Red Spouter 🌋 Watching the Red Spouter fumarole steaming in Yellowstone National Park 🌋 Wyoming travel blog

Hi there!

 

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

And, depending on the time of visit you go to see the Red Spouter, the type of thermal feature you’ll see will be a hot spring, mudpot, OR a fumarole!

 

 

Depending on the conditions (aka how much water it has!), the Red Spouter will act differently.

Below will show you what the Red Spouter can be like in drier conditions. This means that this is the Red Spouter as a fumarole, when it acts like a steam vent.

 

 

Walking the Fountain Paint Pot Trail to Red Spouter

 

You will find the Red Spouter along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail.

 

 

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

 

👆 The area around Red Spouter is a fragile thermal area.

 

👆 There is unstable ground and boiling water around Red Spouter.

 

 

Red Spouter by season: hot spring, mudpot, or fumarole

According to the National Park Service, how you see the Red Spouter be be different based on the time of year.

 

In the spring, you can see the Red Spouter as a hot spring:

Soaked by snowmelt, Red Spouter spashes muddy water in spring.

 

In the summer, you can see the Red Spouter as a mudpot:

In late summer, the pool is drier.

Red Spouter spits and splatters thick mud.

 

In the fall, you can see the Red Spouter as a fumarole:

Nearly dry by fall, Red Spouter becomes a steam vent.

 

 

Red Spouter in the 50s

 

Weather in Yellowstone can also make a difference in how the Red Spouter looks when you see it!

The amount of steam coming out of the Red Spouter can be affected by the outside temperature. When I was there, the air temperature was on the cooler side.

 

 

For reference, my visit to the Red Spouter was in early October 2021 around 1pm. The outside temperature was in the 50s F at that time.

 

 

More below about a walk to see Red Spouter!

 

 

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A walk to see Red Spouter fumarole

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 Red Spouter.

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 Red Spouter 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 fumaroles, mudpots, hot springs, 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 it bubbling!)

 

 

 

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 Fountain Paint Pots.

 

 

 

Then you’ll keep walking onwards and you can start to see the Red Spouter. The trail does a little bit of a loop around it.

 

 

You can keep walking along this section of the boardwalk loop to get different angles overlooking the Red Spouter.

 

 

As you’re doing the loop, you’ll also see the Leather Pool on the other side of the trail towards the road.

 

 

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

 

 

Next, you can look out for the Clepsydra Geyser!

 

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

 

And that’s a bit about a walk to see a hot spring, mudpot, or fumarole along the Fountain Paint Pot Trail!

 

See more thermal features in Yellowstone:

• Clepsydra Geyser
• Great Fountain Geyser (across the road from Red Spouter)
• White Dome Geyser (across the road from Red Spouter)
• Old Faithful Geyser overlook
• Solitary Geyser
• 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 RED SPOUTER!