Yellowstone
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98 free Yellowstone trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
89 free Yellowstone trivia questions with answers. Yellowstone became the world's first national park in 1872, and these questions cover its geysers, wildlife, history and geology, with a source behind every answer. Looking for the Dutton family instead? This page is about the park, not the TV series.
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Q 01In which year did Yellowstone become the world's first national park?
1872
An act of the 42nd Congress created it on March 1, 1872; it is widely understood to be the first national park anywhere.
Q 02Which U.S. President signed the act that established Yellowstone as a national park?
Ulysses S. Grant
President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act into law on March 1, 1872, creating the world's first national park.
Q 03Approximately 96 percent of Yellowstone National Park's land area lies within which US state?
Wyoming
Wyoming has the 96 percent; smaller portions extend into Montana and Idaho.
Q 04What is the name of Yellowstone's most famous geyser, christened by the 1870 Washburn Expedition?
Old Faithful
Old Faithful earned its name because the expedition noticed it went off on a dependable schedule; the Old Faithful Inn beside it, built in 1904, is a National Historic Landmark.
Q 05What kind of volcanic system underlies Yellowstone National Park?
Supervolcano
Yellowstone sits on a supervolcano: an active volcanic system whose vast caldera was formed by explosive eruptions that ejected hundreds of cubic miles of ash and rock.
Q 06Which Yellowstone feature is the world's third-largest of its kind, behind Frying Pan Lake and Boiling Lake?
Grand Prismatic Spring
Grand Prismatic Spring, the park's largest hot spring at about 370 feet across, takes its name from the rainbow of colour bands that ring its deep-blue centre.
Q 07Yellowstone National Park is home to approximately what percentage of the world's geysers?
50%
Yellowstone holds roughly 500 geysers, about 50 percent of all the geysers on Earth, clustered in basins such as the Upper Geyser Basin around Old Faithful.
Q 08Who was appointed as Yellowstone's first gamekeeper in 1880, often considered the first park ranger?
Harry Yount
Harry Yount was appointed as a gamekeeper in 1880 to control poaching and vandalism, and is widely regarded as the first national park ranger.
Q 09Which animal, reintroduced to Yellowstone, is considered a keystone species that reshaped the park's ecosystem?
Gray Wolf
Wolves imported from Canada were released in 1995 after a 70-year absence. Their return changed elk grazing habits, and scientists credit that with the recovery of the park's aspen.
Q 10What is the highest point in Yellowstone National Park?
Eagle Peak
The highest point in Yellowstone National Park is Eagle Peak, which stands at 11,358 feet (3,462 meters) in the Absaroka Range.
Q 11Which Yellowstone feature is a broad terraced hillside of travertine next to Fort Yellowstone?
Mammoth Hot Springs
Mammoth Hot Springs is a hillside of travertine terraces, such as Minerva Terrace, built as hot water deposits calcium carbonate; thermophilic microbes tint the steps brown, orange and green.
Q 12Which entity managed Yellowstone National Park for about 30 years, between 1886 and 1916?
U.S. Army
Due to insufficient manpower and resources for early superintendents, the U.S. Army was commissioned to manage Yellowstone for 30 years, constructing Fort Yellowstone at Mammoth Hot Springs.
Q 13Yellowstone National Park was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in what year?
1978
Q 21Which fish-eating raptor builds stick nests on the rock pinnacles of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone?
Osprey
Ospreys, which eat almost nothing but fish, build bulky stick nests on the rock pinnacles of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and in treetops near the park's lakes and rivers.
Q 22Who was Yellowstone's first superintendent, serving without a salary or staff?
Nathaniel P. Langford
He served five years with no salary, funding or staff, and later became known as 'National Park' Langford. Local mining and logging interests had opposed the park.
Q 23How many waterfalls of at least 15 feet does Yellowstone contain?
About 290
UNESCO inscribed Yellowstone as a World Heritage Site in 1978, among the first twelve sites ever listed; it had been a Biosphere Reserve since 1976 and sat on the Danger list from 1995 to 2003.
Q 14What is the average elevation of the Yellowstone Plateau, upon which most of the park sits?
8,000 feet (2,400 m)
The park sits on the Yellowstone Plateau, at an average elevation of about 8,000 feet (2,400 meters) above sea level.
Q 15The 1988 fires burned roughly what share of Yellowstone National Park?
About 36%
About 36 percent of the park, some 793,880 acres, burned in the 1988 fires, which followed the driest summer in Yellowstone's recorded history.
Q 16Which tree, the most common in Yellowstone, has cones that generally open only in the heat of a fire?
Lodgepole pine
Lodgepole pine forests cover 80% of the park's forested area, and the 1988 fires triggered a mass release of seed; whitebark pine and Engelmann spruce prefer colder, wetter spots.
Q 17How long ago did the cataclysmic eruption that formed the Yellowstone Caldera occur?
640,000 years
That blast released more than 240 cubic miles of ash and rock. Some 80 smaller eruptions of rhyolite and basalt lava have since nearly filled the caldera back in.
Q 18What gives Yellowstone's largest hot spring its rainbow rings of red, orange, yellow and green?
Heat-loving microbes
Mats of thermophilic bacteria and archaea ring the pool, each colour marking a temperature band. Research on Yellowstone thermophiles has helped develop virus tests and biodegradable plastics.
Q 19Which of these mountain ranges forms the eastern boundary of Yellowstone National Park?
Absaroka Range
The Absaroka Range forms Yellowstone's eastern boundary along the Wyoming side; the Gallatin Range lies to the northwest and the Teton Range to the south.
Q 20At about 3,468 square miles, Yellowstone is larger than either of which two US states?
Rhode Island and Delaware
Delaware covers roughly 2,490 square miles and Rhode Island about 1,545. Only those two states are smaller than the park.
Yellowstone has about 290 waterfalls at least 15 feet high; the Yellowstone River alone drops over the Upper and Lower Falls inside the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Q 24Which Yellowstone feature is the world’s tallest active geyser, throwing water 300 to 400 feet?
Steamboat
Steamboat Geyser, located in Norris Geyser Basin, can throw water to heights of 300 feet (90 meters) and higher, making it the world's highest-erupting geyser.
Q 25The vast forests and grasslands of Yellowstone represent which type of biome as the most abundant?
Subalpine forest
While Yellowstone represents many types of biomes, subalpine forest is the most abundant.
Q 26How many major volcanic eruptions have shaped the Yellowstone Plateau over the past 2.2 million years?
Three
Three supereruptions, about 2.1 million, 1.3 million and 640,000 years ago, built the plateau; the first was the largest, ejecting about 588 cubic miles of material.
Q 27Which of these is NOT one of Yellowstone's hydrothermal features, of which the park has at least 10,000?
Glacier cave
Glacier cave is the odd one out; Yellowstone's 10,000-plus features are geysers, hot springs, mudpots and fumaroles, all driven by heat from below.
Q 28Which president signed the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act of 1894?
Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland signed the 1894 act on May 7, weeks after poacher Ed Howell was caught butchering bison in Pelican Valley; it made killing park wildlife a federal offence.
Q 29Which tectonic plate has been drifting southwest over the stationary Yellowstone hotspot?
North American Plate
The North American Plate drifts southwest over the fixed plume, so a chain of extinct calderas runs back across Idaho's Snake River Plain toward Nevada and Oregon, older the farther from Yellowstone.
Q 30Which Yellowstone valley, along the river of the same name, is the best-known place to see grizzlies and wolves?
Lamar
Lamar Valley is where wolves were released in 1995, at Soda Butte, Crystal Creek and Rose Creek, and it remains one of the most reliable places on Earth to watch them.