The closest national park to Big Sky is Yellowstone, located only about an hour away from town. One of the most popular and well-known parks in the US, Yellowstone is an essential stop on any Big Sky tour.
Located right on the corners of Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho, Yellowstone National Park was established in 1872, making it the first national park in the US and arguably the world. The park features close to 3,500 square miles of preserved land, centered around the Yellowstone Caldera, the largest super volcano in North America. Although the caldera is currently dormant, records indicate that it explodes about once every two million years, and the volcanic activity has shaped the landscape of the park significantly.
The volcano created Yellowstone National Park, which is home to about half of the world’s geysers and hydrothermal features. The park also features hundreds of species of animals, including grizzly bears, wolves, elk, cougars, and the nation’s largest herd of American bison. If you visit only one national park in your lifetime, we would recommend making Yellowstone that park.
Of course, Yellowstone isn’t the only national park in the Big Sky area. If you drive north of town for about four hours, you’ll reach Glacier National Park, another terrific destination. As the name suggests, Glacier National Park is home to several large ice glaciers, although their numbers have decreased dramatically due to climate change. The park also contains the Lewis Overthrust, a rock formation made of ancient sedimentary minerals forced up over younger rock by plate shifts. These ancient rocks feature some of the finest early-life fossils in the world, including Precambrian algae from over a billion years ago.
To make the most of your trip to Big Sky, check out our Big Sky Self-Guided Driving Tour, or you can sign up for Action+ and gain access to over 100 tours for a single yearly price.
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