Yellowstone: Old Faithful, Grand Prismatic Spring, & Upper, Midway, and Lower Geyser Basins

Day 1: Mammoth Hot Springs and Norris Geyser Basin
Day 2: Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Artist Paint Pots

Old Faithful

Of course we had to see Old Faithful, but it was actually the least impressive of everything we saw in Yellowstone! When we got to the Old Faithful Visitor Center, we checked the eruption prediction schedule and saw that it was due to erupt any minute. The schedule gives a time plus or minus 10 minutes. We headed out and waited with the throngs of other people. It was crazy how many people were there! Sure enough, in about 10 minutes, it erupted and kept on erupting for a good 10 minutes.

After we got our fill of Old Faithful, we walked through the Upper Geyser Basin, which is where Old Faithful is. I can't express in words or even my husband's pictures in this post how otherworldly and spectacular it was. There were geysers everywhere going off, hot pools of boiling water releasing tons of steam, and unique rock formations everywhere from the hot water.

It was very, very hot walking through the basin. I actually had on a light, short-sleeved shirt but added a light long-sleeve layer because the sun was basically burning me. We spent a good hour or so walking around the 2.4 miles of boardwalk trails through the basin. All of the geysers and pools have names, but there were so many that I forget most.

Joining the throngs to watch Old Faithful erupt.

Waiting for it...

There she blows! Old Faithful.

Upper Geyser Basin

A geyser and springs in the background in Upper Geyser Basin.

A geyser in Upper Geyser Basin.

A hot spring in Upper Geyser Basin.

Walking through Upper Geyser Basin--hat and long-sleeve top were a must for sun protection.

Another geyser erupting in Upper Geyser Basin.

Hot spring in Upper Geyser Basin.

Boiling geyser in Upper Geyser Basin.

Walking through Upper Geyser Basin.

Geyser in Upper Geyser Basin.

Hot pool in Upper Geyser Basin.

Chromatic Pool in Upper Geyser Basin.

Another pool in Upper Geyser Basin.

Castle Geyser in Upper Geyser Basin.

Grand Prismatic Spring and Midway and Lower Geyser Basins

We left Old Faithful and drove a short distance to the Fairy Falls Trail. From there, we went up to an observation point to see Grand Prismatic Spring. Wow. It was just amazing.

Grand Prismatic Spring

We went back to the car and drove to the Midway Geyser Basin, where you could walk around the Grand Prismatic Spring and other geothermal areas.

We also stopped at Lower Geyser Basin. It was more of the same--steamy, boiling pools of water and geysers, but it was still very cool. I am no longer sure which of these photos were from which of the basins, but you get the idea!