Yellowstone National Park - Travel Guide - Madison Area

Yellowstone National Park – Madison Basin

Hey there, I am finally back from vacation – visit 7 National Parks in 9 days. The vacation I needed the most to reenergize and rejuvenate myself after a depressed year. Yes, we visited 7 National Parks – Yellowstone and Grand Teton followed by Utah 5. The last one week has been the most rewarding experience I ever had in my life. Being so close to Nature, I was awestruck by the power and magnificence of Nature. Starting from rock formations, canyons to geysers and prismatic springs, the trip was so overwhelming to me and I am still soaking in the memories of Mother Nature and its diversity.

Though I might not be able to convey my experience through words or justify the majesty through pictures, I wanted to pen down about my experiences and present to my awesome readers. I highly recommend everyone to visit Yellowstone National Park at least once if you are living here.

Yellowstone is the first National Park with 3500 square miles bestowed with dramatic canyons, geothermal activity, geysers, hot springs and diverse wildlife which includes Bison, Elk, Moose, and Wolves. Yellowstone offers so many spots for every nature enthusiast – being waterfalls, geysers, hot springs or wildlife. The park is so vast that it requires more than two days to see the most iconic spots referred all over in the social media. It was on my radar for a long time and finally, we visited Yellowstone in August 2018. We had almost 2 ½ days to explore the park and I highly recommend at least, plan for two days to enjoy the vistas the park offers. If you would like to enjoy a leisure trip, then I would suggest planning a week to explore each area of the park individually.

The park is vast and has entrances in each direction – North, North East, West, East, and South Entrances. The park is divided geographically into the below-mentioned regions

Madison
Norris
Mammoth Hot Springs
Tower Roosevelt Area
Canyon Village
West Thumb
Fishing Bridge, Lake Village & Bridge Bay
West Thumb & Grant Village
Old Faithful

Fast Facts:

Yellowstone is the first designated National Park in 1872
96 % of the land is claimed by Wyoming, 3% lie in Montana and 1% lie in Idaho

Tips:

The park’s entrance fee is $35 but I highly recommend to buy National Park Annual pass – America the beautiful pass. The cost of the pass is $80 and it is valid for 1 year from the date of purchase. The park is accepted in all the parks managed by NPS and Federal Lands. The link to purchase the pass is here
Download the park’s official app to explore the park and plan your trip. The app is available in the app store for free download.
Download the Yellowstone GyPSy Guide from the app store which is an excellent way to enjoy and explore the park with 300 + audio points that play automatically, featuring as what to see, tips and advice. You can also get Geyser predictions from the app. No data, cellular or wireless network connection needed for the app to work. The cost of the app is $5.99
Cellular connection is not available inside the park, hence I suggest to download the maps before entering the park and use offline when inside the park
Driving inside the park and between different spots is time-consuming and often wildlife crossing creates traffic jams. Please plan buffer time in your plan.
I highly suggest to bring your own food and water bottles as food options inside the park is very less
Sunscreen, hat, and sunglasses is must
Carry umbrella or raincoat with you as you can’t predict the weather inside the park
Carry a pack of water bottles and hydrate yourself often as you are in the geothermal place.
Stay in the trails and do not enter/touch to the geothermal features as their acidity levels are high enough to remove flesh from bone
Store food in a secured place due to the threat from wildlife
Never feed or approach wildlife
Hydrothermal features contain a minimal amount of toxic gases. So, if you ever feel sick, leave the location immediately

MADISON AREA

We stayed in the Salt Lake City and we drove towards Yellowstone National Park around 11 AM from the place where we stayed. We reached the West entrance of the park around 5:30 PM on 8/24/2018. We planned to explore the Madison and Norris Geyser Basin on the evening of our first day. The park is so vast and blogging about the entire park in a single blog will be overwhelming. Hence, I planned to pen down the park according to each area. Let’s first start with Madison Area.

PLACES TO EXPLORE

MADISON INFORMATION STATION

Visitor Center near to the West entrance which features touch-table exhibits and has a picnic area for the visitors

ARTIST PAINT POTS

A small but beautiful thermal area that lies in the south of Norris junction and a one-mile round trip features colorful hot springs, mud pots and a section of burned forest. The trail consists of the paved boardwalk (which is handicap accessible), steep climbs and unpaved way.

Fast Facts:

Yellowstone’s hydrothermal areas are heated by magma – partially molten rock. Beneath the park, this partially molten magma heats water percolating down from the surface along fractures and faults. This superheated water rises back toward the surface, collecting into larger channels that serve as the “plumbing” for each hydrothermal feature
Geysers: Forms if the plumbing channel contains a constriction
Hot Springs: Features with no plumbing constriction
Fumaroles: Yellowstone’s hottest surface features
Mud pots: Forms when acid decomposes surrounding rock into clay

GIBBON FALLS

An 84-foot cascading waterfall that can be viewed from the paved boardwalk.

MONUMENT GEYSER BASIN

An active hydrothermal area which requires 2.8-mile round trip hike. There is no paved boardwalk for the basin. The hike gains an elevation of 700 feet in the way and climbs a pine-covered mountainside with the views of Mount Holmes and a snaking section of the Gibbon River. The hikers can view the steam vents and pools as they wish in the Monument Geyser Basin.

TERRACE SPRINGS

A small thermal area with a boardwalk and features hot springs.

FIREHOLE CANYON DRIVE

A beautiful scenic area past 800-foot thick lava flows. Firehole canyon drive is a side road from the Madison junction to just above Firehole Falls following the Firehole River Upstream. There is an unstaffed swimming area where you can swim and is very popular in summer.

FIREHOLE FALLS

A 40-foot waterfall which is found along the Firehole Canyon scenic drive.

PURPLE MOUNTAIN

Requires 3 miles hike where you climb 1500 feet to get a panoramic view of Gibbon and Madison rivers.

POPULAR DAY HIKES

Artists Paint pots (1 mile RT, 0.5-1 hour, easy)
Harlequin Lake (1 mile RT, 0.5-1 hour, easy)
Monument Geyser Basin (2 mile RT, 1-2 hour, moderate)
Purple Mountain (6 miles RT, 4-6 hours, strenuous)

Tips:

Artist Paint Pots is an easy trail and a must-to-do
Check out Blood Red Geyser, Inspiration Point and Mud Pots in Artist Paint Pot Trail
Take boardwalk to capture Gibbon Falls
Take the scenic drive – Firehole Canyon Drive
Take the boardwalk to visit Terrace Springs
Swim in the Firehole falls

We visited Terrace Springs, Gibbon falls and Artist Paint Post. We also drove across the Firehole drive – a beautiful scenic drive which follows along the Firehole upstream and ends in the Firehole falls. The drive features thick lava flows and Firehole Falls. The falls can be seen from the drive and you will find the swimming area once you climb down the falls. We then headed back to the Norris Geyser Basin. After our visit to the Norris basin, we headed to Livingston near to the North Entrance and stayed in Airbnb.

Fast Facts:

Surprisingly, living organisms are actually what cause the bright colorations at Yellowstone. More specifically, there are several species of bacteria that can only survive in specific temperatures and acid levels. Each of the colorful rings is home to a unique species of bacteria at the park.
Artist Paint Pots features Blood Red Geyser – a higher concentration of iron oxide in the water precipitates out staining the surrounding rocks rich red

We will explore the Norris Geyser Basin area in our next blog post.

If you like my travelogue and wish to follow my travel stories further, then do like and follow my profile here – Facebook, Google, Instagram

Thanks,

Karthi

Facts gathered from the Park Website and the Pamphlets. The pictures in the post are clicked by me. The content and the pictures in the post belongs to the author. Reproduction and distribution of the content/pictures without prior permission from the author is prohibited.