Exploring Geyser Hill in Yellowstone National Park

If you have only a day to go to Yellowstone National Park, you can spend your time totally in the car driving the Grand Loop Road and stopping briefly to take photos at the major features (and you will inevitably be stopped by the traffic jams every time someone spots a wild animal), and that could take you all day. The Grand Loop Road is 140 miles long in a sort of figure 8 shape. The speed limit is 45 miles per hour at the top speed places, but many places are 25 to 35 miles per hour, so if you stay in your car and never stop, you are still going to spend at least a half a day just driving. I would stop if I were you! There are such lovely things to see. Even then, stopping everywhere is not possible unless you have several days to spend.

We had just a day and a half early in September to spend in Yellowstone National Park. We had only about four hours the first day, so we decided to head straight to Old Faithful Inn, see Old Faithful, and then explore the many features on Geyser Hill behind it.

We came in from West Yellowstone, driving alongside the Madison River

At Madison Junction we turned south toward Old Faithful Inn

The canyons are immediately beautiful to see

The Gibbon River runs placidly through little valleys

Sometimes you can see herds of elk in the meadows

The Gibbon River has stretches of rapids too

Then you come to Lower Geyser Basin and start seeing thermal features

At Lower Geyser Basin, you should stop at the Fountain Paint Pot Trail,
where you can see boiling mud pots like chocolate sauce, lots of very
pretty hot pools and geysers. We stopped there last visit.

At Midway Geyser Basin are the must-see Excelsior Geyser and the
fantastic Grand Prismatic Spring as well as a couple of other pretty pools.

At Biscuit Basin in Upper Geyser Basin you can see the amazing Sapphire
Pool, Mustard Springs, Shell Geyser and Jewel Geyser. 

We were heading straight for Old Faithful and planned
to see other things the next day as time permitted.

Almost as soon as we arrived, Old Faithful was due to erupt.

Old Faithful erupts every 70 to 90 minutes.

After its eruption, we walked across the Firehole River to Geyser Hill.
This is looking back across Old Faithful and its steam toward Old Faithful Inn.

 On Geyser Hill, we came first to
Blue Star Spring, one of the hottest in the Park

Chinese Spring, which was used as a hot water source by an Asian family
that ran a laundry service in the early decades of the 20th century

Firehole River between Old Faithful and Geyser Hill

The bridge and boardwalks across the River
(no walking on plain ground around here)

Vault Geyser

Teakettle Spring, always boiling

Giantess Geyser

Pump Geyser

Sponge Geyser

Doublet Pool

Aurum Geyser

Beach Spring

Ear Spring

Lion Geyser Group against the low sun

North Goggles Spring

Goggles Spring

Heart Spring

View to the west from Geyser Hill

Depression Geyser

A bubbling pool next to Beehive that I forgot to get the name of!

Beehive Geyser with Old Faithful steaming in the background

Up comes Old Faithful again

Old Faithful, from Geyser Hill

Old Faithful can go as short as five minutes and as long as fifteen

Old Faithful is always impressive, every time

Old Faithful steam and the Inn behind

Old Faithful Inn

Not all the water is hot--as this bathing bird proves

All cleaned up?

Sunset as we drive toward the Madison Junction and West Yellowstone

Click here for the second post about this trip, and here for the third and final post.