Just over 150 years old, the world's first national park continues to entertain four million visitors a year. Positioned over a massive volcanic caldera, Yellowstone National Park is most famous for its hot springs, boiling mud pots and steaming geysers. Impressing park visitors with its huge wildlife populations, sightings of buffalo, bear, moose and elk quickly create a traffic jam. Taking in over two million acres, the park also features breathtaking waterfalls, high mountain ranges and immense canyons. Overshadowed by Yellowstone's geysers and wildlife, the park's Grand Canyon is an amazing sight that is sometimes missed.
   In an area where the canyon rim juts out into the canyon, Inspiration Point is one of five natural viewpoints on the North Rim. Able to see both upstream and down, this overlook is one of the best places to take in the 20 mile long canyon. Cut into the lava rock, the canyon's 800-1200 foot deep V-shaped chasm is lined with unusual shades of rhyolite rock. The multi-hued rock, formed during the last glacial age, varies from chalk white to rich earthen tones of hydrothermic altered rhyolite. Vents in the canyon walls continue to emit puffs of steam, reminders that a large section of the park rests on top of a huge caldera, about 30 miles wide by 50 miles long.
   A series of overlooks are spread along the canyon's North Rim offering views of waterfalls on the Yellowstone River and a look down into the colorful canyon. Beyond the spur to the Brink of the Lower Falls viewpoint, the three mile North Rim Trail leads visitors to Osprey Point, Lookout Point, Grandview Point, Inspiration Point and Brink of the Upper Falls Trail. Sections of the paved trail and a parallel park road also lead to vantage points for spectacular views such as this photograph from Inspiration Point. Close up views of the falls also provide all the sounds, the spray, smells and vibrations of the thundering river.

     Canyon Village Area Map
     Yellowstone Misconceptions