The following sites can all be extremley useful for answering questions before heading out to Yellowstone or upon your return. For handy information while in the parks, the Rough Guide to Yellowstone and Grand Teton comes highly recommended.
National Park Service: Yellowstone
The Park Service has done an impressive job building up this site, even with recent budget constraints. While it can be a bit tricky to navigate, it’s still the best all-purpose information site and great place to start online. Particularly useful are the PDFs of the latest park newspapers, the backcountry camping regulations guide (with all sites listed), and the recently added video/podcast series.
National Park Service: Grand Teton
While not as thorough as their Yellowstone site, the NPS site for Grand Teton has plenty of useful downloads, including pdf copies of The Teewinot, the park’s seasonal newspaper.
Yellowstone Association
Yellowstone’s impressive non-profit partner. Along with membership information and schedules for their long list of highly recommended courses, their “Park Store” stocks dozens of the best books and maps on the region.
Grand Teton Natural History Association
Since 1937, dedicated to supporting interpretive and educational activities in Grand Teton, from running the visitor center bookstores to holding historical festivals in and around the park. The online bookstore stocks a great selection of books on the park and around.
Yellowstone Volcano Observatory
A partnership between the park, government Geology Survey, and University of Utah that monitors geologic unrest in Yellowstone. Check in for up-to-the-minute updates on the latest tremors, along with links to recent stories on volcanic or earthquake activity in the region.
George Bumann
George led a wolf-watching class that I attended through the Yellowstone Institute. An artists and a naturalist, George is the kind of guy who smiles happily in sub-zero weather, wearing a thin coat and fedora, while everyone else freezes in their high-tech parkas. Along with showcasing his wolf and bison sculptures, George posts an absorbing diary of field notes on life in and around Yellowstone.
Geyser Bob’s
A funky site filled with tons on Yellowstone’s remarkable history. If you don’t have the patience to wade through Aubrey Haines’ essential, two-volume The Yellowstone Story, then at least spend an hour clicking about Geyer Bob’s site.
Yellowstone Jobs
The jobs website for Yellowstone’s primary concessioner, Xanterra, is the first place to look if you want to live and work inside the park. Also worth checking out are the Grand Teton Lodge Company [www.gtlc.com], Coolworks [www.coolworks.com], and the Montana and Wyoming boards on Craig’s List [www.craigslist.org].
Rough Guides
Homepage of my publisher, who put out hundreds of travel titles, along with a long list of reference titles ranging from Reggae and Cult Movies to Climate Change and the History of Tutankhamen. Even if you don’t buy the guides I’ve written and contributed to, do yourself a favor and test out a Rough Guide – they are consistently superb.