Help power the National Parks Traveler’s coverage of national parks and protected areas.
"Watching Old Faithful Geyser erupt is a Yellowstone National Park tradition. People from all over the world have journeyed here to watch this famous geyser. The park’s wildlife and scenery might be as well-known today, but it was the unique thermal features like Old Faithful Geyser that inspired the establishment of Yellowstone as the world’s first national park in 1872."
Water flows in crisscrossing patterns down a steep ridge where colorful thermophiles create a changing palette dominated by hues of orange and brown.
You never know who or what you'll meet while walking a snowy boardwalk at Upper Geyser Basin.
If you take a winter snowcoach or snowmobile tour to Midway Basin and walk on the boardwalk around the edges of Grand Prismatic Spring, you'll notice paw and hoof prints on the shallow terraces of the hot spring. That white you see is not snow, but silica. The hot thermal waters hold silica in solution, and when the water cools, the silica precipitates out.
Soda Butte is a "travertine calcium carbonate mound formed more than a century ago by a hot spring. Only small amounts of hydrothermal water and hydrogen sulfide gas currently flow from this once more prolific spring." Sometimes, you can smell the sulfur in the atmosphere around Soda Butte.
National Parks Traveler is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit.
Here’s the definitive guide to National Park System campgrounds where RVers can park their rigs.
Our app is packed with RVing- specific details on more than 250 campgrounds in more than 70 national parks.
You’ll also find stories about RVing in the parks, tips helpful if you’ve just recently become an RVer, and useful planning suggestions.
