MONTANA — Yellowstone National Park (YNP) superfans living in Montana have a new option for showing their love.
A new license plate featuring a bison and Grand Prismatic Spring in YNP is available through the Montana Motor Vehicle Division. Proceeds from the specialty plate benefit the nonprofit Yellowstone Forever; there’s an initial $30 registration fee and an annual renewal charge of $30 per year.
“Proceeds from specialty plate fees support priority projects and programs in the park including wildlife conservation like the Yellowstone Wolf Project, youth programs like Junior Ranger, trail restoration, historical and cultural preservation, Tribal initiatives, and more!” Yellowstone Forever shared on its website.
Montanans can head to their local County Treasurer’s office for more information.
Grand Prismatic is one of YNP’s most recognizable thermal features, with its rainbow of chemical reactions making for an awesome photo opp. YNP notes that it’s the largest hot spring in the park at 200 to 330 feet in diameter and more than 121 feet in depth. Microscopic organisms called thermophiles (“thermo” meaning heat and “phile” meaning lover) group together in the scalding water and appear to the naked eye as masses of color, YNP’s website states. Yellow and seemingly translucent thermophiles thrive in the hottest temperatures, while orange, brown and green grow in slightly cooler temps.
It’s worth noting that Grand Prismatic Spring is technically located in Wyoming, not Montana; it’s in the park’s Midway Geyser Basin. Yellowstone’s acreage does extend into Montana on its northern and western sides, and Yellowstone Forever is headquartered in Bozeman.
