an easy but long loop hike to Fairy Falls and Sentinel Meadows in Yellowstone
My first hike ever at Yellowstone National Park and I didn’t know what to expect. Lots of stories about never hike alone, careful with the thermals, don’t fuck around with the bison. I decided to do a simple hike, long, but with regular tourist attractions nearby to gauge the road, the distances, etc.
I would park at the parking lot for the Grand Prismatic viewpoint and hike towards the popular Fairy Falls and then do a figure eight loop up to Sentinel Meadows.
I arrive extremely early, about 7am and it was pretty chilly. The parking lot was empty (which would be full when I returned) and I was bear ready (all these posting about not hiking alone were getting to me, even though I have run into bears before).
It was foggy all over the place and this pic of Grand Prismatic area shows that cold weather and hot springs result in lots of smoke:
The first stop was at Fairy Falls; the are pretty unique as you can see in the videos below:
Since the flow was light, the water was breaking against the rocks in the middle of the falls, which looked nice. I guess during spring, the flow would bypass those rocks. Even though the topo map mentions a footbridge to go over the creek that comes from the falls, there are just two areas where logs are dumped over the creek. Nothing bad, the creek is shallow.
The next destination was Imperial Geyser. I actually made two trips to it since the steam from the geyser in the cold weather obscured the eruption, as you can see below:
To the left of the geyser there are some open sulfur fissures on the ground, so please be careful, stay on the trail. The runoff of the geyser creates a creek that you can follow and return to the original trail. A bison was blocking that, so I returned via the original trail.
At this point, I continued following Fairy Creek in the direction of Sentinel Meadows. You can actually see Fairy Falls from there:
It is very important to stay on the trail is this area since there are a lot of thermals. You can see them next to the trail, so there is no need to leave the trail to see them up close.
The creek runs in a large valley so bison will be seen. One dude was too close to the trail, so I had to move off trail and give him space.
So you keep on the trail until you reach a forested area and the the trail splits left and right. Left takes you to Queen Laundry and more and larger thermal areas. The ones below are half a mile away from the trail.
You then reach the Firehole River and notice more thermals feeding it …
Time to turn around. Those bison blocking the trail were still there, those guys are pretty lazy.
Now that it was warming up, I decided to return to Imperial Geyser and the lack of cold weather made a BIG difference:
In the topo map I noticed two ponds on top of a hill overlooking the geyser. I did see a social trail going up that hill and decided to go up. Warning: this is a social trail that is very steep.
On top I was surprised by two beautiful ponds full of vegetation (a moose paradise). Enjoy !
On the way back I stopped by Fairy Falls again and then I stopped at the Grand Prismatic viewpoint. That things is gorgeous !!!!
So I think I may have hiked about 16 miles. I took a peek at the parking lot for Old Faithfull and decided ……….. nope !