Yellowstone's Old Faithful Self-Guided Walking Tour

This isn't an entrance ticket. Check opening hours before your visit. Witness the power of Old Faithful and explore the surrounding geyser basin with this self-guided walking tour! As one of the most densely-packed geyser regions in the park, there’s no shortage of explosive wonders on display here. Watch huge geysers like Old Faithful, Castle Geyser, and Grand Geyser erupt. Stroll past smaller, bubbling pools. Find out how geysers form and work, and uncover the hidden systems underlying the whole basin. This walking tour makes for the perfect addition to any Yellowstone visit! After booking, check your email/text to download the separate Audio Tour Guide App by Action while connected to WiFi or mobile data. Enter the password, download the tour, and enjoy it offline. Follow the audio instructions and route from the designated starting point. New, Lifetime access, no expiry. Use it anytime, on any trip, as many times as you want.

1. 1

   Stop 1

   5 min

   We’re walking along the Old Faithful Observation Deck. But the benches and boardwalk here are just part of the 14 miles of boardwalk that snake through this part of Yellowstone. Thousands of visitors trek through this park every year. New, Lifetime access, no expiry. Use it anytime, on any trip, as many times as you want. This isn't an entrance ticket. Check opening hours before your visit. The tour is over 2.5 miles long, with more than 35+ audio stories, and takes about 1-2 hours to complete.

2. 2

   Stop 2

   5 min

   You’ll see a sign for Observation Point Trail. If you’d like an elevated view of Old Faithful erupting, this path will take you to the perfect spot for it. It’s an uphill trek of about a mile out and back, and should take around 30 minutes.

3. 3

   Stop 3

   5 min

   It gets its name from geologist Arnold Hague, who thought the vents looked like the petals of the anemone flower.

4. 4

   Beehive Geyser

   5 min

   It looks like a big innocuous beehive just sitting on the ground. That is, until it sends boiling water shooting 100 feet into the air! The Beehive spews water for 5 minutes every 10 to 20 hours.

5. 5

   Stop 5

   5 min

   This area is called “Marmot Cave Geyser.” A yellow-bellied marmot used to live in that little cave, but it moved out years ago. I can only assume spewing water heated by magma isn’t ideal for marmot dens!

6. 6

   Lion Geyser

   5 min

   Off to our left, do see a lion, a lioness, and two cubs. Okay you got me—they’re not real lions. They’re cone geysers! To make things more confusing, they’re not actually named because they look like lions at all!

7. 7

   Stop 7

   5 min

   It looks a lot like a bluish hot spring, but it erupts! And when it does, it sounds like a whirring sawmill. It’s connected underground to a whole complex of thermal features, which makes its eruptions very hard to predict.

8. 8

   Grand Geyser

   5 min

   Off to your right is a geyser that puts on quite a show. It’s called “Grand Geyser,” and it’s the single most powerful predictable geyser in the world! It’s a fountain-type, so no cones to see—just a pool. And if you think Old Faithful has impressive eruptions, just wait until you see one of these.

9. 9

   Stop 9

   5 min

   On our right is a hydrothermal feature so beautiful people named it “Beauty Pool”! It’s that blue-green hot spring with a thick ring of orange heat-loving microbes—known as thermophiles—around it.

10. 10

    Stop 10

    5 min

    This is Beauty Pool’s sister, Chromatic Pool. It’s a smaller hot spring at only 30 feet in diameter, but the colors are still so vivid! This pool is around 133.1 degrees—too hot for a shower, too cold for a cup of coffee.

11. 11

    Stop 11

    5 min

    Giant’s cone is geyserite or sinter, and it’s about 12-feet tall. Some say it even looks a bit like the Coliseum in Rome! This is one of the tallest geysers in Yellowstone, but it’s far from the only geyser in this cluster.

12. 12

    Grotto Geyser

    5 min

    Dead ahead is Grotto Geyser. This was almost the site of disaster during the 1870 expedition!

13. 13

    Morning Glory Pool

    5 min

    The Morning Glory Pool gets its name thanks to the passing resemblance to morning glory flowers. Green ones like it hot. Yellow ones like it pretty hot. Orange like it warm. And red like it kinda warm.

14. 14

    Daisy Geyser

    5 min

    Daisy Geyser is one of Yellowstone’s most predictable geysers. It erupts every 2 to 4 hours for about 4 minutes. And this one is unique because its fountain streams out at an angle to the ground!

15. 15

    Stop 15

    5 min

    Crested Pool is 42 feet deep and has an average temperature of 191 degrees! That’s just about as hot as your hottest cup of coffee.

16. 16

    Castle Geyser

    5 min

    Castle Geyser stands out thanks to the massive calcified cone that surrounds it. This one erupts every 10 to 12 hours. Eruptions last about 20 minutes, and the spray can reach 90 feet high. After the main eruption ends, steam hisses out of Castle Geyser for around 35 minutes.

17. 17

    Old Faithful Inn

    5 min

    This is no ordinary inn. The building’s designer, Robert Reamer, wanted it to be part of the park. So he used rhyolite for the inn’s foundation. Rhyolite is formed in Yellowstone’s caldera! And for the inn’s walls, he used local lodgepole pine trees!

• Public transportation options are available nearby
• Suitable for all physical fitness levels
• Winter Season Notice Most Yellowstone park roads are now closed to regular vehicles for the winter, with limited access until late April. Please check Road Status & Closures and Park Roads Overview before your trip and consider our Yellowstone Winter Tour for cold-season travel.
• Easy to use: GPS-triggered audio plays automatically along the route for a hands-free experience.
• Private tour: Follow the route on your phone without an in-person guide or crowded group.
• At your own pace: Start anytime and pause for hikes, picnics, photos, or scenic stops.

For a full refund, cancel at least 24 hours before the scheduled departure time.