Wild Montana

22 September 2022 | Photography by Wilhelm Westergren

Montana boasts over 50 natural hot springs.
// VIEWS

Brussels-based photographer Wilhelm Westergren leads us to the heart of Yellowstone National Park and the Montana wilderness. The Treasure State’s unique mix of plains, green forests, deep valleys and and spellbinding thermal features are sure to please any nature enthusiast.

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West Yellowstone, Montana is a gateway to Yellowstone National Park – the world’s first national park.
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Yellowstone was protected due to its hydrothermal wonders. Half the world’s hydrothermal features are found here.
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The park is home to the most extraordinary collection of hot springs, geysers, mudpots, and fumaroles on Earth.
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Hydrothermal spring.
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The hydrothermal features are caused by the Yellowstone Caldera, a supervolcano that measures nearly 45 by 30 miles.
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Yellowstone has more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, of which more than 500 are geysers.
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Montana’s state animal is the grizzly bear. It is home to a variety of other large mammals including lynx, black bears, moose, wolverines, mountain lions, and bighorn sheep.
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Thermophilic communities are diverse; their color, formation, and location depends on the types of microbes, the pH, and the temperature of the environment.
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Boiling mud pot.
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Thermophilic bacterial mats are likened to miniature forests. Microbes that live on the surface of the mats perform photosynthesis and decompose nutrients that fuels the ecosystem.
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Yellowstone has more than 10,000 hydrothermal features, of which more than 500 are geysers.
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3% of Yellowstone National Park is in Montana 96% in Wyoming and just 1% in Idaho.
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Also known as Big Sky Country, Montana’s Indian Nations consist of 12 recognized tribes on eight reservations.
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Montana’s public lands are the traditional and contemporary homelands of many Indigenous nations.
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Bison have lived continuously in Yellowstone since prehistoric times.
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Public lands managed by the federal government constitute about 30% of Montana’s landmass.
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Many of the bright colors found in the park’s hydrothermal basins come from thermophiles—microorganisms that thrive in hot temperatures.

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