Yellowstone National Park
In many ways, Yellowstone is the epicenter of everything that's still wild and untamed in the United States, and everything that's right and wrong about modern-day tourism.
Yellowstone is the oldest park in the U.S. park system and is its flagship. Each year, it draws 3 million visitors; by some estimates, one-third of the U.S. population will visit this place during their lifetime. They come to experience the park's restless geology; to see grizzlies, gray wolves, and herds of buffalo; to fish legendary trout streams like the Madison and the Yellowstone River. Most of all, they come to reconnect in some way with a sense of primordial America, the larger-than-life landscape that existed before railroads, highways, telephones, and a host of other technologies began to cut everything down to size.