Quick Guide to the Lower Geyser Basin

The Lower Geyser Basin is the largest geyser basin in area, in Yellowstone. It covers approximately 11 square mile. By comparison, the Upper Geyser Basin only covers about one square mile. Because of its large size, the thermal features in the Lower Geyser Basin tend to be clumped in widely spaced groups. The easiest grouping to get to and probably the most interesting to explore is the Fountain Paint Pot area.

Also located in the Lower Geyser Basin is Great Fountain Geyser. Great Fountain is the only predicted geyser in the Lower Geyser Basin and the only predicted geyser in Yellowstone that you can drive to. Predictions for this geyser are posted at the Old Faithful Visitor Center and, when staffing allows, at the geyser.

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Fountain Paint Pot Trail

Along this short walk you will see very good examples of most types of thermal features found in Yellowstone. These features include some very pretty hot pools, steaming fumaroles, erupting geysers and probably the best easily accessed mudpots in the park. The area is highly active and at least one geyser is usually erupting here at all times.

It takes about 1/2 hour to get around this area. The parking lot is small and it can be hard to find a parking space but the sights along the trail are well worth the hassle.

Celestine Pool:: Celestine Pool is, tragically, one of the hot springs that has claimed a human life. As in many of the pools around Yellowstone, the water in this pretty pool is usually within a few degrees of boiling. There is little hope of surviving a fall into such a pool.
Clepsydra Geyser:: Clepsydra is a pretty geyser often erupting to 45 feet. It was named for a mythical water clock. In the early history of the park, it erupted with clock like regularity. After the 1959 Hebgen Lake