Sulphur Caldron
Sulphur Caldron sits maybe a hundred feet from Grand Loop Road, inside Yellowstone. Scalding. Its name tells you about as much as anyone knows, since the record holds a temperature and a position and stops there. The Park Service holds this ground in Gallatin County and lets people in. No town sits closer than West Yellowstone.
Roadside access from the Grand Loop Road, a hundred feet or so. Elevation around 7,700 feet. This is one of the drier points in the park by the figures on file, with snowfall near ten and a half feet and an annual average temperature of about 34. National park land. Nothing else on record describes the surroundings.
Scalding water. Stay on the viewing area and keep children close. The winter months rank as best on record; the Grand Loop Road may or may not be drivable then, so confirm. Tower Fall Campground, about eighteen miles off, is the camp on record. No fee listed.
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 Sulphur Caldron.
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 west.
- Highest ground nearby
- 132 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the west
A slice through the ground from southwest to northeast, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 68% 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.
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Overview Tower Fall Campground—elevation 6,600 feet (2012 m)—is on the north side of the steep, winding, road to Dunraven Pass. The campground is near the Tower General Store and Tower Fall. The Lamar Valley, with spectacular wildlife viewing opportunities, is nearby as are several Day Hikes in the Tower and Northeast Area. Roosevelt Lodge, a short drive from the campground, offers dining and horseback riding. For reservations at the campgrounds managed by Yellowstone National Park Lodges (F...
Sulphur Caldron sits at 7,728 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 31% stronger than at sea level, so bring sunscreen and drink more water than you normally would.
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Sulphur Caldron 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.
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