Guide to the Fountain Paint Pots in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park has lots of geyser areas that you can visit in the park but only one area has all of the four different thermal feature types in one compact area. Yes – you can see mud pots, fumaroles, hot springs and geysers all in one place – the Fountain Paint Pots area. So if you’re limited in time in the park – or if you’re here for multiple days – you’ll want to make time to visit the Fountain Paint Pots. In this guide to Yellowstone’s Fountain Paint Pots, you’ll get all the important information you need to know before your visit. Let’s begin!
Where are the Fountain Paint Pots?
The Fountain Paint Pot thermal area is located just north of Grand Prismatic Spring, and south of the Madison area. You’ll find the parking lot across the road from the Firehole Lake Drive. If you’re driving Firehole Lake Drive, the parking lot for Fountain Paint Pots will be across the street when you exit.
Parking at the Fountain Paint Pots can be a challenge during the busy parts of the day, but people are coming and going all the time, so you likely will be able to find a spot if you have a little patience.
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Visiting the Fountain Paint Pots
After you park, make your way to the boardwalks to start along the walkway to the thermal features. Along the way, you’ll see lots of “bobby socks trees” where you’ll notice that the bottom of the trees have turned white from the minerals in the thermal features. The first feature you’ll find is Celestine Spring, a blue hot spring thermal feature. After this, you’ll quickly come to a junction where you can chose to go left or right to start your loop hike. Either way is fine, but for the purpose of this post, I’ll go to the right.
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To the right, you’ll go past this place’s namesake – the Fountain Paint Pot. You’ll see its pinkish – grey clay bubbling and steaming and gurgling.
Fun fact: The clay from Fountain Paint Pot was used to “paint” a hotel that once stood across the road. The “Fountain Hotel” was a popular place for tourists to stay up until 1915, when automobiles were allowed in the park. Once cars were allowed, tourists could easily visit this area as a day trip from Old Faithful, so business took a huge hit. Due to the declining business, the Fountain Hotel was demolished in 1927.
Continuing on the trail to the right, the boardwalk trail will circle around Red Sprouter, which is a red clay thermal feature that can be a mud pot, hot spring, or steam vent, depending on the water flow. This was my favorite thermal feature at the Fountain Paint Pots – it’s so unique! Here, you’ll also see Leather Pool as well as some fumaroles and steam vents.
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The boardwalks will lead you to a series of different geysers, including Twig Geyser, Jet Geyser, Clepsydra Geyser and Fountain Geyser (not to be confused with Great Fountain Geyser, which is found on Firehole Lake Drive.) Chances are, you’ll be able to see at least one of these erupting as you walk by, as many of them erupt frequently.
You’ll loop around the boardwalk and end up at Celestine Spring again, which will lead you back to your vehicle.
Fountain Paint Pots – Yellowstone National Park Final Thoughts:
While you won’t find any of the ‘famous’ geysers here at the Fountain Paint Pots (let’s face it, no one knows what Clepsydra Geyser is!), this area gives you a lot of ‘bang’ for your buck, in that you’ll be able to see all of the types of hydrothermal features Yellowstone has to offer in one small, 1/2 mile boardwalk trail. It’s definitely worth a visit and it won’t take too much time out of your day at Yellowstone National Park.
