Amphitheater Springs
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Amphitheater Springs is a group of near-boiling springs in Yellowstone National Park, about six miles from West Yellowstone as the record measures it. The water is scalding. This is a thermal feature inside a national park, something to look at from a distance. Access is listed open. The USGS sampled it in 2007 and found it mildly acidic.
Inside the park at high elevation, a third of a mile or so on foot from a road whose name is not recorded. Cold country. The average temperature sits in the mid thirties. Winter snow goes deep, with moderate precipitation overall. About six miles away, Indian Creek Campground is the closest place to camp that is listed.
December through February rank highest. The water scalds. National park rules govern the site and no fee specific to the spring is listed. The chemistry on file is from a 2007 sample.
The USGS keeps a thermal monitoring site here and sampled the water in September 2007.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Amphitheater Springs.
- Setting
- Canyon floor
- Steep ground climbs away on both sides of the spring.
- Highest ground nearby
- 385 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the southeast
A slice through the ground from west to east, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
Landsat's thermal camera passed over on a clear winter day, February 21, 2020. This spring's heat shows up from about 440 miles up. The brightest yellow marks the warmest ground, roughly 14°F warmer than the land around it.
Drag to compare. The view is about 2½ miles across, and each thermal pixel covers roughly 300 feet of ground, so individual pools blur into one warm patch.
Thermal: Landsat 8/9 surface temperature, USGS (public domain), via Microsoft Planetary Computer. Aerial: USGS The National Map. More springs seen from space.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 74% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
The water at Amphitheater Springs is slightly acidic (pH 6.0).
Overview Located about eight miles (13 km) south of Mammoth Hot Springs on the road to Norris, Indian Creek Campground—elevation 7,300 feet (2225 m)—sits near the base of the Gallatin Mountains and offers breathtaking views of Electric Peak. The area offers easy access to fishing and hiking. The campground is away from the main road and provides a quieter, more primitive, experience than many other locations. For reservations at the campgrounds managed by Yellowstone National Park Lodges (Fi...
Amphitheater Springs sits at 7,540 feet above sea level, way above the mile-high mark. You may not feel the altitude strongly, but hot water still dehydrates you faster at elevation. UV is about 30% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Slightly Acidic Springs (pH ~6.0)
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