Yellowstone National Park Waterfalls ~ Adventures in Southern California

Firehole Falls

The pictures of Yellowstone in this post are from June 2013. These are most of the major waterfalls in Yellowstone that are located on, or within 20 minutes hiking distance, of the Grand Loop. The waterfalls here account for less than 1 percent of the total waterfalls in the park. If you only see one thing in Yellowstone, you have to see upper and lower Yellowstone Falls. The view from the rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is indescribably beautiful.

The waterfalls in Yellowstone are only a small fraction of the major features in the park. The parking lot for the Old Faithful geyser is usually filled to capacity with cars, campers and tour buses. I prefer the waterfall hikes because the crowds are usually thin. On the 20 minute hike to Wraith Falls, we ran into a black bear, an elk and a coyote. There were literally more animals using the trail than people.

I've only been to Yellowstone twice and I've never had an opportunity to do any back-country hiking or camping. To be honest, I don't know if I would. We saw so many bears that I'm not sure I would enjoy it because I would be nervous the whole time. By the time we were back home in Orange County, we had driven the equivalent of a coast to coast cross country road trip. We white-water rafted on the Snake River. We drank beer with cowboys in Cody Wyoming. We camped on a desert lake under the Milky Way. It was a great trip and we saw a ton of amazing things. One thing I do regret about rushing through Yellowstone this time is that we didn't get to do a few of the longer hikes on our itinerary. 2 days in Yellowstone is barely enough time to drive the loop.