Yellowstone Savanna consists of oak savanna and a small dry prairie remnant within Yellowstone Lake State Park.  Parking is available within the park at a few spots depending on how far you are interested in hiking.  The Blue Ridge, Windy Ridge, and Savanna Loop trails provide access to the SNA.

This is a site where a GPS unit comes in handy if you are interested in knowing exactly when you enter the SNA, though one should be able to tell based on the transition from forest to savanna here.  For the most part, I can tell you exactly how I visited each SNA, but I can’t recall exactly how I made it to this one.  I think I parked along the lake and took the Oak Grove trail to the Windy Ridge trail to the Savanna Loop.  Here there are picturesque panoramas of the savanna with the topography of of the valleys undulating beyond.  As this was mid-October, there was little to see in bloom, save for a few goldenrods.  One highlight was seeing my first chipping sparrow (Spizella passerina), though it would be about 4 years before I decided to go through all of my photos and ID the birds therein.  But this exercise turned me into a birder.  I would like to visit this site when more is in bloom and also to explore the dry prairie remnants.

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

Savanna

More of my photos (and full-res) from Yellowstone Savanna can be viewed here.

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