot Springs
4 listings
Old Faithful & the Upper Geyser Basin
The world's most famous geyser, erupting on schedule roughly every 90 minutes — surrounded by the densest geyser field on earth, boardwalks past Morning Glory Pool, and the log cathedral of the Old Faithful Inn.
Grand Prismatic Spring
The planet's most psychedelic hot spring — a 370-foot rainbow of cobalt, emerald, and flame-orange microbial rings, seen from the Midway boardwalk and, essentially, from the Fairy Falls overlook above.
Mammoth Hot Springs
A mountain turning itself inside out — travertine terraces of white, cream, and burnt orange cascading like a frozen waterfall, with elk lounging on the historic fort's lawns below and boardwalks climbing the living rock.
Norris Geyser Basin
The park's hottest, strangest basin — home of Steamboat, the world's tallest active geyser, the milky-blue acid pools of Porcelain Basin, and thermal ground so restless it rewrites its own map between visits.
Wildlife
Yellowstone Wildlife
4 listings
Lamar Valley
America's Serengeti — the broad northeast valley where wolf packs hunt, bison herds blanket the flats, grizzlies work the edges, and dawn with a spotting scope is the best wildlife show in the hemisphere.
Hayden Valley
The park's central wildlife stage — vast grasslands on the Yellowstone River between Canyon and the lake, where bison jams are a daily ritual, grizzlies cross at dawn, and every pullout is a scope's-length from the show.
Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center
Guaranteed grizzlies, feet away — West Yellowstone's nonprofit sanctuary for bears that couldn't stay wild, plus resident wolf packs, river otters, and raptors, with keeper talks all day and tickets good for two days.
National Elk Refuge Sleigh Rides
Horse-drawn sleighs into the winter herd: from mid-December into early April, guided rides leave Jackson for the National Elk Refuge, where thousands of elk spend the winter on the flats just north of town.
Museums
Yellowstone Museums
3 listings
Buffalo Bill Center of the West
The Smithsonian of the West — five world-class museums under one Cody roof: Buffalo Bill's legend, Plains Indian life, Western art, Yellowstone's natural history, and the planet's most comprehensive firearms collection. Two-day ticket, needed.
National Museum of Wildlife Art
A stone museum built into a butte above the National Elk Refuge, holding America's leading collection of wildlife art, with a three-quarter-mile sculpture trail and windows that look out over the real herds.
Museum of the Rockies
Bozeman's dinosaur powerhouse at Montana State University: the Siebel Dinosaur Complex and Big Mike the T. rex, an Explore Yellowstone gallery, a planetarium, and a perfect arrival-day stop from the region's main airport.
Historic Sites
Yellowstone Historic Sites
3 listings
Heart Mountain Interpretive Center
The site of a World War II incarceration camp for Japanese Americans between Cody and Powell, with a museum that tells the story through the voices of those held there, an hour from Yellowstone's East Entrance.
Mormon Row Historic District
Weathered homestead barns set against the full Teton Range, including the Moulton barns, one of the most photographed scenes in the American West, with bison often grazing nearby.
Roosevelt Arch
The stone gateway at Gardiner, dedicated by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and inscribed For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People, standing at the one park entrance that welcomes cars all year.
Natural Wonders
Yellowstone Natural Wonders
2 listings
Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
The park's namesake wonder — a 1,000-foot gorge of yellow, pink, and rust rock with the 308-foot Lower Falls thundering into it, framed from Artist Point and felt from the Brink, where the river vanishes under your feet.
Yellowstone Lake & West Thumb
North America's largest high-altitude lake — 136 icy square miles over a drowned caldera, with West Thumb's geysers steaming at the shoreline, scenic cruises from Bridge Bay, and the 1891 colonnaded hotel on its bank.
Tours
Yellowstone Tours
2 listings
Yellowstone Wildlife Safaris
Dawn in Lamar with a biologist, scopes, and the radio net — guided safari days that convert hope into sightings: wolves located, grizzlies glassed, and the park's ecology narrated mile by mile. The single best spend for wildlife-first trips.
Winter Snowcoach Tours
The park's secret season — when roads close to cars, heated snowcoaches run the frozen interior: Old Faithful erupting into minus-ten air, bison plowing chest-deep powder, frozen waterfalls, and almost nobody else on earth there.
Scenic Viewpoints
Yellowstone Scenic Viewpoints
2 listings
Oxbow Bend
A slow bend of the Snake River mirroring Mount Moran, with otters, swans, beavers and moose in the shallows, right beside a highway that stays plowed through the Grand Teton winter.
Schwabacher Landing
Beaver-dammed side channels of the Snake River that turn into mirrors of the Teton Range on calm mornings, with moose in the willows and an easy riverside path.
Hikes
Yellowstone Hikes
2 listings
Lone Star Geyser Trail
A flat, 4.8-mile round trip along the Firehole River to a backcountry geyser that erupts up to 45 feet from a 12-foot cone about every three hours, open to bikes for most of the way and to skiers in winter.
Mount Washburn Trail
Yellowstone's classic summit hike: three miles up from Dunraven Pass to a fire lookout at 10,243 feet, with wildflower meadows, bighorn sheep and a view over the caldera, the canyon and on clear days the Tetons.
Scenic Drives
Yellowstone Scenic Drives
1 listing
Scenic Rides
Yellowstone Scenic Rides
1 listing
Hot Springs
Yellowstone Hot Springs
1 listing
Guided Learning
Yellowstone Guided Learning
1 listing
Lakes & Trails
Yellowstone Lakes & Trails
1 listing
Geyser Basins
Yellowstone Geyser Basins
1 listing
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