Upper Geyser Basin — Attraction in West Yellowstone

Welcome to the Upper Geyser Basin, home of the famous Old Faithful! Not only that, but the majority of the world's active geysers are located here, too.

If you plan on watching Old Faithful erupt, make sure you get here early. The limited benches will fill up fast. There is an Observation Point to view Old Faithful. It's a bit of a hike, but there are fewer people. The Observation Point is roughly 0.8 miles from the Visitor Center. If you want to walk the entire loop, then it is roughly 2.1 miles.

I recommend circling the entire Upper Geyser Basin. The entire loop, including the Observation Point, is roughly 4.0 miles (6.4 km). Feel free to go your own path, but I suggest walking up the mountain to the Observation Point, coming down via the Solotary Geyser trail. Then, circle the Geyser Hill before continuing down to the Morning Glory Pool. You then walk the road back to Old Faithful, passing by Daisy Geyser and Castle Geyser. Speaking of which, there are 4 other geyser eruptions you can view other than Old Faithful: Castle, Grand, Daisy, and Riverside! Eruption time and day(s) are posted in the visitor center and online. So, be sure to do your research before heading out...

This review is for Upper Geyser Basin & Old Faithful Observation Point Loop which was a 4.9 miles round trip that took 2.5 hours to complete.

This was one of those unique hikes with various geysers and pools. The trails are located within walkable distances from the Old Faithful hotels and visitor center. Ideally, it would be best to start the hike early in the morning to avoid the crowd. Most of the trail consisted of flat boardwalks and paved asphalt. The boardwalks were icy in some spots during the morning.

Observation Point part of the trail was somewhat pointless because there was no "wow factor" in terms of any view. It was still a nice stroll in the wooded areas, eventually reaching Solitary Geyser. Furthermore, this part of the trail had some inclines and declines.

The steam from the geysers have an unpleasant sulfur smell.

Carry bear spray; the chances of encountering a bear is lower at popular trails but you never know.

Short video of the hike for those interested!...

Come for Old Faithful but stay to explore the whole Upper Geyser Basin. Incredible display of a great variety of geothermal features. Some beautiful, some silly but all unlike anything you've ever seen before. It's like a theme park for geology. There is just no place like this on Earth but Yellowstone.

The trail is raised and made of planks to keep you safely at a distance from delicate earth, boiling springs and geysers and, while it's sloped in some places, it's a gentle walk. Also, it's hot here - shocker, right, with all the heat from the Earth's core boiling to the surface? So just expect a warmer walk around here in the summer especially!

Give yourself at least a couple of hours to see it all - longer if you plan to hang out to catch some of the less regular geyser eruptions. There's also a great visitor's center up by Old Faithful and of course you should explore the historic Inn....