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| | | Grand Prismatic Spring and Fairy Falls, WY | | | |
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Grand Prismatic Spring and Fairy Falls, WY
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| Hiking | 6.53 Miles |
502 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.53 Miles | 2 Hrs 30 Mns | | 2.72 mph |
| 502 ft AEG | 6 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | After failing to find parking at Midway Geyser Basin the day before, we returned early this morning to check out Grand Prismatic Spring. Good news: plenty of parking. Bad news: with early morning temps in the 20s, the thermal springs/geysers were steaming so aggressively that it was hard to see much of anything. But that in itself was kind of a cool effect...it looked like being in the middle of a wildfire without the risk of flames.
We hung around for quite a while and walked some laps on the one-way boardwalk to kill time and let the temperature warm up a little so the steam would let up. We overheard a ranger telling people about a bison that wandered inside the boardwalk a few months ago and got stuck in the thermal springs. NPS staff couldn't safely rescue it, so it died and decomposed there. We also saw some grizzly bear prints inside the boardwalk, but apparently it made it out.
The steam lessened a little, but we weren't going to wait around long enough to really see too much more and decided to go up to Grand Prismatic Overlook to the southwest, and we drove to Fairy Falls Trailhead. There are some nice thermal pools along the trail, and it's a short hike up too the overlook. The steam situation had improved some, but it remained thick enough that Grand Prismatic Spring was still nowhere near as colorful as the photos I'd seen...but better than nothing.
It was only ~1.5 miles farther to Fairy Falls, so we decided to check that out while we there. It was flat, fast, easy hiking with surprisingly few people. Apparently most people in the park are deterred if a hike's distance doesn't start with zero-point-something. The falls were a worthwhile stop--I hadn't seen pictures and knew nothing about them, so I was expecting 15-20 foot falls and was pleasantly surprised that it was a massive ~200 foot waterfall. There were a few people around when we arrived, but they cleared out and we had the falls to ourselves for a while--a nice break after all the crowded stops yesterday and this morning.
[ youtube video ]
Our timing had worked out well, because there were a lot of people hiking in on our way back to the trailhead. From there, we headed north for a longer hike at Mt. Washburn. |
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Grand Prismatic Spring |
Gallon + per minute |
Gallon + per minute |
| |  First time I’ve written “hot and colorful” in a water report | | | |
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