Among the most spectacular features in Yellowstone is a hot spring most visitors neglect. While it doesn’t crack the ten most visited attractions, it’s one of the most popular with photographers — the great round rainbow called Grand Prismatic Spring.
While planning to move my family from Portland, Oregon to Portland, Maine this summer, I saw our RV road trip would take us very near Yellowstone National Park. I’d recently quit my job as a photojournalist in local TV news and I wanted to feel a camera in my hands for a subject I could really get into.
It’s hard to imagine a prettier place than Yellowstone. I’ve been fortunate enough to visit twice, once to fish and another to sightsee. So I began a casual campaign pitching it to my brood. My 21-year-old daughters weren’t hard to convince. They both love nature, flora and fauna, but especially the latter. I stressed the bison, bears and moose angle. I knew my wife would be excited, too. We’d spent a week here during our honeymoon—our first RV trip 25 years ago. The intervening years, did not diminish our enthusiasm for Yellowstone.
Entering Yellowstone
On a Wednesday in late July, we crammed into our Subaru and drove to the West Yellowstone entrance. Several days before, the park webcam showed a line of cars stretching out of sight. Almost a million people had visited in June—a park record. 46,845 vehicle entries were recorded over the four day Fourth of July weekend. We braced for a traffic jam. Driving around the corner this day (July 21st) we could hardly believe our eyes. There was only one car in the right lane—and that was it! We stopped at the visitor’s booth and rolled down our window.
There’s something exciting about pulling up to a national park entrance. Seeing a Ranger in a drab, olive uniform and immaculate hat is a portent of adventure and new experiences. Ranger Benjamin Fugate answered a few questions while we transacted the $35 entrance fee.
“Where exactly do the buffalo roam?”
“All over, but mostly in Lamar Valley. Technically, they are bison.”
“Should we expect long lines at Old Faithful?”
“Yes, but you should have no trouble finding room to sit on the benches all around the geyser.”
And one last question, just for fun.
“Is it safe to snuggle grizzly bears? They are adorable.”
“Yes, they are adorable. But it is not safe to snuggle or approach them. Do not get out of your car if they’re anywhere nearby. Take pictures from inside your vehicle.”
Satisfied we were only joking about hugging grizzly bears, Ranger Fugate sent us on our way.
Related: Your Complete Guide to Yellowstone National Park
Wildlife at Yellowstone
Within just 30 minutes of our conversation with Ranger Fugate, a huge buffalo crossed the road directly in front of us. The driver could not help himself and jumped out to shoot video of the buffalo, er bison. To be clear, the car was parked between our group and the bison the entire time. In retrospect, however, when the bison ambled away from the road, the cars and the tourists, this driver was a little embarrassed. This sort of mania happens every day here.
Driving along the Madison River past Mammoth Hot Springs to Lamar Valley, we saw eleven more buffalo and innumerable elk. The North American elk apparently excite midwesterners more than Oregonians. We couldn’t understand people stopping in the middle of the road to view an elk cow, but perhaps they regard elk the way we do bison. East of Mammoth, we saw an immature brown or grizzly bear which, however snuggly, we viewed from inside our vehicle, as per Ranger Fugate’s instructions.
Descending into the valley, we experienced a heavy thundershower. Vehicles slowed in front of us. Through the windshield wipers an enormous valley revealed itself, wide and deep, surrounded by rocky mountain tops that seemed to stretch all the way to South Dakota. By the time we reached the bottom, it was time to stretch our legs. The rain had soaked the meadow and washed the dusty sagebrush clean, making it look soft and velvety. We strolled out into it; our footprints leaving slight impressions in the dark earth that gave off a light, musky smell. It mixed well with the sage’s sharp, sweetness.
Walking to the edge of a muddy ravine, an enormous bison came into view, oblivious to our presence. While we stood transfixed, he turned and looked in our direction for a second or two. I snapped his picture. In that moment we all sensed something special, especially my daughter, Beth. For an hour, all she could talk about was the bison and how majestic and beautiful he was walking through the sage. It was incredible to make eye contact with something so wild. That’s what happens at Yellowstone, encountering some wild animal or geothermal feature you’ve never seen before and may never forget.
Tourists at Yellowstone
You may also encounter park visitors who leave an unforgettable impression, though in a different way than geysers or bison. After stopping in the pullout above Nymph Lake to admire a distant rainbow, a lady in a van with Ohio plates completely boxed in three vehicles (difficult when you’re trying) then ran toward the lake with a camera dangling from her wrist. When she returned five minutes later, she explained herself.
“I know! I’m a bad person!” And drove off.
While I doubt any of the several carloads of people she inconvenienced were thinking that in the moment, she made a pretty good case for herself. But we were quickly over it.
Old Faithful at Yellowstone
Besides bears, bison, elk, wild rivers and wacky tourists, the park is most famous for the innumerable geysers, hot pots and steam vents. Of these, everyone knows Old Faithful. It is the park’s most visited place. The Historic District includes a lodge, inn, gift shops and several large parking lots—all within a short walk of the world’s most recognizable geothermal feature. It is the geyser’s predictability which makes it so popular; erupting every 66 or 91 minutes, depending on the duration of the previous eruption. That’s what they say, anyway. Both days we visited, it went off twice within an hour. So maybe it’s not so predictable.
Most of the cars parked here are from Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana; literally every state is represented though. The crowd commingling on the benches is like a cross-section of America—with a shared appreciation for our national treasures, Old Faithful and the very first National Park, established in 1872, Yellowstone.
Grand Prismatic Spring at Yellowstone
One memorable feature that most visitors miss is the Grand Prismatic Spring. It is on the main road, but not as popular as Mammoth, Yellowstone Falls, Old Faithful or Norris Geyser Basin. In fact, Grand Prismatic Spring is not among the park’s top ten attractions. Nevertheless, many are familiar with it. It is the hot spring which, when viewed from above, displays all the colors of a rainbow contained inside a circular boiling pool. Most visitors who stop here view it from the boardwalk along the spring’s steamy, southeast contour. This is where we found ourselves on Friday.
After taking a few snapshots of the bright orange ooze that emanates from the distant blue pool, I remarked how beautiful the spring looks from above. A young lady beside us in a yellow University of Wyoming t-shirt spoke right up.
“There’s a viewpoint on the other side. Up there. See it? You just hike up from the road.”
Sure enough, looking across Grand Prismatic Spring was a tiny notch in the woods. It was a viewpoint cut into the woods on the opposite hillside about a hundred feet above the spring. From that elevated ledge, the entire basin and its colorful contents would be visible in one, wide sweep.
Like Beth’s bison, I could not get this out of my mind. We had two days left on our $35/five day pass and, in the honorable tradition of cheap photographers, I planned to get my money’s worth. Thank you, UW Cowgirl.
That night, I mapped out our route to the ledge above the boiling spring. It was not difficult—there is a trail from Fairy Falls. The more difficult assignment was selling the return to Grand Prismatic to my kids, but like all good dads, I made them do it. To be fair, they bought in after I showed them some pictures taken from the viewpoint; they sensed its uniqueness.
I had a new DSLR camera I was excited to use. Also, I wanted to shoot some video and include my daughters. They could assist me in the shoot; then we would have something to remind us of our look into Wyoming’s Eighth Wonder of the World.
The .6 mile hike to the viewpoint was not arduous. Though the basin rests above 7,000 feet elevation, several travelers did it in flip flops. At the top, we arrived at a small level area cut into the hill, enclosed by a log fence. Surrounded by the lodge pole woods, it was a cozy perch. Only slightly obscured by the treetops below us was Grand Prismatic Spring—a beguiling presence off in the distance. You couldn’t keep your eyes off of it. There were twenty of us taking selfies and group shots, gathered for a few excited minutes. Several people noticed the gear we were toting and asked if I’d take their picture. This was great because it gave us a little more time at the top.
It would be easy to spend hours at the lookout above Grand Prismatic Spring, but the access is limited and everyone willing to hike up here deserves a shot. Eventually, we turned our backs to the magic and got back on the trail to Fairy Falls. People hiking up could see the excitement on the faces of everyone descending. Shortly, we would all have something in common: seeing a steaming, round rainbow oozing down a bright orange hillside into a steaming river. And to have that picture live in our memory, today and tomorrow. Perhaps forever.
Monty Orrick is an author, outdoor writer and, until recently, a TV news photographer for 25 years. At the moment, he’s more interested in chasing bison and embarrassing his kids. When he’s not doing that, he enjoys fly fishing and producing a YouTube show about his adventures, The Von Wiley Brothers. If he sounds busy, he’s not — he’s probably watching baseball.
