A Hike comes before a Fall at the Grand Prismatic Spring

The lovely couple we met over breakfast in Gardiner gave us some good advice. They said they had been coming here for 20 years but only just found the hike above the Grand Prismatic Spring, and they said that was even more stunning than walking up to it on the boardwalk. They were right!

The Grand Prismatic Spring is a stunningly beautiful multicoloured spring in Yellowstone National Park. the lovely colours are caused by a combination of minerals and thermophilic bacteria (bacteria that like heat) so at different temperatures attract different types of bacteria.

We “hiked” (aka. walked) up from the Fairy Falls trailhead to the hill at the back of the Grand Prismatic Spring. It wasn’t the easiest of hikes; at one point the people in front started walking back towards us, and we realised a bison was on the path coming towards us! The people in front ran up a hill beside the path. I stopped as we were a good distance away so our escape route would have been back down the path to the car. Luckily the bison nonchalantly strolled off the path away from us. (His nonchalance was equal only to my BF who wasn’t bovvered and thought he was completely safe)

After that we continued onwards, but then while walking, as my foot came down to the ground I realised a snake was underneath it. I just managed to side-step it and the snake saw me and slithered away.

The end of the hike entails climbing up a pretty steep hill, and there is no path so you have to follow a small trail where others have climbed before, which involves stepping over big tree trunks. As long as you don’t have restricted mobility it is fine and the views definitely made it worth it.

Typical me though; I did the hike no probs but when we got down off the hill and back onto the path, I fell off my foot. You know when you just fall over for no reason because you stood on your foot funny? Yeah. My BF thought it was hilarious and insisted on taking a photo of me and the spot where I had fallen so he could remember this “hilarious” moment. I’m pretty sure that’s sociopathic.

Anyway, we also visited the boardwalk around the Grand Prismatic Spring. For me, this wasn’t as beautiful as you couldn’t get an overview.

The Excelsior Spring was nearby and that was a beautiful azure blue. It looked like a spa, which made me want to swim in it, apart from the fact you’d be boiled alive.