Walk the Geyser Trails around Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park
The Upper Geyser Basin is home to the famous Old Faithful Geyser and many incredible hot springs that make this area a major attraction to all visitor. Five major geysers are located here: Old Faithful, Castle, Grand, Daisy, and Riverside. Yellowstone has approximately half of the world’s geysers — most of them located here at the Upper Geyser Basin.
The Upper Geyser Basin is a fantastic place to see some of the world’s most amazing geysers and explore the enchanting world around them. The trails around the basin are all easy to intermediate hikes. They can be as short as 0.3 miles or as long as seven miles. Any trail you opt to explore will reveal some amazing geological and geothermal marvels that will fire up your social media account in seconds.
Old Faithful Geyser is the most popular geyser in the park. However, it is not the most stunning. Not even close, actually. Old Faithful got its name because it is a highly predictable geothermal feature that has erupted every 44 minutes to two hours since 2000. How’s that for consistency? It draws large crowds as eruption nears and its can shoot 4,000 to 8,000 gallons of boiling water as high as 185 feet in the air.
One of our favorite geysers in the park is Castle Geyser. It is a lot less predictable — typically erupting twice a day — but its eruptions are magnificent. For what seemed like hours, Castle shot out an impressive display of water at various heights with the powerful sounds of spewing water. After thousands of years of eruptions, Castle has dramatically changed its own surrounding by altering soil chemistry. The geyser has devoured part of a surrounding pine forest and turned it into a thermal desert. This site is just one you’ll see on your trek around the paths of Upper Geyser Basin.
For our hike, we opted to take a loop that stretched about three miles long. On that loop we saw a massive elk, many bison and birds of plenty. Up a little past Riverside Geyser is Morning Glory Pool. It’s a small, but very beautiful hot spring. It kind of acts as a hidden jewel because some people don’t walk up far enough to see it.
The boardwalk that wraps around the Upper Geyser Basin allows you to maneuver through the hot-spring minefield and experience some of the most spectacular sites that Yellowstone has to offer. Your adventure through the paths make for a very memorable experience, but if you have the time or desire, make your way up to Observation Point Trail for a bird’s eye view of the entire field.
When you’re all hiked out and burned through hundreds of calories, make your way over to Old Faithful Inn. It is one of the few log hotels still standing in the United States and one of the largest log hotels in the world. It’s worth going in and checking out its architecture at the very least. And, hey, they have an ice cream shop!
Overall, the hikes, the shops, the food, the people, the experiences were all exceptional here at Upper Geyser Basin. We recommend the area for a fun way to burn lots of calories and learn something amazing about the world we live in.
Cost of Adventure
- Per vehicle: $35 (for 7 days)
- Difficulty: Easy
- Total distance: 1 – 7 miles
- Calories burned: 200 – 800 calories
- Time suggested: 2-3 hours
- Family friendly: YES
- Park size: 2,219,789 acres
Challenge Yourself
Exploring here at Upper Geyser Basin is par for the course. For this challenge, hike the boardwalk loop but finish your hike at Observation Point Trail. Challenge yourself to take the switchback that leads up the hill 0.5 miles to a fantastic view of Upper Geyser Basin. Return to the boardwalk and complete the challenge.
Find Great Photo Ops
The sites and colors at Upper Geyser Basin make for some very brag-worthy photos. The time of day, color of the sky, angle of the sun all help create some amazing photo ops. If you’re lucky, you might even get a chance to take some excellent photos of the wildlife at Upper Geyser Basin.
Complete the Scavenger Hunt
Because there is lots of exploring and discovering to do at Upper Geyser Basin, the scavenger hunt here is a must. While the hunt may seem easy at first, it’s going to take a little effort to complete.
