Old Faithful Area of Yellowstone
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You'd expect Yellowstone to be very mountainous, because the highways into it are through the mountains, but actually it is a high plateau that is fairly flat. There are lots of hills and canyons, but not much for mountains.
The Old Faithful area of Yellowstone is filled with burbling, gushing, steaming, rumbling, and sometimes erupting pools of mud and water. I went in early October, when the crowds were thinner and all the pools were steaming in the freezing temperatures.
There are fascinating side roads and stops all over the place on this stretch of road, and almost all of them are worth checking out if you have time. The largest and most spectacular usually go with the largest crowds, but the more you go on side roads, the more interesting stuff you get to see on a little smaller scale.
I would hate to try to park in the old faithful parking lot in high season, but the hiking trail that crosses the river from Old Faithful is full of spectacular bacterial mats and interesting geysers. Old Faithful itself is surprisingly unspectacular compared with all the rest of these features.
I didn't go on any long hikes around here, but there are a few, and they look like they would be well worth the time.
The Old Faithful area of Yellowstone is filled with burbling, gushing, steaming, rumbling, and sometimes erupting pools of mud and water. I went in early October, when the crowds were thinner and all the pools were steaming in the freezing temperatures.
There are fascinating side roads and stops all over the place on this stretch of road, and almost all of them are worth checking out if you have time. The largest and most spectacular usually go with the largest crowds, but the more you go on side roads, the more interesting stuff you get to see on a little smaller scale.
I would hate to try to park in the old faithful parking lot in high season, but the hiking trail that crosses the river from Old Faithful is full of spectacular bacterial mats and interesting geysers. Old Faithful itself is surprisingly unspectacular compared with all the rest of these features.
I didn't go on any long hikes around here, but there are a few, and they look like they would be well worth the time.