Yellowstone mudpots! 🌋 Watch the pink bubbling Fountain Paint Pots in Yellowstone National Park! 🌋 Wyoming travel blog

Hi there!

 

As it goes in Yellowstone National Park, there are many thermal features to see!

Among those thermal features that you can see in Yellowstone are mudpots, which the National Park Service describes as a “natural double boiler.”

Basically, a mudpot can look like a bubbling pot of mud!

 

 

You can make it a walk to the Fountain Paint Pots to see mud pots in Yellowstone.

 

 

Walking the Fountain Paint Pot Trail to the mudpots

 

You will find the Fountain Paints Pots along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail. (You’ll also see it written as the Fountain Paint Pots Trail.)

While this trail is named after the mudpots called the Fountain Paint Pots, a walk along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail is about more than just seeing the mudpots!

 

 

According to the National Park Service, on the trail around here you can see a variety of thermal features including mudpots, geysers, hot springs, and fumaroles.

And, when you see a boardwalk near mudpots in Yellowstone… stay on the boardwalk! Thermal areas can be HOT and dangerous.

 

👆 The area around the mudpots is a fragile thermal area.

 

👆 There is unstable ground and boiling water in the area around the mudpots.

 

 

Mudpots in the fall season

According to the National Park Service, the Fountain Paint Pots are constantly changing and you’ll see the mudpots differently depending on the time of year:

Fountain Paint Pot spits thin, sloppy mud in the spring.

In the spring, the mudpots are thin, soupy, and splash a lot.

As the year goes on and there is less water, they become thick and gurgly.

By late summer, they are quite thick.

In drier conditions, thick bubbles of mud and gas ooze through cracks, then burst and collapse, forming cone-shaped mounds.

 

For reference, my visit to the mudpots was in early October 2021.

 

More below about a walk to see the bubbling mud in Yellowstone!

 

 

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Now…

A walk to see bubbling mudpots in Yellowstone

There is a stretch of road along the western side of the Yellowstone Grand Loop Road that has a number of popular thermal basins.

And it’s at the northern end of this section of road that you’ll find the Fountain Paint Pots.

So if you’re starting your day trip to Yellowstone from West Yellowstone MT and making your way to the Old Faithful geyser overlook or Grand Prismatic Spring overlook, then the Yellowstone mudpots at Fountain Paint Pots can be along the way.

 

Explore the map.

 

You’ll see a sign for the Fountain Paint Pot, and it will be a turn off of the main road.

 

 

You’ll then drive into the parking lot.

 

 

Then you’ll get started on the trail!

Right near where the trail starts is also where you’ll find a Fountain Paint Pot trail guide that will explain to you the different thermal features (of mudpots, and more) that you can see as you are walking along. There is a suggested donation of $1 so bring cash!

 

 

And then in a few minutes you’ll come across the Celestine Pool. (Maybe you’ll see a bubbling hot spring!)

 

 

 

And then if you keep walking straight, you’ll also see the orange bacteria mat and the Silex Spring.

 

 

 

Then you can continue along to where you see the trail go, and you’ll come across the mudpots known as the Fountain Paint Pots!

 

 

You’ll know it’s the mudpots because there will be a sign. And because you’ll see the mud bubbling! The trail loops around the mudpots.

 

 

You can keep walking along this section of the boardwalk loop to get different angles overlooking the Fountain Paint Pots.

 

 

And then after you’ve taken in the views of the mudpots, you can continue your walk onwards to see more thermal features nearby!

 

 

Next up, you can look for the Red Spouter and Leather Pool!

 

And that’s a bit about a walk to see mudpots along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail!

 

See more thermal features in Yellowstone:

• Old Faithful Geyser overlook
• Great Fountain Geyser
• White Dome Geyser
• Solitary Geyser
• Celestine Pool
• Grand Prismatic Spring
• Firehole Spring
• Surprise Pool

 

Plan more of your trip to Yellowstone:

• How to spend one day in Yellowstone
• Grand Teton to Yellowstone
• One day in Grand Teton
• Driving through Grand Teton

 

HAPPY WALKING TO MUDPOTS IN YELLOWSTONE!