The Grand Loop Road is a historic district which encompasses the primary road system in

Yellowstone National Park Yellowstone National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, national park of the United States located in the northwest corner of Wyoming, with small portions extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U ...

. Much of the system was originally planned by Captain

Hiram M. Chittenden Hiram Martin Chittenden (October 25, 1858 – October 9, 1917) was an American engineer and historian. A graduate of West Point, he was the Seattle district engineer for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, Army Corps of Engineers fro ...

of the

US Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

in the early days of the park, when it was under military administration. The Grand Loop Road provides access to the major features of the park, including the Upper, Midway and Lower

geyser A geyser (, ) is a spring with an intermittent water discharge ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. The formation of geysers is fairly rare and is caused by particular hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Ea ...

basins,

Mammoth Hot Springs Mammoth Hot Springs is a large complex of hot springs on a hill of travertine in Yellowstone National Park adjacent to Fort Yellowstone and the Mammoth Hot Springs Historic District. It was created over thousands of years as hot water from the ...

, Tower Fall, the

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone is the first large canyon on the Yellowstone River downstream from Yellowstone Falls in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. The canyon is approximately long, between deep and from wide. History Althou ...

and

Yellowstone Lake Yellowstone Lake is the largest body of water in Wyoming and the largest in Yellowstone National Park. The lake is above sea level and covers with of shoreline. While the average depth of the lake is , its greatest depth is at least . Yellowst ...

. A number of other historic districts adjoin the Grand Loop in Yellowstone, including

, North Entrance Road, Roosevelt Lodge, Lake Fish Hatchery and

Old Faithful Old Faithful is a cone geyser in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, United States. It was named in 1870 during the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition and was the first geyser in the park to be named. It is a highly predictable geotherma ...

historic districts A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from ce ...

. Grand Loop Rd. includes unsigned portions of

US 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Highway, United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major ...

, US 89,

US 191 U.S. Route 191 (US 191) is a north–south highway in the Western United States and a spur of parent route U.S. Route 91 that has two segments. The southern segment runs for from Douglas, Arizona on the Mexican border to the southern part o ...

and

US 287 U.S. Route 287 (US 287) is a north–south (physically northwest–southeast) United States highway. At long, it is the second longest three-digit U.S. Route, behind U.S. Route 281, US 281. The highway is broken into two segments by Ye ...

, all of which traverse the park. The road was named by Harry W. Frantz in 1923, who served as the park's publicist before beginning a long career as a journalist.

Route

Beginning at the junction of the North Entrance Road and Grand Loop Rd. at Yellowstone National Park headquarters at

Fort Yellowstone Fort Yellowstone was a U.S. Army fort, established in 1891 at Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park. Yellowstone was designated in 1872 but the Interior Department was unable to effectively manage the park. Administration was tran ...

near Mammoth Hot Springs , the road travels south, passing through Golden Gate Canyon on a viaduct and ascending the

Gallatin Range The Gallatin Range is a mountain range of the Rocky Mountains, located in the U.S. states of Montana and Wyoming. It includes more than 10 mountains over . The highest peak in the range is Electric Peak at . The Gallatin Range was named after ...

, crossing Kingman Pass near

Bunsen Peak Bunsen Peak el. is a prominent peak due south of Mammoth Hot Springs in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming. The peak lies on the east flank of Kingman Pass on the Mammoth to Norris section of the Grand Loop Road. The peak was first ascended ...

. From the pass, the road descends into the

Gardner River The Gardner River (also known as the Gardiner River) is a tributary of the Yellowstone River, approximately long, in northwestern Wyoming and south central Montana in the United States. The entire river is located within Yellowstone National ...

valley. At the south end of the valley, the road passes

Sheepeater Cliff The Sheepeater Cliffs are a series of exposed cliffs made up of columnar basalt in Yellowstone National Park in the United States. The lava was deposited about 500,000 years ago during one of the periodic basaltic floods in Yellowstone Caldera, ...

, a prominent columnar basalt cliff. After crossing the Gardner River, the road follows Obsidian Creek into Obsidian Canyon, passing Obsidian Cliff about halfway through the canyon. From Obsidian Canyon, the road continues south into the Norris Valley and the Norris Geyser Basin (). Here, the road meets the

Gibbon River The Gibbon River flows east of the Continental Divide in Yellowstone National Park, in northwestern Wyoming, the Northwestern United States. Along with the Firehole River, it is a major tributary of the Madison River, which itself is a tributary ...

and follows it into the Gibbon Geyser Basin and Gibbon Canyon. Emerging from the canyon the Gibbon River merges with the

Firehole River The Firehole River is located in northwestern Wyoming, and is one of the two major tributaries of the Madison River. It flows north approximately from its source in Madison Lake on the Continental Divide to join the Gibbon River at Madison Ju ...

to form the

Madison River The Madison River is a headwater tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in Wyoming and Montana. Its confluence with the Jefferson and Gallatin rivers near Three Forks, Montana forms the Missouri River. Course The Madison Ri ...

. At this point—Madison Junction (), the road junctions with West Entrance Road which follows the Madison River west out of the park and to

West Yellowstone, Montana West Yellowstone is a town in Gallatin County, Montana, United States, adjacent to Yellowstone National Park. The population was 1,272 at the 2020 census. West Yellowstone is served by Yellowstone Airport. It is part of the Bozeman, MT Microp ...

. Grand Loop Rd. continues to follow the Firehole River south and east. In a relatively short distance, the road travels through the three most notable geyser basins in the park: Lower Geyser Basin, Midway Geyser Basin and Upper Geyser Basin. The

Old Faithful Historic District The Old Faithful Historic District in Yellowstone National Park comprises the built-up portion of the Upper Geyser Basin surrounding the Old Faithful Inn and Old Faithful Geyser. It includes the Old Faithful Inn, designed by Robert Reamer a ...

is located on Grand Loop Rd. adjacent to the Upper Geyser Basin. Turning east from

the road crosses the

Continental Divide A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not ...

over Craig Pass, and descends to the West Thumb Geyser Basin on the shore of

. West Thumb () is the southernmost point on Great Loop Rd. Here the road junctions with South Entrance Road which continues south to

Grand Teton National Park Grand Teton National Park is a national park of the United States in northwestern Wyoming. At approximately , the park includes the major peaks of the Teton Range as well as most of the northern sections of the valley known as Jackson Hole. G ...

. Grand Loop Rd. continues north along the shore of Yellowstone Lake. Near the northern end of the lake it passes the Lake Hotel and the Lake Fish Hatchery Historic District. Just past the Lake Hotel area (), the East Entrance Road turns right and crosses the

Yellowstone River The Yellowstone River is a tributary of the Missouri River, approximately long, in the Western United States. Considered the principal tributary of the upper Missouri, via its own tributaries it drains an area with headwaters across the mountain ...

over Fishing Bridge and continues east to

Cody, Wyoming Cody is a city in and the county seat of Park County, Wyoming, United States. It is named after Buffalo Bill Cody for his part in the founding of Cody in 1896. The population was 10,028 at the United States Census, 2020, 2020 census, making Cod ...

. Grand Loop Rd. follows the western side of the Yellowstone River north into the

Hayden Valley Hayden Valley is a large, sub-alpine valley within Yellowstone National Park straddling the Yellowstone River between Yellowstone Falls and Yellowstone Lake. The valley floor along the river is an ancient lake bed from a time when Yellowstone La ...

and past upper

Yellowstone Falls Yellowstone Falls consist of two major waterfalls on the Yellowstone River, within Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States. As the Yellowstone river flows north from Yellowstone Lake, it leaves the Hayden Valley and plunges first ove ...

near the mouth of the

(). The road then crosses Dunraven Pass near

Mount Washburn Mount Washburn, elevation , is a prominent mountain peak in the Washburn Range in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, United States. The peak was named in 1870 to honor Henry D. Washburn, leader of the Washburn–Langford–Doane Expedition. T ...

and descends to Tower Fall and Tower Junction () where it intersects with the Northeast Entrance Road to

Cooke City, Montana Cooke City is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Park County, Montana, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 77. Prior to 2010, it was part of the Cooke City-Silver Gate CDP. The community s ...

. From Tower Junction, the road travels north and then west through the Gallatin Range to complete the loop at Mammoth Hot Springs.

Major junctions

Counterclockwise (CCW) reads down; clockwise (CW) reads up.

References

External links

*
Grand Loop Road Historic District
at the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office *

Historic American Engineering Record Heritage Documentation Programs (HDP) is a division of the U.S. National Park Service (NPS). It administers three programs established to document historic places in the United States: Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS), Historic American E ...

(HAER) documentation filed under Lake, Teton County, WY, except as noted below: ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** ** {{authority control National Register of Historic Places in Yellowstone National Park Roads on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming Transportation in Teton County, Wyoming Transportation in Park County, Wyoming Tourist attractions in Teton County, Wyoming Tourist attractions in Park County, Wyoming Historic American Engineering Record in Wyoming Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Park County, Wyoming National Register of Historic Places in Teton County, Wyoming

Route

Major junctions

See also

References

External links