Aerial view of Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

Yellowstone’s many colours. Yellowstone National Park, USA

Most people don’t get to see Yellowstone like this. In winter, when the park grows quiet, its hydrothermal features really stand out, like the colourful Grand Prismatic Spring pictured here. Yellowstone was established 150 years ago as the USA’s first national park. And perhaps no park better captures the American landscape than this one; 3,500 square miles of lakes, canyons, rivers, mountains, waterfalls, hot springs, bison, wolves, elk and grizzly bears. But it’s the hydrothermal sites that really set it apart. Old Faithful might be the most famous, but it’s only one of 10,000 around here.

Although the park is still chilly in April, visitors have the place mostly to themselves. Only about 44,000 visit Yellowstone in April, compared to the nearly one million who gather each July.