Fountain Paint Pot - All Four Kinds in One Walk

Photo: Yellowstone National Park from Yellowstone NP, USA, public domain (cropped)

A stop on Yellowstone Geyser Country, a free self-guided tour.

This short boardwalk loop, about half a mile, is one of the best places in the park to see all four kinds of thermal features side by side: hot springs, geysers, mudpots and fumaroles.

Start with the clear blue water of Celestine Pool, then the paint pots themselves, a bubbling bowl of thick mud tinted pink, red and tan by iron in different states of oxidation. Mudpots form where water is scarce. Acidic gases break the rock down into clay, and rising steam keeps it popping. In early summer, after snowmelt, the mud is soupy; by late summer it thickens and plops.

Next comes Red Spouter, which appeared after the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake and shifts with the seasons from muddy spring to hissing steam vent. Fumaroles are the hottest features of all, with so little water that it boils away before reaching the surface. At the far end, Clepsydra Geyser, named for an ancient water clock, splashes almost nonstop. Stay on the boardwalk; the mud pots have flung mud right onto it.

Getting here: At the end of Firehole Lake Drive, turn into the Fountain Paint Pot parking area, almost directly across the Grand Loop Road.

Did you know?: Clepsydra has erupted almost continuously since the 1959 earthquake, pausing mainly after neighboring Fountain Geyser goes off.

Photo op: Get low at the paint pot and use a fast shutter to freeze flying drops of mud; out on the flats, Clepsydra's steam with the hills behind makes a strong wide shot.

Nearby: Vault toilets at the parking lot; no food or water. The nearest full services are back at Old Faithful or in West Yellowstone, Montana, outside the park.

More on Wikipedia: Fountain Paint Pot · Clepsydra Geyser · 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake

Fountain Paint Pot - All Four Kinds in One Walk

Stops on this tour