Fairy Falls and Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

9/25/2019 Fairy Falls and Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook

GPS Coordinates:  (Latitude,  Longitude,  Elevation)
  Park - Fairy Falls:  44.515336,-110.832617,  7202 ft.
  Grand Prismatic Overlook:  44.523491,-110.840027,  7341 ft.
  Fairy Falls:  44.524818,-110.870113,  7310 ft.
  

Pet-Friendly:  No, Yellowstone is NOT a "pet-friendly" place.  Dogs are technically allowed within the park, but they have many restrictions.  They are allowed in some cabins throughout the park, but none of the lodges or hotels.  They must be leashed at all times, stay within 100 feet of park roads, and are not allowed on any trails or boardwalks.  In other words, if you take your dog, you will be severely limited on what you can do and where you can go within the park.  We left Boomer at home with our fabulous dogsitter/housesitter.

Hiking Statistics:  This is a fairly easy hike with a good trail the entire distance.  The trail to Fairy Falls is 2.93 miles each way (by my GPS), so you are looking at almost 6 miles round trip.  The highest-to-lowest elevation gain is only 108 feet, so it is fairly flat the entire distance.  The loop that goes up to Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook is 0.3 miles long, but it is just an alternate route off the Fairy Falls trail, and the overlook is less than 200 feet to the west of the Fairy Falls trail.  So if you take the loop up to the overlook, it will add very little distance to the hike but will add an elevation gain of almost 200 feet.  It is moderately steep on the trail up to the overlook.  I would rate this a moderate hike, just due to the total distance and the elevation gain to the overlook.  We took our time and spent just over an hour hiking each way.

GPS files (.gpx format) - See maps at the bottom of this blog post
  Yellowstone and Teton waypoints
  Fairy Falls hike track
  Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook track
  

Links to blog posts for other nearby areas:

  Yellowstone in Winter

Fairy Falls

Bethany and I have been to Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park a couple of times, and it is one of our favorite waterfalls in the park.  At 200 feet tall, it is one of the tallest in Yellowstone, and it is just a beautiful waterfall that is far enough off the Grand Loop Road that it has never been crowded on our visits.  There are two ways to hike out to Fairy Falls, although we have only hiked the trail that starts out south of the Midway Geyser Basin.  The other route starts at a trailhead where Fountain Flat Drive terminates for vehicle traffic, shortly after crossing the Firehole River.  On this route, it is 3.0 miles just to the turn from the old roadbed to Fairy Falls, then an additional 1.7 miles to the waterfall itself.  This old roadbed that you start out on is a bike trail as well.  if you have mountain bikes you might choose to take this route, which goes around Goose Lake.  The National Park Service (NPS) has even placed a bike rack at the turnoff to Fairy Falls.

Fairy Falls - with Bethany and Rick

The route most folks take starts at the Fairy Falls trailhead, about a mile south of the Midway Geyser Basin parking.  There is a lot of parking here, and it tends to fill up fairly early in the morning.  That may throw you off a bit, but the vast majority of those folks won't be going to Fairy Falls, so don't expect the same crowd at the waterfall.  This parking area is also the closest parking to the Grand Prismatic Spring Overlook.  Grand Prismatic Spring is in the Midway Geyser Basin, and after walking the boardwalk around it, many tourists find that you can't really see it that well up close.  Clearly, from what you can see of it, it is huge.  They want to get a birds-eye view of it, so they make the hike up to the Overlook.  Most, as I mentioned, don't continue on to Fairy Falls.  

From the parking area, you immediately cross the Firehole River on an old single-lane bridge and start hiking on a very wide, nicely leveled trail.  You would think this looks like an old road, and your thinking would be absolutely correct.  This was the initial route for the road between Fountain Flats and the Old Faithful area, and the power line for the Old Faithful facilities still runs along this route.  It is now closed to all but foot and bike traffic for park visitors.  If you have a mountain bike, you can bike to the junction with the bike rack I mentioned above.  Along the way, the trail borders the west side of the Midway Geyser Basin.  There are some small hot springs right along the trail.  No, you can NOT venture off the trail here.  All thermal areas are fragile from an ecological standpoint, and they are dangerous from a personal safety point of view.  Walking off the trail into thermal areas is a big no-no anywhere in Yellowstone and can get you ejected from the park.

Grand Prismatic Spring

About 0.8 miles down the trail, you come to the side trail on the left leading up to the Grand Prismatic Spring overlook.  The trail winds up the mountain at a somewhat steep grade, so take your time.  It is only a climb of fewer than 200 feet, so it isn't that bad if you don't rush it.  Once at the overlook platform, you can look down at Grand Prismatic and immediately see why they built an overlook.  This is huge, the largest hot spring in the world.  The Midway Geyser Basin boardwalk goes all around it, but from that perspective, it just looks like a lake with a lot of steam.  Viewing it from above, you can see the dazzling colors throughout, as well as get a feel for the size of the spring.  The people around it on the boardwalk look tiny.  When you get done viewing Grand Prismatic, you can continue on the trail in the same direction you were going instead of doubling back.  It goes back down the mountain to rejoin the Fairy Falls trail about a quarter-mile from where you branched off on the side trail.  You could do this little detour either hiking to or returning from Fairy Falls, but you will be fresher for that climb if you do it on the way out.  

Back on the Fairy Falls trail, you go about an additional quarter mile from where you rejoined it off the side trail to the overlook.  Take the trail branch to the left that follows the base of the bluffline the rest of the way to Fairy Falls (see the

Fairy Falls

map below).   This is where that aforementioned bike rack is.  From here, the trail gets narrower and rougher but is still an easy hike.  It winds through the lodgepole pine forest but still stays mostly on the flat without much in the way of ups and downs.  As you get close to Fairy Falls, it gets somewhat rougher but is still what I would call easy hiking.  This area is now a dense forest of younger lodgepole pines.  

The older growth pines were almost all destroyed in the fires of 1993, and what you see now is the regrowth that is now a quarter-century old.  At this altitude, the pines grow very slowly.  The old tree trunks are still laying all around;  those of us from the southern climes would expect this to all have rotted and disappeared by now, but there is very little rot at this altitude as well, and no termites or other organisms to help with decomposition.  None of this is on the trail, of course; the NPS has done a good job of keeping the trail clear and groomed.  There is also a primitive campsite along this section of trail for backpack campers.  No campfires are permitted, however.

We didn't pass anyone along the hike out to Fairy Falls, and when we first got there we had the place all to ourselves.  While we were there, a couple of hikers that were backpack camping came and left, and another couple showed up as we were about to leave.  Bethany is probably the world's friendliest woman, so within a few seconds, she was BFFs with anyone we encountered during our two week trip to Yellowstone and Teton.  That's quite a few folks, and all of them were the nicest people you can imagine.  I think a magical place like Yellowstone has that effect on anyone.  Fairy Falls itself is just spectacular and is in a spectacular setting.  Check out the video at the bottom of this post.  Even this late in the year, when the previous winter's snowfall was completely melted, it had a good deal of flow.  One thing I love about the rivers and streams in Yellowstone is that they do dry up slightly by the end of summer/fall, but not much at all.  We took the requisite photos of our new friends, then started our hike back.  

All in all, this is a great hike, highly recommended for all.  I noticed on the last section of trail there were orange trail markers high on the trees along the trail.  Generally, that is done for the benefit of winter visitors that can cross-country ski from the Snow Lodge at the Old Faithful area.  I'm a novice cross-country skier, but I may try to get out to Fairy Falls on our next winter visit.  Any time you go, dress for the weather.  In summer, we have been here when people were swimming in the pool at the base of the falls.  Today, it was near freezing, so that wasn't on anyone's mind.  Bears are also a consideration.  We have a canister of bear spray that we never use at home in Arkansas.  However, in Arkansas, we have only black bears.  Here in Yellowstone, there are grizzly bears (aka brown bears).  We generally take our bear spray on any backcountry hike in Yellowstone.  For the Fairy Falls trail, I think there is enough traffic that bears will give it a wide berth, but it is best to be prepared.

GPS Track for Fairy Falls Trail (red)

Fairy Falls - 4 second video