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.

A definite must see when visiting Yellowstone NP. It's located behind the visitor's center from the…read moreparking lot. It blows every 70 minutes, give or take 10 minutes. There's plenty to see nearby while you wait. You can visit the Old Faithful Inn, the Yellowstone Lodge, and the visitor's center. There are restrooms and gift shops in each of the three buildings. There are stationary benches surrounding the geyser viewing area. If you're looking for shade, there are logs you can sit on in the area behind the benches. Overall we really enjoyed our time here. There's a restaurant in the lodge if you're looking for a decent meal. We would highly recommend!

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!

Town is convenient to this entrance/exit With multiple…read moreopportunities for lodging, dining, camping, hotels, motels, grocery shopping, bar hoping, and good family or singles fun. The park employees manning the gate are super friendly and they can get through the crowds very quickly. A sightseer paradise. Mountains, wildlife, stream, hiking, biking, photography, horse bike riding, driving and getting back to nature.

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.

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.

I would definitely say this is the most aesthetically pleasing visitor center in the park as the…read moremodern architecture and how it faces the Old Faithful is beautifully well done. This visitor center and all of the rangers here were super friendly to all & plenty of knowledge & exhibits to walk through to learn about Yellowstone. The NPS really knows how to take care of their visitor centers and the gift store here had plenty of goodies to look at for all that want to collect souvenirs and get those passport stamps.

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!

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.

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 is by far one of our favorite stops in Yellowstone NP! The variation of colors is phenomenal…read more I love all the boardwalk pathways, even though some tourists don't know how to properly share it...ugh! This is the largest hot spring in the US. Temperatures reach 188° in the center. It is about 160 feet deep. The deep blue center is a gorgeous offset to the red, brown, orange and yellow rings around it. There's a decent sized parking lot, but you may have to drive through it a few times to get a spot during busy seasons. We only had to once, but it was still busy. Overall a very cool experience. Would highly recommend stopping while visiting Yellowstone NP!

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.