My favorite thing is seeing things in person that I’ve been learning about since childhood. In Yellowstone, the perfect example of this was seeing the Old Faithful geyser and the Grand Prismatic Spring.

When we went to Yellowstone last month, these were the two places I knew I couldn’t leave without seeing. When I planned this trip, I tried to make it a much easier pace than what we’ve done before. But for some reason, when we got into the park we threw the itinerary out the window and went totally balls to the wall.

And that’s how we ended up seeing the Grand Prismatic Spring (both views) and the eruption of Old Faithful within the first three hours of our first day at Yellowstone.

Here’s what happened.

Midway Geyser Basin: The Grand Prismatic Spring’s home

We woke up before sunrise at camp, made breakfast, and headed toward the Midway Geyser Basin where the Grand Prismatic Spring is.

I anticipated that it’d be super busy so we bee-lined it. When we arrived, I was surprised at how relatively tiny the parking lot is given how popular and famous it is. We were one of a handful of cars. We followed the wooden log bridge across the Firehole River to the boardwalk for the Midway Geyser Basin. This was 7:15am.

Basically, Yellowstone is organized into “basins” where it seems like the most geothermal activity/sites are concentrated in one area that you can tour by a massive system of wooden boardwalks that snake through them.

Excelsior Geyser Crater

The first attraction at Midway is the Excelsior Geyser Crater.

As you can see, our conditions were super foggy. It was also really cold outside (the boardwalk was icy), so the hot geothermal features – some of which are already constantly steaming – were steaming like crazy.

After Excelsior, there’s a walk through these brown bacteria mats ’til you get to the main attraction.

Grand Prismatic Spring

This was a huge Instagram vs. reality moment for me, but not necessarily in a way that upset or disappointed me. In all of the popular photos I’ve seen online about this place, the saturation is turned up and the turquoise center is the main focal point.

In reality, we learned that the Spring is usually covered in a dense layer of fog unless it’s super windy and/or super hot outside. Turquoise is also apparently an indicator of the highest temperatures, so naturally it creates more steam, which then keeps it obscured.

Opal Pool

An *easy* favorite.

And right next door to…

Turquoise Pool

Which is also super beautiful.

The boardwalk leads back down to the start, and here’s where I realized that the Excelsior Geyser Crater is fed by the Grand Prismatic Spring, and together they partially drain into the Firehole River – which snakes through a big portion of the park. So cool.

By the time we got back to the parking lot, there were several tour buses unloading and it was a completely different, much more chaotic, vibe than before.

There was also this bison chilling by our car.

Fairy Falls trailhead: The Grand Prismatic Spring overlook

Turning right out of the parking lot for Midway Geyser Basin and continuing on Grand Loop Road, you soon come to the parking lot for the Fairy Falls trailhead. We arrived at 8:15am and there were already so many cars that we were some of the first in the overflow parking lot.

After the Instagram vs reality moment I mentioned above, I adjusted my expectations for what I was (or wasn’t) going to see. Initially we planned to hike this entire trail all the way to Fairy Falls, but it was way colder than we expected and I’d read that the falls was pretty dry by that point in the season so we nixed the extra three miles.

You walk a wiiiiide gravel path surrounded by wildflowers and with tons of geothermal stuff going on to the right, including these little pools which are guarded by logs.

Soon, you get to a fork in the trail which is clearly marked and leads to the overlook.

You walk for a little while longer, eventually make some turns, walk up some stairs, annnnd there ya have it.

Isn’t the scale crazy? I loved seeing the tiny people down there and imagining myself as one of them less than an hour earlier.

Fairy Falls has a main tiny parking lot, then a much bigger overflow parking lot. When we arrived, we were one of the first cars in the overflow parking lot. By the time we left at 9:30am, the overflow parking lot was starting to become full and people were competing for spots. Wild.

Old Faithful Visitor Center

I can’t quite remember why we said f* it and went along to Old Faithful anyway, maybe because it was still so early in the day and we had enough energy to fight the anticipated crowds? Or I probably really had to pee and this was the closest thing that looked like a non-vault toilet?

Either way, we landed here at 9:50am.

We scoped out the huge souvenir/grocery store, then walked across the street to the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center. We arrive at 10:20am, and the next eruption was scheduled to be at 11:06am.

Old Faithful Geyser

We sat for about 30 minutes, soaking in the sweet, sweet cell phone signal, while waiting for it. There are hundreds of benches that surround the Old Faithful Geyser in a semi-circle like a big theater.

By the time I looked up from my phone, we were surrounded by hundreds of people. Old Faithful ended up going off around 10:55-ish.

It was so surreal to enjoy it with all of these strangers and bask in the feeling of all of us taking in the beauty of the same thing at the same time.

And it was really fun to mark this one off of elementary school Caitlyn’s bucket list. 🙂

We continued this day by going to the Fountain Paint Pots, the Porcelain Basin at Norris, then finally returning to our digs at Madison Campground.

There’s literally no part of Yellowstone that we did not touch during our five days within the park, and I can’t wait to blab more about how much fun we had. I can’t believe we’ve already been back for a month.

Bison butt & cool Game-of-Thrones-esque chair at the Old Faithful Visitor Center made of skis.

Learn more about Yellowstone: https://www.nps.gov/yell/index.htm
And about Old Faithful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Faithful
And about the Grand Prismatic Spring: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Prismatic_Spring

Grand Prismatic Overlook trail via AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/ar/trail/us/wyoming/grand-prismatic-hot-spring
Fairy Falls trail via AllTrails: https://www.alltrails.com/ar/trail/us/wyoming/fairy-falls–4

Stay at Madison Campground: https://secure.yellowstonenationalparklodges.com/booking/lodging