Yellowstone 2025 - Day 1 - So many geysers

I'm kind of struggling to start writing these posts about Yellowstone. I've written SO MUCH about Yellowstone in the past that I'm wondering if I really have anything new to say about the park. 

But I also want to document this trip. Because it was really wonderful. (Aside from the car trouble, but even that turned out okay.) The kids have always loved Yellowstone, and this trip was no different. What was different was they are now teenagers - with long legs. The trails that felt long and hard even 4 years ago now felt short and easy. 

Also we were staying at the Madison Campground. We were here kind of by default. It's the only campground that is open in May. Brandon and I stayed here on our 1 year anniversary trip 17 years ago. Since then we've stayed at Bridge Bay and Canyon, but we've never been back to Madison. On this trip I remembered something really cool about Madison Campground - it's near all the main geyser features. It's only like 16 miles from Old Faithful. So it was really easy for us to visit a lot of geysers without driving 40 miles from Canyon. 

So even through I've already written eleventy billion words about Yellowstone. I'm still going to go through and talk about each day of this trip in possibly excruciating detail. Because this trip was unique and special and deserves a lot of attention. 

(And if you want even more info about Yellowstone please check out my travel blog 51 Cent Adventures for specific info.)

Day 1 in the park was Friday May 23rd. We started the day at Henry's Fork Inn in St Anthony, ID. This was about 3 hours from our house and about an hour from Yellowstone's West Entrance. It was really nice to know that we were that close to Yellowstone. I'm glad we did the bulk of the driving on Thursday evening. 

We had breakfast at the hotel and then took our bags down to the car. The hotel was right by a river so I took pictures while waiting for everyone to come down.

Then we started driving. Brandon had already filled up the car with gas the night before so we didn't even have to stop to do that. Here's the view of the Teton's from the road. 

Charlotte had suggested we listen to the book "Harris and Me."  So Brandon had that ready on his audible account. It was only about 4 hours long so we listened to about two hours of it as we drove up to Yellowstone and then finished it on our drive home a few days later. It's about a boy who is sent to live with some relatives in the country for the summer. He has all sorts of adventures on their farm with his cousin who is always coming up with a crazy plan. It was cute and funny. 

The first part of the book describes driving to the farm through a very thick forest where the trees feel like they are closing in on you. That's kind of how the drive on Highway 20 felt. We were like, "Is he watching us?"

Our first stop was Mesa Falls. Brandon and I found this on our first trip to Yellowstone and we always make sure to stop there when we visit Yellowstone. The kids didn't remember it until we got to the parking lot. Then they were like, "Oh yeah."

Here's the waterfall with a pretty rainbow.

And all the stairs. Somehow I always forget how many stairs there are. 

Here I am. I'd taken a shower and done my make up that morning. 

And here are all the kids. 

Then we got back into the car and kept driving. We went through Island Park and not too long later we were in West. We drove to the entrance gate for the park. There are always a lot of cars trying to get in, but comparatively speaking this wasn't too bad. 

Derrick has a free National Park Pass because of his disabilities. So we got into the park with that. And then we were IN THE PARK. Years ago when we were in Texas we stopped at a place called Mustang Island State Park. We didn't stay there overnight, but somehow I was near a lady as she was checking into the campground. She told the staff, "No matter where I've been, this is always home."  I thought about her as we drove into Yellowstone. I feel that way about Yellowstone. No matter how many places I've visited or lived there's something about Yellowstone that always feels like home. 

We hadn't been driving very long when we found our first bison. 

We passed our campground and went north on the lower loop of the Grand Loop road. We couldn't check in until 1:00 and it was only about 11:00 so we needed something to do. I decided that we'd spend the morning at the Norris Geyser Area. 

I didn't really want to go there. Norris can be kind of awful sometimes. I have gone on record calling it Hell. There isn't any shade, the boardwalks and trails can be long, the bathrooms are far away, and the whole place just feels kind of wild. But I knew the other geyser areas would be nearly impossible to get a parking spot this time of day. Norris had a big parking lot and wasn't quite as popular so the was a chance we'd still get a parking spot and could spend a few hours there. So Norris it was. 

Turns out we still couldn't get a parking spot in the parking lot. We circled the parking lot twice, but spaces never opened up when we were near them. Other cars kept taking the spaces. So we went back out to the main road and parked on the overflow parking on the side of the road. This is a picture of us walking back to our car at the end, but it fits here. You can see the cars driving on the main road and our car parked on the side. 

We grabbed the water backpacks and shoved some snacks in them. I made the kids put on sun screen because THERE IS NO SHADE in Norris. And then we started walking on the trail to the main parking lot. This is where having teenage hikers was really awesome. No one was phased by having to walk on an extra trail to get to the geyser area. 

Our first stop was the bathrooms. While we were waiting for everyone I took a picture of Derrick's hoodie. He'd needed a hoodie a few months ago so we'd looked at DI. We'd found this Yellowstone one. He loves it.  I made sure he wore it to the park. 

We passed through the parking lot and soon were on the trail that leads to the geyser basin. Norris is actually two parts. There's the Porcelain Trail and the Back Basin area. 

I go into detail about both of these areas in this post on 51 Cent Adventures so read that if you want like actual travel advise. 

We picked the Porcelain Trail and when we walked out to the top of the trail I was like, "OH WOW! Maybe Norris isn't half bad." It really was a pretty view. 

We had a really good time walking around the boardwalk and looking at all the thermal features. 

The clouds in the sky made things really nice. Norris wasn't the awfully hot place I remembered. 

And the air temperature was cooler so the thermal features were nice and steamy. 

This one was even erupting. 

Here I am.

Here's the fam in various degrees of smiling. 

Me with the kids. 

A pretty view. 

We came out of the Porcelain Basin and decided that had been great so we should do the Back Basin. And then we broke one of my cardinal rules for visiting the Norris Area. We took the long trail from the Porcelain Basin to the Back Basin.  My travel blog SPECIFICALLY warns against this. I wrote: "Before you reach the top of the hill you'll come to a trail that branches off and heads to the Back Basin.  DO NOT take this trail unless you are prepared for what it is like. This trail is long, and boring, and will make you question all your life decisions up to this point."

I told the kids we shouldn't go on the trail, but they were like, "Mom, we can do it." And so we did it. And guess what it wasn't awful. But I still stand by what I said. Because if this hadn't been our first area on our first day we probably wouldn't have enjoyed this area as much. 

I'd told the kids we'd hike for a long time before seeing any thermal features, but it didn't seem that long before we saw this one. (It's either Minute Geyser or one that has a name like solitary or lone star, but I know it's not that because those are other geysers in other parts.)

And soon we were on the boardwalk again in the Back Basin. 

We were really excited to see one of our favorite geysers. It's Vixon Geyser and we were used to it erupting every like 5 to 7 minutes. So we set a timer and started waiting. And waiting, and waiting, and after about 15 minutes we had to admit that something must have changed. It wasn't a reliable frequent geyser any more. That was kind of sad. 

Derrick thought this pool was pretty. 

Here's a view across the area. Something small was erupting. 

This is called Blue Mud or something, but the kids always called it Mad Mud. It was still churning a lot. 

We liked Puff n stuff geyser. 

Here's Heart Spring - I think. (Note to self: PLEASE include the name plaques in the pictures. You don't know the park as well as you think you do.)

Derrick was really interested in seeing Steam Boat Geyser. This one erupts really high - but infrequently. We've never seen a true eruption. But it was putting out a lot of steam. 

Brandon and Charlotte and Lydia came up the boardwalk skipping with linked arms. But they stopped as soon as I pulled out the camera. 

Derrick has a smart watch and spent a lot of the trip telling us what he heart rate was and what the weather would be. Here he is with his step count. It was something like 8000, but I don't know when that started counting. 

Veronica was feeling it. She was like, "How long is this trail?"  I told her that we still had about 10 minutes to get to the parking lot. She didn't like that. I told her, "I know. That's why I say Norris is HELL."

But all things considered it really wasn't that bad. So I will make an addition to my list of conditions under which it is okay to visit Norris Geyser Basin. The new condition is "If it is May."

We went back to the car. By this point it was about 2:00 so we could check into our campsite. So we drove back south to Madison Campground. Brandon parked and stayed in the car with the kids while I checked in at the campground office. 

Brandon noticed there was a courtesy phone on the display board. There is no cell service in Madison Campground so they have a phone that can call 911 and also call around the park so you can make reservations for dining and activities. It also calls any phone. Brandon pointed the phone out and joked to the kids, "See that phone. That phone is for losers."

If this was a TV show this is where there would be a cut scene to two days later when Brandon was using that phone.

Anyway, we got all checked in and went to our campsite. We also stopped at the little camp store to pick up ketchup and mustard because I forgot to pack those. 

We set up the tent and the canopy. The kids were really helpful with that. They also put all the bedding in the tent. The twins even helped with the air mattresses. 

Here's the full view of the campsite. We had a tent pad area, but our tent was too big. So we were just on the regular ground. 

I cooked hot dogs on the camp stove and we had those and lots of other snacky food for a late lunch early dinner. 

By this point it was like 3:30 which was still too early to be trying to go back out and go sight seeing. So we just chilled out at the campground for a while. 

Brandon and I took naps. 

And the kids played around. Derrick was trying to get a chipmunk to come up to him and got bit on the finger or something  . . . I never really was clear on what happened. But he's fine so I guess it was okay. 

Around 5:30 we knew it was safe to venture out again. Yellowstone is a completely different park after 5:00. The crowds of tourists have left to find dinner and so if you plan your sight seeing for after 5:00 there are significantly fewer people around. 

Since we were at Madison we decided to head south and check off all the major geyser basins on the way to Old Faithful. 

And check them off we did!  

We stopped at Fountain Paint Pots, Firehole Lake Drive, Midway Geyser Basin, and Black Sand Basin. I cannot stress how impossible it would have been to see all of these during the day - there just aren't enough parking spaces to be able to get a spot while the park is crowded. But we picked them off in less than 4 hours in one evening. 

First up was the Fountain Paint Pots area. Normally this boardwalk would have been full of people. This is where a tourist one literally picked up 3 year old Derrick and tickled his bear feet. But we were there nearly by ourselves this time. (And Derrick has learned to wear shoes.)   

The features were all so pretty. 

And this one made up for the non-show at Vixen Geyser. This was Red Spouter which I only remember as a dry dirt mound. But there was so much water from all the spring run off that it was a muddy mess of boiling water. I loved watching it. 

And Clepsydra Geyser was erupting as usual. 

I have a picture of myself in front of this geyser from every visit to the park as an adult. So I added one more. 

Here's a time hop picture for you. This is me and the kids in front of the geyser 8 years ago in 2017. 

And here we are now. 

We got back into the car and drove over to the Firehole Lake Drive. The main feature here is Great Fountain Geyser. I was really wishing to see this erupt again. I've seen it erupt once. I erupts about twice a day so I was hoping we could find out a predicted time and come see it. But when I asked about it at the Old Faithful Visitor Center the next day they told me it's in an "unpredictable phase" right now and couldn't give out times. 

Still it's pretty as a pool. 

We also stopped at . . .  

Oh While Dome Geyser. Good job getting the name of the geyser in the picture Valerie. Do that more often please. 

And then we drove over to Firehole Lake. Brandon and the twins walked on the boardwalk, but Derrick and Veronica and I stayed in the car. A family was parked next to us. They came back to their car and were like, "That little geyser is getting more active. That probably means the big fountain one is about to erupt."  I was like, "Okay."  And tried not to sound too skeptical. If there is one thing I've learned about Yellowstone it's that you can't predict the geysers and it's not worth waiting for one unless you are pretty certain it will erupt. I hope that family didn't sit by Great Fountain Geyser for too long before they learned that lesson. 

Next we drove to Midway Geyser Basin. I haven't been to this parking lot in 8 years. We only went once in the whole summer we lived in Yellowstone and that was on another evening. Any other time we drove by the parking around it was a complete nightmare. This place is an avoid at all costs type of place - unless it's like 7:00 PM in May. 

We parked and then walked across the bridge to the boardwalk. 

We say Excelsior geyser. It was so steamy we could barely see into it. This puts out the most water of any feature in the park.

Then we went over to the area around Grand Prismatic Spring. We could see animal prints in the algae mats. 

And here is Grand Prismatic Spring. In all its underwhelming beauty. Like, this is cool and all, but everyone is expecting to see all the colors that are visible from above. 

You know, like this.

Seeing it from the boardwalk is kind of a bate and switch. 

Here are Derrick and I taking a selfie. 

More pretty views. 

I actually stopped paying attention because all of a sudden I HAD WIFI. My phone started dinging with emails and texts and other updates. So I was paying attention to that while walking back to the car. 

We kept driving south and passed Biscuit Basin. We couldn't stop here because it literally blew up last summer. 

Watch this quick video about the explosion. 

I didn't take any picture on this evening. But I took these as we drove by the next day. 

You can see the parking lot and road to the parking lot are closed. 

And you can kind of see the rubble that is still on the boardwalk. 

We kept going to Black Sands Basin. I've only ever been to Black Sands Basin one other time. There are only like 16 parking spots for the area so its really hard to get a spot there. When we lived in the park we literally walked the mile and a half from Old Faithful in order to visit Black Sands Basin. 

But by this time it was like 8:00 and so we just pulled into a nearly empty parking lot and found a spot. 

Cliff Geyser was erupting as we walked into the area. 

It was really pretty. 

And I don't know the name of this. Sorry.

We'd given the kids some candy before Midway Geyser Basin and they were all super hyper. Everyone was joking loudly. 

Oh my gosh Valerie. Why didn't you take a picture with the name. Have you learned NOTHING?

The kids were still hyper and I didn't want to ride back to camp with them being all loud and goofy. So I wanted to extend the walk a little longer. 

And I knew how to do that. 

But before I tell you what we did I have to remind you that we LIVED in this park. We have a level of familiarity with this place that most tourist don't have. So things can get a little odd when we are in the park. We do things that most people wouldn't think to do. 

And so I told everyone that we were going to cross the main road and hike to Punch Bowl Spring. Here' the thing, most tourists don't know this trail exists. And even fewer would think to find it. But like I said, last time we came to Black Sand Basin we'd hiked there from Old Faithful. So I knew where the trail was. And I was just fine finding it. 

So we left the parking area and walked to the main road.  

And then we looked for cars, and ran across the main road to the trail. 

For a second I was like, "Is this smart? Like are we going to get attacked by a bear?"  But the kids were making so much noise with their jokes and laughs that I stopped worrying about that real quick. 

We passed this feature. 

And then came to Black Sands Pool. I'd seen the steam and had assumed this was Punch Bowl Springs. But later I looked at a map and realized that was a little farther. 

Still this was a good end point. 

The kids had fun looking down into it. 

Here's a view looking back at Black Sands.

This is the view across. 

I think everyone would have liked to keep going, but it was getting dark and the sugar was wearing off. So we walked back. Along the way I used the wifi from Old Faithful to upload some pictures and a description of the day to Instagram. Brandon kept teasing me that I was going to trip while hiking and typing on my phone. 

When we got back to the parking lot there were only three cars in the whole place. 

We drove back to camp and got back after it was dark. Everyone got into pajamas. I'd bought body warmers with a stick on back for everyone to wear during the night. The packaging specifically said NOT to use while sleeping, but we'd seen the Outdoor Boys Youtube Channel do that so we figured it was fine. Everyone also had wool socks. (whether they actually wore them or not was another story.) And I'd brought two layers of pajamas. I was pretty warm throughout the night. Some of the kids said they'd been a little cold, but overall it was an okay night. 

And that's the end of our first day in Yellowstone.