Excelsior Geyser Crater
Excelsior Geyser Crater is what is left of a big fountain geyser that no longer erupts. It sits in the Midway Geyser Basin of Yellowstone National Park, on the Gallatin County side of Wyoming, with West Yellowstone the closest town on record at around fourteen miles. The water is near boiling. OpenStreetMap tags this spot as Indigo Spring, so expect to see both names. Anyone can visit, and visiting means looking. Soaking is out of the question at that heat.
This one is roadside. The Grand Loop Road passes a couple hundred feet from the crater on National Park Service land. The basin sits at roughly 7,200 feet and the climate on file is cold, with a hundred and fifty inches of snow in a typical year. Expect a long winter.
The record lists December through February as the best months, and since those are also the snowiest, winter access depends entirely on what the park opens up. Roadside access, open to the public. The closest campground on file is the Big Springs group area over at Island Park, about twenty miles away. The water is near boiling and will scald instantly. Keep well back from the rim.
Excelsior was a fountain-type geyser that went dormant, and the name on the map today is Excelsior Geyser Crater. Yellowstone superintendent P. W. Norris named it in 1881. OpenStreetMap records the same spot as Indigo Spring.
Looking down on Midway Geyser Basin from the bluff to the west, with Grand Prismatic Spring in the middle and Excelsior's crater by the river. Jackson's camera couldn't record color, which is why the basin reads as a gray, steaming flat in his print.
Drag to compare.
c. 1883: William Henry Jackson, National Archives, public domain. 2008: Domenico Salvagnin, CC BY 2.0.
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 Excelsior Geyser Crater.
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
- Setting
- Hillside
- The spring sits on a steep slope that climbs to the east.
- Highest ground nearby
- 237 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the east
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, December 5, 2020. This spring's heat shows up from about 440 miles up. The brightest yellow marks the warmest ground, roughly 13°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 87% 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.
Some links are affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Overview Big Springs Group Area is located 22 miles south of West Yellowstone, Montana in beautiful Island Park, Idaho at an approximate elevation of 6,300 feet. Visitors love Island Park for its world-class fishing and outstanding scenery and wildlife viewing opportunities.Recreation Big Springs is the headwaters of Henry's Fork and is one of the largest springs in the country. Henry's Fork is considered one of the best fly-fishing streams in the nation. Fishermen cast for rainbow and brook...
Excelsior Geyser Crater sits at 7,240 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 29% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Excelsior Geyser Crater is road-accessible, so you can bring more gear. The water is dangerously hot, so bring water shoes and test pools carefully. Cold air temperatures make a changing robe or warm layers essential.
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Springs Near Excelsior Geyser Crater
More Springs Around 199°F
Hike 6 waterfalls near Excelsior Geyser Crater
Looking for more outdoor adventures? Explore waterfall hikes near Excelsior Geyser Crater, Wyoming.