Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park

Gibbon Falls, Yellowstone National Park, WY

Yellowstone National Park is not just about geysers and hot springs, it is also about wildlife, waterfalls, and beautiful vast open spaces. Let me first share with you one of the waterfalls we experienced in Yellowstone that is easily accessed by the roadside. This is waterfall without the hike. Later, I will share some waterfalls with the hike.

Artist Paint Pot, Yellowstone National Park

 Peach Colored Soil @ Artist Paint Pot

The Artist Paint Pot is South of Norris Geyser Basin and North of Madison Junction. The trail is an easy hike to several geothermal features which you will also probably see in the other parts of Yellowstone. Unlike Midway Geyser Basin and Lower Geyser Basin, the Artist Paint Pot geothermal features can be observed after about 0.3 mile hike along pine forest. After about 0.3 mile, there is a wooded boardwalk that slowly climbs up and goes around several features in Artist Paint Pot area, such as the mudpot below.  

The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

Lower Fall from Red Rock Point, Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone River
(can you see the people at the brink of the waterfall?)

In my previous post, I shared about Gibbon Falls, which is a beautiful roadside waterfall in Yellowstone National Park. In this post, I will be featuring two of the more popular waterfalls in Yellowstone, the Upper Falls and Lower Falls which sit at the head of the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River.

Midway Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Images from Midway Geyser Basin, Excelsior Group, Yellowstone National Park

The Excelsior Group in Midway Geyser Basin is no doubt my most favorite feature in Yellowstone National Park. Maybe, Midway Geyser Basin awed us beyond compare because we already had seen so much beautiful scenery and amazing features in Yellowstone that we thought with all the beauty we had seen, what else was there? Midway Geyser Basin answered us: "there are more!"

Part 2 of Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

Sawmill Geyser, Upper Geyser Basin, Yellowstone National Park

In my previous post  Upper Geyser Basin (part 1), after watching Old Faithful geyser erupt, we followed the paved trail and some elevated board walks to Geyser Hill. After Geyser Hill, we continued walking North. The first erupting geyser we saw after Geyser Hill was Sawmill Geyser. If you look at the picture above, Sawmill is a fountain type geyser. The bursting water stream comes through a pool of water. Sawmill's eruption can exceed 35 feet. Eruptions commonly last 30 to 50 minutes but can last from as little as 9 minutes to over 4 hours. At the time we were there, it definitely lasted more than 30 minutes.