if you have to make the steep alternative hike back up to Mammoth Campground afterward. When finished, retrace your steps to the campground or parking areas. ▸4
▸1 0.0 Start at Boiling River/Lava Creek trailhead
▸2 0.4 Junction with trail from Mammoth Campground
▸3 0.5 Boiling River soaking area
▸4 1.0 Return to parking lots
Authors’ Favorite Legally Soakable Hot Springs in Greater Yellowstone
A soak in the natural Boiling River (Trail 2), is a nobrainer if you’re crossing the 45th parallel in the right season. It’s a brilliant hot pot in winter but is closed by spring runoff, often until midsummer. Soaking is most enjoyable here around sunrise or sunset.
North of Yellowstone, in the Paradise Valley, the family-friendly Chico Hot Springs Resort (chicohotsprings.com) is open year-round for swimming and soaking in open-air mineral spring– fed swimming pools.
South of Jackson and east of Hoback Junction, in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, two appealing year-round soaking options await (with U.S. Forest Service campgrounds nearby): the developed Granite Creek Hot Springs pools and the adjacent, undeveloped Granite Creek Falls Hot Springs. Both require a bit of driving (or snowmobiling or dogsledding in winter) to access, and the undeveloped option requires a sometimes-tricky and icy-cold creek ford, but the consensus is that the juice is well worth the squeeze.
For our money, the Bechler’s Dunanda Falls Creek Hot Springs (Trail 27) and the Ferris Fork natural whirlpool (aka Mr. Bubbles; Trail 25 for a photo) are the holy grail of primitive backcountry Wyoming soaking spots. Both require lengthy hikes to access, and there’s good camping nearby. Dunanda Falls can be visited in a day, but Ferris Fork requires a backpacking trip. En route to Union Falls (Trail 34), Ouzel Pool (aka Scout Pool) is a soothing warm-water swimming hole. Nearby, thermally fed Mountain Ash Creek is yet another swell option for refreshing weary bones.
If you’re still desperate for a hot soak but can’t find one, the hot public showers at Old Faithful Inn (see page 199) are passable surrogates, as I first discovered after bicycling through Yellowstone on a frosty July morning, when my hands were so frozen that I could no longer properly clamp down on the brakes!
Washburn Hot Springs, an optional destination for the Mount Washburn hike (Trail 18)
TRAIL 3 NORTHWEST YELLOWSTONE
Bunsen Peak
TRAIL USE
Hike
LENGTH
4.2 miles, 3 hours, or
7.0 miles, 5.5 hours
VERTICAL FEET
±1300
DIFFICULTY
– 1 2 3 4 5 +
TRAIL TYPE
Out-and-back or Loop
SURFACE TYPE
Dirt
FEATURES
Mountain
Summit
Wildflowers
Wildlife
Great Views
Photo Opportunity
Geologic Interest
Steep
FACILITIES
None
This scenic, heart-pumping ascent is a popular early-season altitude acclimatization route. Many folks hike in jeans and tennis shoes, but boots and trekking poles come in handy for the scree slopes, especially if you opt for the full loop or the steep side trip to Osprey Falls.
Best Time
The trail is hikable May–October: snow lingers on the trail near the summit as late as June, but the south-facing slope is free of heavy snow earlier than most peaks in the park. Other than snowmelt, there is no water along the entire route. There is precious little shade along the way, so it is best to hike early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Early afternoon thundershowers (locally known as rollers)—and lightning—are common. No matter what the weather is like at the trailhead, pack a jacket for the typically brisk weather up top.
Finding the Trail
From Mammoth, go 4.5 miles south on Grand Loop Road (US 89) and turn left into the gravel Bunsen Peak trailhead (1K4) parking area on the east side of the road (just past the Golden Gate). From Norris Canyon Road, go 16.5 miles north on Grand Loop Road and turn right into the parking area. Get here early to secure a space in this small and popular lot. If the parking area is full, try the smaller pullouts farther along the main road.
Trail Description
From beyond the service road barrier at the Bunsen Peak trailhead ▸1 parking area, the singletrack earthen trail splits off from Old Bunsen Peak Road at a signed junction ▸2 opposite a few waterfowl-rich ponds. Just up the hill through some sagebrush, a notice board ▸3 has a map of trails in the Mammoth region.
The patchwork “burn mosaic” pattern left by the 1988 fires, most evident from Grand Loop Road, demonstrates how supposedly catastrophic fires can actually open up new ecological niches.
The doubletrack gravel trail winds gently up through lodgepole pines in a regenerating burn mosaic created by the 1988 North Fork Fire. Thanks to the burn, in spring and summer this section is often festooned with wildflowers. The trail climbs scenically above Rustic Falls and the Golden Gate, with the Howard Eaton Trail sometimes visible off to the left above the rocky white jumble known as The Hoodoos.
Viewpoint
From
