Canyon Visitor Education Center

Visitors walk toward the entrance of the wood and stone visitor center. — The Canyon Visitor Education Center is an excellent source of park information.
NPS/Diane Renkin

Enter the Canyon Visitor Education Center and the world of Yellowstone's supervolcano—an idea that has captured the minds and imaginations of people around the world. See, hear, and learn how the Yellowstone volcano, its geysers and hot springs, and geologic history shape the distribution and abundance of all life found here. Explore these ideas through interactive exhibits, animations, audio-visual productions, and real-time scientific data.

Exhibits and Films

An orientation film and safety short to help prepare you for your Yellowstone experience.
A film on the geology of the park, Yellowstone: Land to Life, reveals how powerful geologic forces from fire to ice have combined to create a unique landscape which supports an abundant variety of life.
A room-size relief model of Yellowstone National Park that illuminates and narrates the park's volcanic eruptions, lava flows, glaciers, and earthquake faults on the first floor; from the second floor view, hear tribes associated with the park interpret the park's geology from their perspective.
A 9,000-pound, rotating globe illustrates volcanic hotspots found around the world.
Exhibits on how magma rises to the earth's surface by heat convection—one of the geologic forces that shapes Yellowstone.
Real-time earthquake data that is currently being collected in the park.
Murals and enlarged photographs showing the enormity of Yellowstone's glaciers and their lasting effect on the landscape.
Detailed panoramas, dioramas, and cross-sections of life in a lodgepole forest and a grassland-habitats made possible by Yellowstone's fire and ice.

Yellowstone - Land to Life

An NPS film portraying Yellowstone's extreme geologic forces as they create unique landscapes that support an abundance of life. Duration: 20 minutes, 27 seconds

Duration:
20 minutes, 27 seconds