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Yellowstone is qualitatively different from its nearby national parks. It's really, well, touristy. I guess it has to be - in the summer of 2009 (June, July, August), 2.3 million people visited Yellowstone. We got there just a week after the park opened, which happens when the main park roads are cleared of snow. In fact there was still 3-4 feet of snow on the ground in most places, making hiking next to impossible. Even so, there were dozens, sometimes hundreds of people at each major attraction.
Badlands NP had like 3 cars and a ranger hut to collect fees. Yellowstone NP has a fancy visitor center, a large gift shop (supermarket-sized), general store, and three hotels - just in the vicinity of Old Faithful.
Despite the vast number of humans that transit through Yellowstone, it still has an impressive amount of wildlife. The bison roam about everywhere and love to walk on the road (I guess it's easier to get from A to B). It's so common that it ceased to be a novelty after our first hour in the park (just another obstacle slowing us down). Elk wander in and out of the trees. Coyotes stare at the cars and return to their scavenging activities. The bears are waking up, too, but apparently just to fall back asleep at the side of the road.
However, there are relatively few iconic landscape views. Those came later, in Grand Teton.
