how big is yellowstone

Yellowstone National Park covers about 3,472 square miles (around 8,991 square kilometers), which is roughly 2.2 million acres in area.

Quick Scoop: How Big Is Yellowstone?

• Total area: about 3,472 square miles (8,991 km²).

• Acres: about 2,221,766 acres.

• Dimensions: about 63 miles north–south and 54 miles east–west (as the crow flies).

• States it spans:
  • 96% in Wyoming
  • 3% in Montana
  • 1% in Idaho

To picture it, Yellowstone is bigger than both Rhode Island and Delaware combined , so it’s essentially a small state of wilderness, geysers, and wildlife.

A Tiny Bit of Story

If you drove across the park, you’d quickly realize the size isn’t just a number. Long stretches of forest, steaming valleys, and distant mountain ranges make it feel like several parks stitched together. One day you could be watching Old Faithful, and hours later you’re in wide‑open Lamar Valley watching bison and wolves, still very much inside the same enormous park.

In practical terms, Yellowstone is so large that you can’t “see it all” in a single short trip—its size shapes how you explore it, how long you drive, and how much you can realistically fit into a day.

TL;DR: Yellowstone is about 3,472 square miles (2.2 million acres) across three states—huge enough that it feels more like a small state than just a park.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.