Yellowstone National Park: Fascinating Facts Friday

It's Fascinating Facts Friday. Feel free to let yourself get a bit giddy.

Since I'm participating in BlogHer's "eye" challenge, I wanted to also incorporate today's prompt: What is the coolest thing you ever saw?

I'll admit, the first thing that came to my mind was seeing my first baby come into the world. But, multitasker that I am, my next thought was Yellowstone National Park. Truly, it is the most beautiful place I've seen so far. But, just as importantly, part of my Young Adult WIP is set there, so consider this research.

Our Yellowstone trip 2010

Yellowstone National Park

- The park experiences 2,000 earthquakes per year. It's no wonder with its 10,000 thermal features and 300 active geysers.

- It is home to two endangered species: the Gray Wolf (Canis lupus) and the Whooping Crane (Grus americana).

- Did you know that the Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park area is roughly half the size of New Zealand and covers more than 2.2 million acres?

- Yellowstone National Park has the largest concentration of free roaming wildlife in all of the lower 48 states. (We took the picture of the buffalo above as he walked next to our car on the main road.)

- A grizzly bear will eat about 35 pounds of food in a given day. In August 2012, a man was killed by a grizzly in the park.

- Yellowstone National Park has 5 park entrances, 466 miles of roads, 950 miles of backcountry trails, 97 trailheads, and 287 backcountry campsites.

Note: It sure would be easy to lose someone to suspicious circumstances in such an area. Just saying.

- Yellowstone was the world's first national park. It was established by Congress and President Grant in 1872. Most of Yellowstone (96%) is in Wyoming, but parts extend into Montana and Idaho. The park is larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined. Its elevation ranges from 5,282 feet to 11,358 feet (at Eagle Peak.) About 80% of the park is forested. (Source)

- Yellowstone has its own Grand Canyon, called the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone. (That's my dad in the picture above.)

And just for a bit of fun, a picture of me, my husband, and our three girls during our 2010 Yellowstone trip (although the picture was taken at the Tetons).

For my writer friends... if you use a real city in one of your novels, do you visit it in addition to other types of research about the area?