Latest / Wildlands Podcast — National Parks, Public Lands & Survival / #010 - Yellowstone, Part 2: The Visit | Lamar Valley, Grand Prismatic & the Geyser Basins

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#010 - Yellowstone, Part 2: The Visit | Lamar Valley, Grand Prismatic & the Geyser Basins · Wildlands Podcast — National Parks, Public Lands & Survival

0:10
I want to tell you what Lamar Valley looks like
0:12
at first light in early June. You have driven
0:15
the northeast entrance road in the dark, which
0:17
means you have driven past the bison you could
0:19
not see but could smell, past the pullouts where
0:22
the wolf watchers have already been set up with
0:24
their spotting scopes for an hour, and you have
0:26
reached a wide, open valley. just as the sky
0:30
starts to go pale in the east. The Lamar River
0:33
runs through the middle of it. The hills roll
0:35
away in every direction. And as the light comes
0:37
up, the valley floor reveals itself, and it is
0:40
covered in bison. Not a handful. Not a small
0:43
herd. Hundreds of them. Spread across the valley
0:48
from one edge of your vision to the other, moving
0:50
slowly, the steam from their breath mixing with
0:53
the morning air. I have been in a lot of remarkable
0:56
places. That morning in Lamar Valley is one of
1:01
the ones I carry. Yellowstone is a park that
1:04
rewards people who understand what they are looking
1:06
at. If you come in, hit Old Faithful, drive the
1:10
Grand Loop, and leave, you will have had a fine
1:12
time. But the deeper version of this park, the
1:15
one that people come back to again and again,
1:18
requires knowing where to go, when to be there,
1:21
and what you are actually seeing when you arrive.
1:24
That is what this episode is about. This is Wildlands.
1:30
I'm Sean. Know the land before you reach it.
1:34
Yellowstone Part 2. The Visit. Start with scale,
1:38
because Yellowstone will humiliate you if you
1:41
do not respect it. The park covers 2 .5 million
1:45
acres. That is bigger than Rhode Island and Delaware
1:48
combined. The Grand Loop Road, the figure -eight
1:51
highway that connects the main regions, is 142
1:54
miles. At the park's 45 -mile -per -hour speed
1:57
limit, which bison jams will make theoretical.
2:01
A complete circuit with stops takes six to eight
2:04
hours minimum. Most visitors budget half that.
2:07
Most visitors are wrong. There are five entrances,
2:13
north at Gardner, Montana, northeast near Silvergate
2:16
and Cook City, east near Cody, Wyoming, south
2:20
connecting to Grand Teton, and west at West Yellowstone,
2:23
Montana. Your entry point shapes your entire
2:26
trip. The northeast entrance puts you directly
2:29
into Lamar Valley, the best wildlife corridor
2:31
in the park, and arguably in the lower 48. The
2:35
west and north entrances give you fastest access
2:37
to the thermal features and mammoth hot springs.
2:40
The south entrance is the route from Jackson
2:42
Hole and Grand Teton. And if you are combining
2:45
those parks on one trip, which you should seriously
2:48
consider, this is your natural approach. A few
2:53
things true of all entrances in 2026. No timed
2:57
entry reservation is required. Unlike some other
3:00
parks that have moved to advanced vehicle reservations,
3:03
Yellowstone runs on a standard entrance pass
3:05
system. A seven -day vehicle pass runs $35 and
3:09
covers both Yellowstone and Grand Teton. If you
3:13
hold an America the Beautiful annual pass, it
3:15
gets you in. What there is no pass for is the
3:18
bridge construction happening in 2026 at the
3:21
north entrance and along the northeast entrance
3:23
road near Tower Junction. Delays of up to 30
3:27
minutes are possible, so build that into your
3:30
timeline. Check the park's current road status
3:32
before you drive in, and download the NPS Yellowstone
3:36
app and your maps before you enter, because cell
3:38
service inside the park is essentially non -existent
3:41
outside of developed areas like Mammoth, Canyon
3:44
Village, and Old Faithful. Your phone becomes
3:47
a compass and a map. Plan accordingly. Let's
3:52
start. with what most people come to Yellowstone
3:55
for, the thermal features. The upper geyser basin
3:59
around Old Faithful is the most concentrated
4:02
collection of geysers on Earth. More than 400
4:05
geysers in a relatively small area, connected
4:08
by a boardwalk system that lets you walk among
4:11
them without destroying the fragile ground. Old
4:14
Faithful itself erupts roughly every 60 to 90
4:17
minutes, shooting up to 180 feet into the air
4:20
for 1 to 5 minutes. The next predicted eruption
4:23
time is posted at the Old Faithful Visitor Education
4:26
Center, and on the NPS app, check it before you
4:29
walk over so you are not standing there for an
4:32
hour waiting. But I want to say something about
4:35
Old Faithful that the visitor count does not
4:37
always prepare you for. Four to five million
4:40
people come through this park every year, and
4:43
a large percentage of them have stood on that
4:45
boardwalk and watched that geyser go. That is
4:47
a lot of people who have had that experience,
4:49
and it is still. extraordinary. The ground shakes
4:53
slightly before it erupts. The water column climbs
4:56
above everything around it. Steam billows hundreds
4:59
of feet upward. For a few minutes, you are watching
5:02
the plumbing of a supervolcano express itself,
5:05
on schedule, in front of you. I do not think
5:10
that ever stops being remarkable, no matter how
5:12
many times you see it. Beyond Old Faithful, the
5:16
Upper Geyser Basin Boardwalk takes you past Castle
5:19
Geyser, Grand Geyser, morning glory pool and
5:22
dozens of others grand geyser is the world's
5:25
tallest predictable geyser it erupts every 7
5:28
to 15 hours which means you may not time it right
5:32
but when you do it erupts in a series of bursts
5:35
reaching up to 200 feet give yourself two to
5:39
three hours in the upper geyser basin if you
5:42
want to actually see it rather than just pass
5:44
through it the midway geyser basin a few miles
5:48
north of old faithful is where Grand Prismatic
5:51
Spring is. Now here is the thing about Grand
5:54
Prismatic that most people get wrong. The boardwalk
5:57
at Midway Geyser Basin gives you a ground level
6:00
view of the spring. You walk alongside it, see
6:03
the steam rising, see the vivid colors from the
6:05
bank. That is impressive. But it is not the view
6:09
you have seen in every photograph of Yellowstone.
6:12
That view, the aerial perspective, showing the
6:15
full rings of color from electric blue at the
6:18
center outward, through green, yellow, orange,
6:21
and red, requires the Grand Prismatic Overlook
6:24
Trail. It is a mile and a half round trip from
6:27
the Ferry Falls trailhead, with minimal elevation
6:29
gain, and it takes you up to a ridge with a clear
6:32
view down over the spring. Go there. The boardwalk
6:36
alone does not do it justice. Go at sunrise or
6:39
after five in the evening midday. Light is flat,
6:42
and the parking at the trailhead is brutal. Between
6:46
Old Faithful and Norris, The fountain paint pot
6:49
area in the lower geyser basin is worth a stop
6:52
that most itineraries skip. It has all four types
6:55
of geothermal features in one short loop, a geyser,
6:58
a hot spring, a fumarole, and a mud pot, and
7:01
the mud pots are something that photographs genuinely
7:03
do not prepare you for. They are gray, bubbling
7:06
craters of acidic mud, churning slowly, making
7:10
sounds that are deeply and specifically wrong.
7:13
You will hear them before you see them. and you
7:15
will not quite believe what you are looking at
7:17
when you do. Black Sand Basin, just northwest
7:21
of Old Faithful, is a short walk with some of
7:25
the most colorful and overlooked hot springs
7:27
in the park. Emerald Pool, Opalescent Pool, Sunset
7:33
Lake, in a setting that is strangely quiet given
7:36
how close it sits to the most visited spot in
7:39
the park. Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest
7:42
and most dynamic geothermal area in the park,
7:45
and it does not get the attention it deserves
7:47
because most people have already spent their
7:49
time at Old Faithful. Steamboat Geyser sits here,
7:53
the world's tallest active geyser. It erupts
7:57
irregularly, sometimes years apart, sometimes
8:00
weeks, but when it goes, it reaches 300 to 400
8:04
feet. Scientists monitor it closely. You are
8:07
not likely to catch a major eruption. but the
8:10
basin itself is worth the stop a landscape of
8:13
boiling springs, fumaroles, and constantly changing
8:16
features that makes Old Faithful feel, by comparison,
8:20
almost domestic. Norris changes. New features
8:23
appear. Old ones quiet down. The ground is thin
8:27
and unpredictable in a way that is viscerally
8:29
apparent when you are standing on it. Mammoth
8:32
Hot Springs, near the north entrance, is the
8:34
park's travertine terrace system, fundamentally
8:36
different from the silica -based features in
8:39
the rest of the park. Here, the hot water carries
8:42
dissolved calcium carbonate, and as it flows
8:45
over the surface, it deposits white and cream
8:48
terraces that build and shift constantly. Pallet
8:51
Spring, Minerva Terrace, Canary Spring, they
8:54
are alive, changing year to year. What was active
8:57
when someone visited 10 years ago may be dry
8:59
now. and a new feature may be flowing where nothing
9:03
was before. The town of Mammoth sits right there,
9:07
with gas, food, a visitor center, and the historic
9:11
Fort Yellowstone buildings, a working army post
9:14
from the 1880s that now houses park administration.
9:18
It is worth walking around. Now the part of this
9:22
park that separates the people who have been
9:25
here from the people who came and left thinking
9:27
they had seen it. Lamar Valley is in the northeast
9:30
corner of the park, accessible from the northeast
9:33
entrance. It is called America's Serengeti, and
9:36
that description is accurate in a way most national
9:39
park superlatives are not. The valley is wide
9:42
and open, the Lamar River running through sage
9:45
-covered bottomland with forested hills rising
9:47
on both sides. And through that valley moves
9:50
the full cast of Yellowstone's megafauna bison
9:53
in herds that can number in the hundreds, elk,
9:56
pronghorn, grizzly bears working the slopes,
10:00
black bears in the tree lines, and wolves. The
10:05
wolves are the reason the serious wildlife watchers
10:08
come to Lamar at four in the morning. They set
10:11
up on the pullouts with spotting scopes and wait.
10:13
I have been one of those people. The Junction
10:17
Butte Pack runs the northern range. The Wapiti
10:20
Lake Pack covers the central plateau. Seeing
10:23
wolves in the wild, through a scope, moving through
10:26
an open valley as the light comes up, it is a
10:28
different experience from anything else I have
10:30
done outdoors. There is something about watching
10:33
a predator work a landscape it genuinely belongs
10:36
to that resets your sense of what wild means.
10:40
The practical reality is that wolves are not
10:43
guaranteed, and the serious watchers will tell
10:46
you that directly. They are wild animals moving
10:48
through a large landscape, and some days the
10:50
valley is empty of them in the early morning
10:52
and full of them by nine. Some days you see nothing.
10:56
Some days you stand on a pullout and watch a
10:59
pack of seven work an elk herd for 45 minutes.
11:01
The wolf watchers who are there every morning
11:04
with their scopes and their radio scanners have
11:06
figured out the odds, and the odds say, get there
11:09
at first light, be patient, and stay longer than
11:12
you plan to. But Lamar Valley. The reward scales
11:40
with the patience. Hayden Valley. between Canyon
11:45
Village and Yellowstone Lake is the other Great
11:48
Wildlife Corridor, less accessible to people
11:51
coming from the northeast entrance, but closer
11:53
to the center of the park and equally productive.
11:56
The Yellowstone River runs through it, and the
11:58
open meadows on either side are prime grizzly
12:01
habitat, prime bison habitat, and in fall, absolutely
12:05
prime elk rut territory. The elk rut, in September,
12:09
bulls bugling across the valley, challenging
12:12
each other. The whole drama of it playing out
12:14
in the open is one of the great wildlife spectacles
12:17
in North America. Between Hayden Valley and the
12:21
north, the Yellowstone River drops into a canyon
12:24
that almost nobody who has not been there is
12:27
fully prepared for. The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone
12:30
is about 20 miles long, up to 1 ,200 feet deep,
12:33
and colored that extraordinary yellow and orange,
12:37
and rust the rhyolite rock stained by centuries
12:40
of hydrothermal chemistry. The lower falls are
12:44
308 feet tall, nearly twice the height of Niagara.
12:49
Artist Point, on the south rim, gives you the
12:52
view that Thomas Moran painted in 1872, the one
12:56
hung in Congress that convinced senators this
12:59
place was real. It is still that good. It is
13:03
the kind of view that makes you understand why
13:06
Moran needed a canvas that was 12 feet wide.
13:10
Brink of the lower falls. is a different experience
13:13
entirely. You hike down steeply down, several
13:17
hundred feet to a platform at the lip of the
13:19
falls, where the entire volume of the Yellowstone
13:21
River goes over the edge 20 feet in front of
13:24
you. The roar is physical, the mist soaks you.
13:28
I have been to a lot of waterfalls, and the brink
13:31
is the only one where I genuinely felt the force
13:33
of the water in my chest. It earns the hike down,
13:36
and the harder hike back up. Yellowstone is underused
13:42
as a hiking destination because so many people
13:44
spend all their time in the car, which is understandable
13:47
given the scale and the thermal features. But
13:50
getting off the road changes the experience completely.
13:53
Mount Washburn is the marquee hike, 6 miles round
13:56
trip, 1400 feet of elevation gain, and a summit
14:00
that puts you above the treeline with a 360 degree
14:03
view of the entire park. On a clear day, you
14:06
can see the Tetons to the south. The fire lookout
14:09
on top has public restrooms and an observation
14:11
deck, which is either reassuring or slightly
14:14
anticlimactic depending on your temperament.
14:16
She -Peter Cliff is a short walk from the road
14:19
near Mammoth and shows you the distinctive columnar
14:22
basalt hexagonal columns of cooled lava that
14:25
look almost engineered. Mystic Falls is a solid,
14:28
moderately difficult hike from the Biscuit Basin
14:30
area, rewarding and far less crowded than anything
14:33
near Old Faithful. Fairy Falls is worth its own
14:38
mention. Two and a half miles round trip from
14:41
the Fairy Falls trailhead, the same one used
14:43
to reach the Grand Prismatic Overlook. You can
14:45
combine them on one trip. Go for the overlook
14:48
first, continue to Fairy Falls, and come back
14:52
the way you came. The falls drop nearly 200 feet
14:55
into a pool that catches the afternoon light
14:58
in a way that makes you reach for a camera and
15:00
then put it away because it is not going to look
15:02
like this on a screen. The trail passes through
15:05
forest, recovering from the 1 ,988 fires. The
15:10
mosaic of burned standing timber and new growth
15:13
tells a story about the park's relationship with
15:16
fire that is worth understanding. That fire burned
15:19
more than a third of the park. Yellowstone recovered.
15:23
It is still recovering. The landscape you walk
15:26
through is the recovery. For people willing to
15:29
get further from the road, Yellowstone's backcountry
15:31
is one of the least used and most rewarding in
15:34
the national park system. The park has nearly
15:37
1 ,000 miles of trails and 90 -plus designated
15:40
backcountry campsites. A backcountry permit is
15:43
required for overnight trips and available through
15:46
recreation .gov or at any visitor center. The
15:50
Thorofar region in the southeast corner of the
15:52
park is the most remote area in the lower 48
15:55
states. You can get farther from a road there
15:58
than anywhere else in the contiguous United States.
16:01
It requires serious planning and several days.
16:04
But for people who want true wilderness, it exists
16:07
here inside a national park that most people
16:10
experience entirely from a car. The Shoshone
16:13
Lake area, Black Canyon of the Yellowstone, the
16:16
Beckler River region in the southwest corner,
16:19
they require effort and they reward it. One rule
16:23
that covers everything. Stay on the boardwalks
16:26
in thermal areas. Not a preference, not a suggestion.
16:30
People have broken through the thin crust in
16:33
thermal areas and fallen into scalding water.
16:36
The ground looks solid and is not. The boardwalks
16:40
exist because the alternative is a genuine safety
16:44
hazard. And the number of people who have been
16:47
seriously injured or killed by stepping off them
16:49
is a number worth taking seriously. Bear spray.
16:56
Carry it. Know how to use it. Practice the draw
17:00
before you are in a situation where you need
17:02
it, not during, and have it accessible on your
17:06
hip, not buried in your pack. A bear is not going
17:10
to wait for you to dig through your bag. The
17:12
spray is effective. Research on grizzly bear
17:15
attacks where bear spray was used versus where
17:18
it was not shows dramatically better outcomes
17:20
with spray. It is not a deterrent you wave at
17:23
a bear from a distance. It is a close -range
17:26
tool for if a bear charges and you need to stop
17:29
it. The range is about 30 feet. Aim at the face,
17:33
deploy in a sweeping arc, and know that wind
17:36
matters. More than one person has deployed bear
17:39
spray upwind of themselves in a panic. Carry
17:43
it, know how to use it, and have it accessible,
17:46
not in your pack, on your hip. Yellowstone has
17:49
both grizzly bears and black bears. You will
17:52
likely see bison before you see a bear, and you
17:55
will certainly hear bear warnings more than you
17:57
encounter bears. But this park has a functional,
18:00
intact, grizzly population, and that is genuinely
18:04
unusual in the lower 48. The regulations exist
18:08
for a reason. Stay at least 100 yards from bears
18:11
and wolves, 25 yards from all other wildlife.
18:14
A bison that looks placid can move faster than
18:17
you can run. and they kill visitors in the park
18:19
on a semi -regular basis, usually because someone
18:22
got too close for a photograph. I am not trying
18:25
to make this sound threatening. The wildlife
18:28
is the whole point of being here. Just give it
18:31
room. When to go? Straight answer. Summer mid
18:37
-June through August is full access, full amenities,
18:40
and peak crowds. Parking at Old Faithful and
18:43
Grand Prismatic fills completely by 9 in the
18:46
morning on summer weekends. Get there before
18:48
9 or after 5, both for the parking and for the
18:52
light, which is better anyway. July is when the
18:55
thermal basins and Lamar Valley are both fully
18:58
accessible. The backcountry is open. All roads
19:01
are running. It is also when 30 ,000 people a
19:04
day enter the park. Plan your popular stops for
19:07
early morning. Accept that some afternoons will
19:10
be slow. And do not plan your entire day around
19:13
being at Old Faithful at noon. September is my
19:19
personal recommendation for most visitors. The
19:22
crowds have dropped meaningfully from peak. The
19:25
elk rut is happening in Hayden Valley. The wolf
19:27
packs are active in Lamar. And the light in September
19:30
is exceptional lower angle. Longer shadows. Everything
19:34
a little more gold. Temperatures are comfortable.
19:37
The facilities are still fully operational. And
19:40
you can actually park your car at Grand Prismatic
19:42
before 8 in the morning without arriving at 6.
19:46
The park exhales in September in a way that summer
19:48
does not allow. The elk rut starts in earnest
19:52
in the second and third weeks of September. Bull
19:55
elk bugling at dawn in Hayden Valley. With the
19:59
steam coming off the river and the grass starting
20:02
to go golden, this is one of the great wildlife
20:05
experiences in the United States. And it happens
20:09
in a park you can still get into without a reservation.
20:13
That combination of accessibility and spectacle
20:16
is genuinely rare. Spring, late April through
20:19
May, means snowmelt waterfalls at their maximum
20:21
volume, bison calves appearing in the valleys,
20:24
and roads opening gradually through the month.
20:26
Some roads are still closed or on reduced schedules
20:29
through May, so check current conditions before
20:32
you build an itinerary around a specific area.
20:35
Fall after mid -October and winter bring road
20:38
closures, limited services, and dramatically
20:40
reduced crowds. Winter is snow coach or snowmobile
20:44
access to the interior. Old Faithful Snow Lodge
20:48
is open and Lamar Valley Wolf watching in February
20:51
is about as wild an experience as this country
20:54
offers. If you have the gear and the flexibility,
20:58
January or February in Lamar Valley is worth
21:00
planning an entire trip around. A few practical
21:04
things that will save you from avoidable problems.
21:08
Download the NPS Yellowstone app and your offline
21:11
maps before you enter the park. Cell service
21:14
exists in pockets around developed areas and
21:17
is gone everywhere else. I cannot count the number
21:20
of people I have seen standing in a pullout,
21:23
staring at a phone that has no signal, trying
21:26
to figure out how far the next feature is. Download
21:29
it at your hotel in Gardner or West Yellowstone
21:32
before you drive in. Same goes for lodging and
21:35
tour confirmation screenshots. Have them offline.
21:39
Bear spray is available for rent at most entrance
21:42
towns if you do not want to travel with it. Bison
21:45
jams are real and can hold you for 20 to 30 minutes
21:48
on any road in the park. Build extra time into
21:52
every leg of your drive. The speed limit is 45
21:56
miles per hour, which bison will render advisory
21:59
in Lamar Valley and Hayden Valley at dawn. Do
22:01
not honk. Do not try to drive through a herd.
22:04
They weigh a ton and a half. and they do not
22:07
negotiate. Gas is available at Canyon Village,
22:12
Fishing Bridge, Grant Village, Tower Roosevelt,
22:15
and Old Faithful. The prices are higher than
22:18
outside the park, as they always are inside national
22:20
parks. Top up before you enter, if you can. And
22:24
note that Canyon Village and some other developed
22:26
areas have food options. The in -park dining
22:29
is not going to win any awards, but it is there.
22:32
If you are staying outside the park, Gardner,
22:35
and West Yellowstone, Both have solid options,
22:38
which we will cover in Part 3. Let me give you
22:42
the shape of a three -day visit, because Yellowstone
22:44
is one of the few parks where three days is genuinely
22:47
the minimum to see what the park actually is.
22:50
Hmm. Day 1. Enter through the west or north entrance.
22:56
Spend the morning in the Upper Geyser Basin,
22:58
Old Faithful, the Boardwalk. Give yourself two
23:02
or three hours. Afternoon at Midway Geyser Basin.
23:06
with the Grand Prismatic Overlook Trail. If the
23:09
timing works, Norris, Geyser, Basin, before dinner.
23:13
Stay in or near the Old Faithful or Canyon area.
23:18
Day 2. Up before dawn. Northeast entrance or
23:24
straight to Lamar Valley. Spend the morning in
23:26
Lamar. All of it. Do not rush this. Afternoon
23:31
at the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Artist
23:34
Point. and the brink of the lower falls, if you
23:38
have the energy. Tower Roosevelt area on the
23:40
way back for the Columnar Basalt and Roosevelt
23:43
Lodge, which dates to 1920 and has a porch worth
23:48
sitting on. Day 3. Hayden Valley at dawn for
23:52
grizzly and bison. Yellowstone Lake. West Thumb
23:55
Geyser Basin on the lakeshore. Mammoth Hot Springs
23:57
if you have not been. The travertine terraces
24:00
at Mammoth change constantly, and this side of
24:04
the park, quieter, different geology. The historic
24:08
fort deserves more time than most itineraries
24:12
give it. Three days barely scratches it. Yellowstone
24:17
is a park people come back to across their whole
24:20
lives. Every trip is different. Different season,
24:25
different wildlife, different features, active
24:27
and dormant. Part three covers where to sleep
24:31
and eat. But whatever else you do, go to Lamar
24:34
Valley at dawn. At least once. That is the version
24:38
of this park that stays with you. Next episode,
24:43
part three, where to stay. The in -park lodges,
24:46
including the Old Faithful Inn, which is one
24:48
of the most extraordinary buildings in the national
24:50
park system. The campgrounds. The gateway towns
24:53
of Gardner and West Yellowstone. And how to base
24:56
yourself to actually see the whole park, rather
24:59
than just the part nearest your parking lot.
25:02
Everything for the Yellowstone Series current
25:03
road status construction updates. The NPS app
25:07
link, permit information for backcountry camping,
25:10
is at wildlandsnews .com. I'm Sean Spanauer.
25:16
This has been Wildlands. Know the land before
25:18
you reach it. See you Thursday.