We spent about 35 minutes exploring the upper geyser basin, near the Old Faithful geyser. We…read morefollowed the boardwalk passing the beehive geyser, the plume geyser, the heart spring & beautiful turquoise pools.

This review is for Upper Geyser Basin & Old Faithful Observation Point Loop which was a ~4.9 miles…read moreround trip that took ~2.5 hours to complete. This was one of those unique hikes with various geysers and pools. The trails are located within walkable distances from the Old Faithful hotels and visitor center. Ideally, it would be best to start the hike early in the morning to avoid the crowd. Most of the trail consisted of flat boardwalks and paved asphalt. The boardwalks were icy in some spots during the morning. Observation Point part of the trail was somewhat pointless because there was no "wow factor" in terms of any view. It was still a nice stroll in the wooded areas, eventually reaching Solitary Geyser. Furthermore, this part of the trail had some inclines and declines. The steam from the geysers have an unpleasant sulfur smell. Carry bear spray; the chances of encountering a bear is lower at popular trails but you never know. Short video of the hike for those interested! https://youtu.be/WJGWI2obiwA

The Fountain Paint Pot area is a large part of the lower geyser basin with hiking trails and…read moreparking. The walk to three geysers is around 45min round trip on boardwalks among pools, springs, steaming mudpots and fumaroles. Most are not very colorful. A lot of greys, tans, chalky colors, huffing and puffing. Some reddish hues. The pool and the spring are a lovely clear blue, when their steam is not obscuring them from view. It was easier to see the blue color in the further-north Silex Spring, which you can also see from the road. It's all geologically and volcanically amazing. Interspersed, there are groves of live pines, and groves of skeletal trees with their bases stained white by evaporating mineral waters. Parking is just south of Fountain Paint Pot. It wasn't too crowded at 10:20am on a Wednesday. (Jul 2026).

Clepsydra Geyser FTW! At Yellowstone you'll see many perpetual fumaroles, sure. But perpetual…read moregeysers?? Try finding a tall one, ha! Well, Clepsydra's not *that* tall, but its height remains admirable, and hey, perpetual. + Spouting 40' behind the 3' Spasm Geyser. + Not so crowded. . Located in Lower Geyser Basin (5min 2mi north of Midway Geyser Basin (Grand Prismatic Spring)). + This trail is one of the shorter boardwalks of Yellowstone. A quick and easy visit.

We enjoyed seeing the famous Old Faithful geyser. We parked just a 5min walk from the viewing area…read more There's a long wide walkway right in front of the geyser, with plenty of standing room and some benches. We also brought a camp-chair, just to be sure for those who couldn't stand very long. We checked the online prediction for the next eruption. (Yes, they had good a cellular signal here, maybe our only reliable connection between here and the west entrance.) They said it was expected in 15min, and also stated that it's usually within around 30min of the prediction. We only waited an extra 15min. The view was excellent. The geyser was steaming, sometimes more, sometimes less, sometimes swept aside by a breeze. Every five or ten minutes, a burst of water shot up maybe 10 feet, and the crowd got excited. After about half-an-hour, it burst through all the steam and grew and grew without stopping. It looked 100-feet-tall or more! Everyone in the crowd could easily see the eruption from every viewing location. Thrilling! And fun to share the suspense and the moment with hundreds. There were vast parking lots at Old Faithful, and a dropoff point at the Old Faithful Inn about a 10min walk from bench-seating up front at the geyser. Watching Old Faithful was our half-day goal coming in from the West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Starting at the gate about 6:30am on a weekday, stopping to photograph a herd of elk, a waterfall, and two separate bison. Hiking around all of the features at Fountain Paint Pots. Waiting for crowded parking about 10am at Grand Prismatic Spring, (our only serious traffic delay), and hiking from the parking lot to the Overlook and back. And keeping 14 people together all morning, with around 6 bathroom breaks along the drive. (That was a good choice we planned-on to keep our large group comfortable ;-). Roughly 2-hours of actual driving-time in all that, with roughly over an hour at each major feature. We made it to Old Faithful about 11am! It was a good first half-day in the park, and viewing the amazing eruption of Old Faithful Geyser was a memorable highlight of our whole trip!

I find it funny how popular this geyser is; it's neat to see in real life but by no means the most…read moreimpressive geyser out there. It's great that it spouts so frequently and predictably though - that's of course why it's famous. They have it set up where there's a board walk surrounding the geyser from a safe distance just outside the visitor center, and there's some seating but ofc when it gets close to spouting, all that fills up. I was standing behind some folks and had no trouble seeing/recording. Overall I think if you're in Yellowstone, it's a must to see this geyser. If you're an American and like the outdoors at all, I think this is a bucket list thing to do :)

The West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park was efficient every time we went through. We never…read moreencountered a longer WEEKDAY-delay at the entrance than 15min, on different weekdays approximately 6:30am, 8am, 8:30am, 10:30am, and 11am. (Jul 2026). On the other hand, even when we entered at 6:30am, traffic built up by the time we got to popular locations to the south between the entrance and Old Faithful. Not terribly bad, but enough that we would have started earlier if we could have. Studying traffic apps, it looked like traffic was better entering before 5:30am or maybe even 6am. We never saw bad backups (besides wildlife sightings) going north, or going all the way west between the north and south loops. We never started early enough to see sunrise inside the park. At the entrance, the far right lane was for pre-paid passes. With three other lanes open, the prepaid lane wasnt even twice as fast as the others. It was around two-cars faster when the other lanes were 6 or 8 cars. Pretty efficient. And they give you a useful park map, though you can buy more detailed maps and guidebooks at the park's visitors centers and around town. We used the free ones :-) We felt that the NPS app had info that's easier to access than their website. And believe it when they say cell service is limited to the major sights and visitor centers. Even GPS was spotty. So, after our first couple hours in the park, we made a point to download maps and info before the next leg of the trip, and on the second time in, we downloaded the night before.

If you end up trying to save money by staying in Idaho when visiting Yellowstone rather than…read morestaying in Wyoming, this is likely the main entrance you'll use to exit and re-enter the park during the days you visit. This community that the entrance is next to is also called West Yellowstone, and there's a lot of cute stuff there including a national park visitor center, gas stations, souvenirs and gift shops, and of course lots of restaurants and dessert shops. As for the entrance itself: if you come in during the most congested hours (usually 8-10am or so), despite the fact that there are usually 5-7 lanes open, the traffic will back up all the way down the road from the entrance to the main road of west Yellowstone. People do a decent job of spreading out to try to get in as quickly as possible, but you will have to wait at least a bit. It looks a lot worse than it is; I went in around 8:30 am or so and the number of cars was absolutely ABSURD, but the wait for me to eventually get to a ranger was only about 20-25 minutes. After you get through the entrance, there is a short length of two lanes, and then that becomes one lane. So long as there isn't an animal crossing, the lane does move just fine (at speed limit which is 35-45 mph). Overall - don't be too dismayed by the crazy line to get into the park at this entrance, it does move fast and the advantage of a nice visitor center and tons of food, gas and other resources like minutes from that entrance makes it a great spot to look for lodging or a break in between a visit to Yellowstone.

This was a amazing place. I would recommend going to the top look out point then going down to the…read moreactual geyser basin I liked it a lot but I think I had already seen enough hot springs/geysers that I just kinda felt bored here but it was still really cool

I hadn't heard of this area before coming to Yellowstone but I saw a sign for it on the Rockefeller…read morefreeway and a lot of cars going toward it so I followed them. I'm glad I did, it's a really neat area and in my opinion almost a better bang for your buck than prismatic springs! You walk along a boardwalk in both areas since the geothermal area is both fragile, and potentially dangerous. There are several steaming pools in this area, including some that are cloudy/hazy, and some that are crystal clear and blue as the Caribbean ocean. This was also the only place I saw elk; there were some just chilling in the middle of the area. The parking lot is huge and easily accessible here as well.

About roughly halfway during the Firehole Lake Drive off Grand Loop Road near Grand Prismatic…read moreSpring you'll reach White Dome Geyser. It is as the name suggests: it's in the shape of a white dome. It's definitely a lesser known geyser so if you're looking to avoid the crowds this will be a good geyser (along with the others on the road) to check out and hopefully catch an eruption.

This is a great visitor center with a big gift shop, plenty of staff, HUGE parking lot, big…read morelearning area that's fun for kids, and an amphitheater with a very interesting movie about the park! The bathrooms are clean but beware that after the geyser erupts, inevitably there is a super long line at the ladies room. But this place is still absolutely a must visit for stamps, water, and learning if you're in the area!

"Oh girl, you stand by me I'm forever yours, faithfully"…read more(Journey) I must admit it. Seeing Old Faithful do its thing right on schedule was extremely cool. The Visitor Center has plenty of viewing opportunities to see the show through huge glass windows, or you can do what we did and get as close as possible to the action for amazing photos and videos. The Old Faithful geyser has highly predictable geothermal features which allows the Park Service to post an approximate time to the next eruption. The time between eruptions has to do with a "bimodal distribution". Now if you majored in math, you MAY know what this is, but for me and the non-Math majors, it means that eruptions will be either 65 or 91 minutes away, depending on the length of the prior eruption. There is a ten-minute margin of error in the calculations, but on our visit the predicted time was right on target. And when it did erupt, it was quite a spectacle. The steam from underground boiling water can shoot up to a height between 106 and 185 feet and last from 1 1/2 to 5 minutes. Amazing.......

Old Faithful is probably the most well known attraction at Yellowstone, but to be totally honest, I…read morethought it was a little overrated. It's cool that the estimated eruption times are pretty accurate, but the actual eruption wasn't anything earth shattering. In my opinion, there are at least half a dozen or more other attractions at Yellowstone that I was more impressed by. The Old Faithful area does have a huge parking lot, plenty of bathrooms, and multiple gift shops & dining areas. So that's definitely a plus in helping with crowd control.

This was our main site seeing destination inside Yellowstone National Park. We got to the area…read moreright on time because about 5 minutes after we got to the geyser it went off. It was a really cool experience and a must when visiting Yellowstone. I know when my family came this way when I was a child, while most others got to see it, I wasn't feeling well so my mom and I hadn't gotten a chance that trip to come to Old Faithful. I'm glad I was finally able to see it in its full glory. It is quite crowded, so when it comes to pictures just try to stay aware of your surroundings. Try to stay out of main pathways as well as being conscious of the fact it's practically impossible to get photos without others in the background and you'll probably end up in some photos too. If you're already here, don't skip past this well known spot, it's a fun experience for sure. The park is big so if you want to see it all I can see it taking days, especially since the fastest you can go is 40-45 miles an hour with a lot of areas actually being closer to 25. Both my husband and I were so glad we stopped by.

Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park is truly one of the most breathtaking natural…read morewonders you'll ever see. Located in the Midway Geyser Basin, this geothermal giant is the largest hot spring in the United States, measuring about 370 feet across and over 120 feet deep. Standing at the edge of the boardwalk, you're met with an explosion of color that almost looks too perfect to be real--deep blues at the center, shifting to greens, yellows, oranges, and fiery reds around the edges. The colors come from thermophiles, heat-loving microorganisms that thrive in the varying temperatures of the spring. The hottest part in the middle is a stunning blue because it's nearly sterile, while the cooler edges create the rainbow-like spectrum. On top of the beauty, the spring pumps out more than 560 gallons of hot water every minute, making it a powerful reminder of Yellowstone's geothermal activity. For the best view, hike up to the overlook on Fairy Falls Trail. From above, you can capture the full scale and see why it's the park's most photographed feature. If you're planning a trip to Yellowstone, skipping Grand Prismatic Spring would be a huge mistake--it's a bucket list experience. https://linktr.ee/reessroots

Maybe the most colorful pool in the Park!…read more Viewed from the Overlook, The Grand Prismatic Spring had such dramatic colors: deep blue in the center, then going through the rainbow to a red rim. It's a vast 300-ft across. You get the best view from the overlook. The colors are wondrous just as they really are. Many of the photos we saw before are amped up with increased vibrance and saturation, which really isnt necessary. We got to the parking lot around 10am on a weekday. The parking lot was completely full, so we waited around 15min for enough cars leave for those waiting to get spaces. This was the place where we wished we had gotten an earlier start in the morning. It was about a 15-min walk from the parking lot to the trailhead. From the trailhead, it was about a 30-min flat and moderately-uphill 3/4-mile boardwalk, finishing with another quarter-mile up a rather steep hill with no handrails or rope-guides. Then there were ten steps at the very end up to the viewing platform. Some of our group could not manage that hike, which is why i took one star off of this lovely view. The Park is pretty good at setting up access without harming the park or the experience, so we'd like them to figure out something here. Even railings and benches would help a lot.

No wonder they call Lamar Valley, not Hayden Valley, America's Serengeti. There are a few bison…read moresitting beside the road, but not enough energetic ones for that road-crossing experience. Still a cool sighting nonetheless. They just lying there in the sun peacefully, watching drivers pass by. It's a pleasant drive between Mud Volcano and Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.

This is such a beautiful region in Yellowstone. It's centrally located on the grand loop between…read moreYellowstone Lake and Yellowstone Falls. It is also a great spot to see lots of wildlife. Bison, elk, ducks, wolves, and lots of birds roam around this Valley. There are several turnouts along the road that you can pull over and take pictures at. The Yellowstone river is on the east side of the road. I made quite a few stops along the way and enjoyed the scenic views and the breezy weather with my morning coffee. It was a nice way to start my day. I was even able to get close enough to capture a bald eagle in flight. This Valley is named for of Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden who conducted geological surveys in this region in the 1800's.