Yellowstone covers two and a half million acres — bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined — and most visitors see a fraction of it from the Old Faithful parking lot. This is how to actually move through the park: where to go, when to be there, and what you're really looking at when you arrive.

Host Shawn Spainhour, a former Army officer, walks you through the whole park. The thermal features: Old Faithful and the Upper Geyser Basin, why Grand Prismatic demands the overlook trail rather than the boardwalk, the mud pots at Fountain Paint Pot, and the hot, dynamic Norris basin most people skip. The wildlife: Lamar Valley at dawn — America's Serengeti — and the honest odds on seeing wolves, plus the September elk rut in Hayden Valley. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone from Artist Point and the soaking roar at the Brink of the Lower Fal ...