Roaring Mountain – Yellowstone National Park
Roaring Mountain is a quick stop along Yellowstone National Park’s Grand Loop Road and makes for a fast, but interesting stop on your Yellowstone National Park vacation. Requiring no hiking (this isn’t a mountain you’ll want to hike! You’ll die, no joke!), viewing Roaring Mountain is accessible for everyone. Let’s review Roaring Mountain in Yellowstone National Park!
Roaring Mountain Yellowstone – Location and Details
Location:
The Roaring Mountain pullout is located 5 miles north of the Norris Geyser Basin junction.
Parking: The pullout parking lot has recently been re-vamped and now offers plenty of parking. Because this is just an overlook with no trailheads, people are coming and going all the time, so if no spots are available, just wait a few seconds and you’ll find one. No one really stays longer than 5 minutes here.
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Viewing Roaring Mountain in Yellowstone National Park
Roaring Mountain got its name from all of the steamy fumaroles located on the western slope of the mountain. These fumaroles at one point were really noisy, hence how it got its name – “Roaring Mountain” from early explorers. Today, most visitors can’t hear anything. On my visit, I didn’t hear any noise, but you may get lucky and hear at least a hissing or a whimpering noise – it will depend on how active the thermal activity is during your visit.
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Photographing Roaring Mountain:
Roaring Mountain isn’t particularly scenic or beautiful – you won’t be hanging photos of Roaring Mountain in your living room – but it’s still worth snapping a few photos. I visited during the worst time possible to photograph Roaring Mountain – mid morning! As you can see from my photos, I was photographing Roaring Mountain into direct, unrelenting sunlight. You’ll have better photos if you come at another time of the day. Interestingly enough, Ansel Adams himself has photographed Roaring Mountain – obviously, his photos of this aren’t anywhere near as famous photos as his photos of the Tetons and Yosemite are, but it’s interesting to know that he felt compelled enough to waste some film on this spot!
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Roaring Mountain – Yellowstone National Park – Final Thoughts
This is a quick stop along the Grand Loop Road that, while, isn’t particularly photogentic, it’s interesting enough to see. It’s not every day you see steam coming out of the slope of a mountain. But if you miss it (and you might – I’ve been to Yellowstone more times than I can count and I’ve only stopped here once!), don’t feel bad; it won’t wreck your Yellowstone National Park vacation.
