Satellite images show the recovery of Yellowstone National Park following its most intense fire season in history. 30 years after the spectacular Yellowstone fires of 1988, recovery is nearly complete.(NASA VISUALIZATION EXPLORER / SVS)

NASA Images Show A Record Recovery From History’s Worst National Park Wildfire

Some wildfires will always be unavoidable. But nature, thankfully, recovers relatively quickly.

The past few years have brought some devastating wildfires to large parts of the American west.

A wildfire as seen from near Stevenson Wash., across the Columbia River, burning in the Columbia River Gorge above the Bonneville Dam near Cascade Locks, Oregon. Although this type of disaster can have devastating effects, the ash produced is easily cleaned up and washed away, and forests will recover, naturally, in time. (TRISTAN FORTSCH/KATU-TV VIA AP)

But 30 years after Yellowstone’s most destructive fire ever, a record recovery shows how the land responds.

Lodgepole pine forests are an iconic site in Yellowstone National Park. The great fires of 1988 destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres that were previously forested with these trees. (BOZEMAN DAILY CHRONICLE / FILE PHOTO)

In 1988, 36% of the land in Yellowstone National Park — 793,880 acres — burned in one giant conflagration.

Fire crews attempt to water down buildings as fire quickly approaches the Old Faithful complex during the 1988 Yellowstone fires, the fire is “crowning”, racing along the tree tops and spreading rapidly. Thousands of firefighters were able to prevent the destruction of most of the developed property in the park, limiting damage to just $3 million and preventing all loss of human life within the park. (JEFF HENRY / NATIONAL PARK SERVICE)

A combination of lightning strikes, human-caused fires, and parched conditions created the out-of-control blaze.