Yellowstone: Old Faithful and Mammoth Hot Springs

This was our second full day in Yellowstone. Like so many other visitors, in the long summer days, we took full advantage of the sunlight. There was no line to get into the park on this day so we headed straight for Yellowstone’s biggest attraction: Old Faithful.

Unlike other parts of the park, there is plenty of parking at Old Faithful. In this area there are restaurants, a lodge, a museum and lots of geysers. If you download the free Yellowstone app it even tells you approximate times when the popular geysers will erupt. Old Faithful had just erupted so we had about 90 minutes before it would go off again.

Another sparkling day. This was right before all the smoke from the fires in the west started impacting the air.

Note how people are already waiting on the benches surrounding Old Faithful, over an hour before it will go off.

We took a walk around on the boardwalks in the area. Another geyser was going off in the distance. We believe this was the Grand Geyser as it shot up to impressive heights. It supposedly goes up to 200 ft and lasts about 10 minutes. We could even hear it this far away.

Another look at The Grand Geyser.

For the most part in this area you walk along these wooden boardwalks. There is bubbling water and mud everywhere. The ground can be very hot. You will see bison hoofprints near very hot springs; apparently it does not burn them as it would us!

We walked through the historic Old Faithful Inn. It was constructed in 1903, using local wood and stone. This Inn, like most inside the park, books a year in advance.

Now that’s an open concept! Look at the massive open lobby. This is the largest log structure in the world and the tallest fireplace I’ve ever seen.

Now it was time to sit and wait for Old Faithful. There are tons of benches around, but we were too late so we popped down right on the boardwalk. At least we had a front row seat.

Finally, after a couple of false starts, it went off. It is not the largest geyser in the park. It’s one of 500 geysers. What makes it special is that it is, well, faithful, in that it erupts about every 90 minutes.

It went off for 2 minutes and 34 seconds when we watched. There were well over 1,000 people watching at this time. At the conclusion of the geyser, everyone applauded. It really was spectacular.

We walked for a while and came upon the Beehive geyser. While it did not go off while we were there, it was quite active, bubbling and groaning.

Next we walked up to Spasmotic Geyser. Like many of the geysers in Yellowstone, this one is connected to another. When Spasmotic goes off, it’s “sister” geyser Penta has no activity. The water in Spasmotic is about 198 degrees.

Skipping along the boardwalk! While this might have been a little boring, with a lot of long walks for a 3-year-old, our 6-year-old J. was very into the entire experience. It’s like the Disneyworld of nature here for sure.

This was one of my favorite sites in Yellowstone. It’s a hot spring called Morning Glory Pool. The color was incredible. The water was so clear and does not look like its hot, but it is!

Unlabeled Hot Spring

This was either the Gem Pool or the Mirror Pool. We ended up taking a hike from the Old Faithful area our to Biscuit Basin. It was about a mile with more hills than we planned, but we came across sites that were beautiful with no one around.

After spending about 3 hours in the Old Faithful area it was time to drive North again. This time we drove the far end of the park near the North entrance to an area called Mammoth Hot Springs. Now we were in Montana.

These “terraces” are actually travertine; the same travertine we use for fine tile. They were created over thousands years of boiling water cooling from the hot springs. They were magnificent to see as we hiked up another boardwalk and stairs from the road.

From Mammoth Hot Springs you can look down into the valley which is actually the park headquarters. There is another lodge, restaurants and a visitors center in this area. There is also a historic fort, which housed soldiers in the late 1800’s who were assigned to protect the park from vandalism. Today, there is quite a bit of housing for park employees, who live here year round. I am sure it gets cold and lonely in the winter, but the scenery is spectacular.

What a great day in Yellowstone! Our final picture was taken about 8PM at the North entrance in Gardiner, Montana. From there the west entrance is well over an hour away.

For a first time visitor, Steve said it was worth the 60 year wait to come. The wildlife, scenery and beauty did not disappoint! It was worth fighting the crowds a little bit to see this national treasure. We will be back again I’m sure!