Yellowstone Rules and Park Facts Every Visitor Should Know

Yellowstone Rules and Park Facts: What You Can and Cannot Do

Can you hunt in Yellowstone National Park?

No. Hunting has been prohibited inside Yellowstone since 1894, when the Lacey Act was passed specifically to stop the poaching that was wiping out the park’s bison. It remains illegal throughout the park for every species, in every season.

Two points that cause confusion. First, you may legally possess a firearm in the park in line with Wyoming, Montana or Idaho law, but possessing one and using it are completely different things, and discharging a firearm is an offence. Second, hunting is permitted on the national forest land that surrounds the park, and elk and bison that migrate across the boundary in autumn are hunted there. The boundary is the line that matters, and it is not always obvious on the ground.

Fishing is the exception to all of this. It is allowed with a Yellowstone fishing permit, separate from your entrance fee, on a season that generally runs from Memorial Day weekend to the first Sunday in November.

Yellowstone rock climbing

Climbing is not prohibited, but Yellowstone is not a climbing destination and the park does not promote it. The reason is geology: most of the exposed rock is young volcanic tuff and breccia, which is loose, friable and unreliable for protection. There is no developed sport climbing, no bolted infrastructure, and rescue is a long way off.

What people usually want when they search for this is climbing near Yellowstone, and there the answer is much better. Gallatin Canyon between Bozeman and Big Sky has hundreds of established routes on solid gneiss. The South Fork of the Shoshone near Cody is one of the best ice climbing venues in North America in winter. And the Tetons, two hours south, are the serious alpine climbing of the region.

Elevation and park facts

The altitude is worth taking seriously. Arriving from sea level and walking the Upper Geyser Basin on day one leaves plenty of people short of breath, and Mount Washburn at 10,243 feet is a genuine effort for anyone who has not adjusted. Drink more water than feels necessary.

The rules that get people fined, or killed

• Never leave a boardwalk in a thermal area. The crust is thin and the water is near boiling. This is how people die here, and it happens most years.
• 25 yards from most wildlife, 100 yards from bears and wolves. Bison injure more visitors than any other animal in the park.
• No drones anywhere. Launching, landing or operating one is prohibited throughout.
• Pets on roads and in parking areas only, within 100 feet of them, and never on trails or boardwalks.
• Do not feed anything, and store food properly. A habituated bear is usually a dead bear.
• Do not collect anything. Antlers, rocks, wildflowers and thermal deposits all stay where they are.

See our packing list for what to bring, and park fees for the permits that sit alongside these rules.

Hunting Just Outside Yellowstone’s Boundary

The line that separates no hunting from hunting is the park boundary itself, and nowhere is that clearer than at Gardiner, Montana. Each winter, when snow pushes elk and bison out of the park’s high country, some of them cross the north boundary onto national forest and private land near Gardiner. The moment an animal steps outside the park, Montana hunting law applies. Tribal members from the Nez Perce, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai and several other nations hold treaty rights to take bison there, alongside hunters with state licenses, under the Interagency Bison Management Plan, which also involves the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and the state of Montana. The hunt is legal, regulated and entirely outside Yellowstone, not inside it, even though it can look close enough from a park road to seem otherwise.