Early in the morning the park is one large steam vent.
As the sun climbs, the colors come out.
And every 68 or 94 minutes, water shoots 106 to 184 ft into the air.
Scroll –
the steam thins out
Yellowstone is not a mountain, it is a hole: a caldera roughly 30 by 45 miles (45 by 85 km) over one of the largest magma systems on Earth. Inside it are more than 10,000 hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles, including over 500 geysers – more than the rest of the world combined. The volcano alert level has read NORMAL / GREEN for years. Two other things will actually change your trip: one closed boardwalk loop, and a $100 per-person fee introduced on January 1, 2026.
On September 1, 2026, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory again reported NORMAL/GREEN. It located 61 earthquakes in August, the largest at magnitude 2.0. The uplift on the northern caldera rim that began in July 2025 ended in mid-January 2026.
The boardwalk and parking lot have been closed since the hydrothermal explosion of July 23, 2024. On June 13, 2026, a second, smaller explosion opened a 60 ft (18.5 m) fissure there. No reopening has been announced – leave it off your route.
No timed entry, no reservation: you drive up and pay at the gate, in cash or by card. A private vehicle costs $35 for seven days. Visitors without US residency pay an extra $100 per person age 16 and up, in force since January 1, 2026.
From December 15, 2026 to March 15, 2027 the interior roads are open to oversnow vehicles only – guided snowcoach or snowmobile tours, or a self-guided permit from the lottery. In your own car you can then drive only from Gardiner to Mammoth and on to Cooke City.
Photo: Acroterion · CC BY-SA 4.0
Nobody climbs anything here. You walk on boardwalks, and the volcano works right under the planks: boiling water, sulfur in the air, ground that steams. Four areas carry the visit, and each one looks different depending on the hour.
Upper Geyser Basin. The densest concentration of geysers on Earth. Old Faithful is the best known, not the best: add 90 minutes, walk out to Morning Glory Pool, and you get ten more geysers and far fewer people. Depending on the loop, 30 minutes to 3 hours.
Midway Geyser Basin. About 0.6 miles (1 km) of boardwalk around Grand Prismatic Spring and Excelsior Geyser Crater, 30 to 45 minutes. From the boardwalk you mostly see steam. The famous ring of colors only appears from the higher Grand Prismatic Overlook, reached on foot from the Fairy Falls parking area.
Norris Geyser Basin. The hottest and most acidic thermal area in the park, loops of one to three hours. Steamboat Geyser stands here, the tallest active geyser in the world – its eruptions cannot be predicted. Waiting for it is luck, not planning.
Mammoth Hot Springs. Travertine terraces rather than siliceous sinter, boardwalks with many stairs, one to two hours. Which terrace carries water shifts over the years; dry terraces are normal and not a sign of decline. Mammoth is the only one of the four you can reach by car all year.
Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: if you book, we earn a commission and the price stays the same. Prices and ratings as of 21 September 2026. Whether a geyser goes off while you are standing there is up to the ground – only six of the 500-plus are forecast at all.
This is the point where almost every older guidebook is out of date. Since January 1, 2026, visitors from outside the US pay a surcharge at eleven national parks – and Yellowstone is one of them.
The surcharge is charged on top of the normal entrance fee, and it is per person, not per vehicle. Residency is checked at the gate. Besides Yellowstone it applies at Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Zion.
Since early 2026 the America the Beautiful annual pass costs $250 for non-residents instead of $80. In return the surcharge is waived and entry to all federal recreation areas is included, for twelve months.
Unlike Arches or Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone has no timed-entry system: just drive up. And unlike many US parks it still takes cash at all five entrance stations, according to its own fee page – a card simply moves the line faster.
| Private vehicle, 7 days | $35 |
| Motorcycle, 7 days | $30 |
| Pedestrians and cyclists age 16 and up, 7 days | $20 |
| Nonresident fee, age 16 and up, on top of the entrance fee | $100 |
| Yellowstone annual pass | $70 |
| America the Beautiful annual pass, US residents | $80 |
| America the Beautiful annual pass, non-US residents – waives the surcharge | $250 |
| Non-commercially guided snowmobile permit, per day · plus a $6 application fee | $40 |
| Entrance fee for the vehicle, 7 days | $35 |
| Nonresident fee, 2 × $100 | $200 |
| Total for this one visit | $235 |
| Instead: one America the Beautiful pass for non-residents, twelve months, all federal parks | $250 |
The danger in Yellowstone is not the magma, it is the water above it. Next to the springs the sinter crust is often thin, with superheated water underneath. The National Park Service counts more than 20 deaths from scalding. In thermal areas you may walk on boardwalks and marked trails only – and pets have to stay out entirely, including carried, in a backpack or in a stroller.
Stepping off is not a parking ticket. It is a federal petty offense, “thermal trespass,” and the US Attorney's Office in Wyoming charges it regularly. Two sentences show what that means.
A 50-year-old visitor from Texas had walked directly on the sinter formations at Mammoth Hot Springs on November 8, 2025 – Canary Spring, Mound Terrace, Palette Hot Spring, Jupiter Terrace. A US magistrate judge sentenced him to five days in jail; the court imposed no fine.
A 21-year-old from Washington had stepped off the boardwalk at Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin on April 19, 2024. The sentence: seven days in jail, a two-year ban from the park and over $1,500 in fines and fees.
Every boardwalk is covered by the entrance fee and none of them needs a reservation. What differs is length, season and what you end up looking at.
| Upper Geyser Basin (Old Faithful) | Boardwalks and paved paths from the Old Faithful visitor center, 30 minutes to 3 hours depending on the loop: Old Faithful, Castle, Grand, Riverside, Daisy, Morning Glory Pool. Road access April 17 to October 31, 2026; in winter by oversnow vehicle only. |
| Midway Geyser Basin (Grand Prismatic Spring) | About 0.6 miles (1 km) of boardwalk as a loop, roughly 30–45 minutes, from the parking area on Grand Loop Road. For the colors, walk up to Grand Prismatic Overlook starting at the Fairy Falls lot. Madison–Old Faithful road April 17 to October 31, 2026. |
| Norris Geyser Basin | Porcelain Basin and Back Basin with Steamboat Geyser, loops of 1 to 3 hours. The Mammoth–Norris and Norris–Canyon roads open April 17, 2026; the museum runs May 17 to October 3, 2026. |
| Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces | Boardwalks with many stairs, 1–2 hours: Canary Spring, Palette Spring, Jupiter Terrace, Mound Terrace. The only one of the four reachable by car year-round, through the North Entrance at Gardiner. |
| Winter access by snowcoach or snowmobile | From West Yellowstone, Mammoth, Flagg Ranch or Cody to Old Faithful and Canyon, as a day trip or staying at the Old Faithful Snow Lodge. Oversnow season December 15, 2026 to March 15, 2027. Travel hours 7 am to 9 pm (east and south gates from 8 am), speed limit 35 mph, and the group must stay within a third of a mile of the lead vehicle. |
The park itself is open around the clock – the roads are not. If you come in May or October, plan with this table rather than with a map.
| April 17, 2026 | West Yellowstone–Madison, Madison–Old Faithful, Madison–Norris, Mammoth–Norris, Norris–Canyon |
| May 1, 2026 | East Entrance–Fishing Bridge over Sylvan Pass |
| May 8, 2026 | South Entrance–West Thumb, the West Thumb sections, Tower-Roosevelt–Tower Fall |
| May 22, 2026 | Canyon–Tower Fall over Dunraven Pass, Beartooth Highway, Chief Joseph Scenic Byway |
| October 12, 2026 | Dunraven Pass, Beartooth Highway and Chief Joseph Scenic Byway close |
| October 31, 2026 | All remaining sections close to cars |
| open year-round | North Entrance Gardiner – Mammoth – Tower – Northeast Entrance Cooke City only |
Photo: Frank Schulenburg · CC BY-SA 4.0
Without a car: There is no scheduled service into the park. Nearest airports: Bozeman (BZN) and West Yellowstone (WYS) to the north and west, Jackson Hole (JAC) to the south, Cody (COD) to the east, Billings (BIL) to the northeast, Idaho Falls (IDA) to the west. A rental car is effectively mandatory.
By car: Parking is free everywhere and covered by the entrance fee, but between 10 am and 4 pm the lots at Midway Geyser Basin, Grand Prismatic Overlook, Old Faithful and Artist Point are regularly full. There is no RV site without a reservation in summer.
For the thermal areas, early morning is unbeatable: cold air means a lot of steam and few people. For colors (Grand Prismatic) it is the opposite – midday in sunshine, because the steam is thinner then. Best months: mid-May to mid-June (almost all roads open, light crowds, newborn wildlife) and September to mid-October (clear air, cold nights, fewer visitors). July and August are the busiest. To see steam and snow together, come in winter – but then only guided oversnow vehicles reach the park interior.
No scheduled bus runs into the park. Without a rental car you need a tour, and almost all of them start outside the boundary. What is included is listed in each description.
Affiliate links to GetYourGuide: if you book, we earn a commission and the price stays the same. Prices and ratings as of 21 September 2026.
Nothing points that way. The “high threat” rating in the USGS National Volcano Early Warning System describes what an eruption would do, not how likely it is. Three caldera-forming eruptions are known; the last was about 640,000 years ago, and the youngest lava flow is roughly 77,000 years old.
What is running today is the hydrothermal system: water heated by hot rock. According to the YVO analysis, the Biscuit Basin explosions of 2024 and 2026 had exactly that cause – water flashing to steam in the shallow subsurface, not magma. For visitors the alert level has no practical meaning. The real hazards are hot water, thin sinter crust and wildlife.
The largest of the three known major eruptions. It left a caldera about 47 miles (75 km) across.
The second caldera-forming eruption.
The third – it created today's caldera of about 30 by 45 miles (45 by 85 km). No caldera-forming eruption since.
The youngest lava flow in the park. There has been no magmatic eruption at all since then.
Yes, but one without a summit. The park sits inside a caldera about 30 by 45 miles (45 by 85 km) over one of the largest magma systems on Earth. You see the volcano as geysers, hot springs, mud pots and fumaroles rather than as a mountain – the park counts more than 10,000 of them.
$35 for a private vehicle (seven days) plus $100 per person age 16 and up without US residency. Two adults therefore pay $235. The America the Beautiful pass for non-residents costs $250, waives the surcharge and is valid for twelve months in all federal parks.
Plan three full days for the four big thermal areas – Upper Geyser Basin, Midway, Norris and Mammoth. The Grand Loop Road is about 142 miles (230 km) long, and bison jams are the rule, not the exception.
For steam and empty boardwalks, early morning: cold air means a lot of steam. For the colors of Grand Prismatic, the middle of the day in sunshine, because the steam is thinner then.
Yes, but without reservations it gets tight in summer: campgrounds run mostly through Recreation.gov, and lodges inside the park are often booked a year ahead. Between 10 am and 4 pm the lots at Midway, Grand Prismatic Overlook, Old Faithful and Artist Point are regularly full.
The West Entrance at West Yellowstone: Old Faithful and Grand Prismatic are closest from there. For Mammoth Hot Springs or a winter trip, the North Entrance at Gardiner – the only one open to cars all year.
A private vehicle costs $35 for seven days, a motorcycle $30, and pedestrians and cyclists age 16 and up $20. Visitors without US residency have paid an extra $100 per person age 16 and up since January 1, 2026. The Yellowstone annual pass costs $70.
Yes, if you are 16 or older and do not have US residency. Yellowstone is one of eleven parks with this surcharge – alongside Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yosemite and Zion. The $250 annual pass for non-residents waives it.
It replaces the entrance fee at all federal recreation areas and waives the $100 surcharge. For two adults visiting only Yellowstone it costs $15 more than paying once ($235). From the second surcharge park onward, or with three people in the car, it pays off.
No. Yellowstone has no timed-entry system. You drive to one of the five gates and pay there, in cash or by card. Only lodging and campgrounds need reserving – and often months ahead.
Most roads open on April 17, 2026, the East Entrance on May 1, the South Entrance on May 8, and Dunraven Pass and the Beartooth Highway on May 22. They close on October 12 (high passes) and October 31. The only year-round route is Gardiner–Mammoth–Cooke City.
No. The boardwalk and parking lot have been closed since the hydrothermal explosion of July 23, 2024. On June 13, 2026 a second, smaller explosion opened a new fissure 60 ft (18.5 m) long. As of September 2026 no reopening had been announced.
Very. The crust beside the springs is often thin, with superheated water underneath. The NPS counts more than 20 deaths from scalding. So: stay on the boardwalks, do not swim, touch nothing.
It is a federal offense. In March 2026 a federal court in Wyoming imposed five days in jail for it; in 2024 the sentence was seven days in jail, a two-year park ban and more than $1,500 in fines and fees.
Very reliable, but not hourly. The NPS gives intervals of 68 or 94 minutes with about ten minutes of uncertainty, roughly 17 eruptions a day, lasting 1.5 to 5 minutes and reaching 106 to 184 ft (32 to 56 m). Current predictions are in the NPS app and on GeyserTimes.org.
Nothing points that way. On September 1, 2026 the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory again reported NORMAL/GREEN, with 61 small earthquakes in August, the strongest at magnitude 2.0. The last major eruption was about 640,000 years ago and the youngest lava flow about 77,000 years old.
Yes. The park's fee page lists cash as well as credit and debit cards for all five entrance stations. A card still moves the line faster.
No. Pets are completely banned in thermal areas and on boardwalks – including carried, in a backpack or in a stroller. Service animals are exempt but must stay leashed.
Sources · accessed on 21 September 2026
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