Fairy Falls via Freight Road Trailhead

The hike to Fairy Falls in Yellowstone National Park is an easy, fairly level, 8.5-mile loop with options for extend hikes toward Imperial Geyser and the richly active Lower Geyser Basin area. Freight Road Trailhead starts along the bicycle-friendly Fountain Freight Road following the Firehole River. Freight Road meets the Fairy Falls Trail in about 3 miles and provides an exciting view of Grand Prismatic Spring and the Excelsior Geyser. From a distance Grand Prismatic Spring seems to have a colorful glow rising above the spring. There is a bike rack for locking up bikes at the junction of Freight Road and Fairy Falls Trail. Fairy Falls Trail is a wide gravel trail that is well suited for all levels of hikers. The trail leads directly to the base of the falls in 1.8 miles. Fairy Falls gently falls 197 feet off of the Madison Plateau into a shallow blue pool. Fairy Creek continues to flow out into the Lower Geyser Basin and into the majestic Firehole River. Dense lodgepole pine forests cover the toe of the plateau and begin to open up into beautiful meadows dotted with springs. From the falls, continue north on the trail toward the Fairy Springs area, an active area in the Lower Geyser Basin. For a short out and back side trip, follow the signs to Imperial Geyser, an impressive and uncrowded geyser that erupts very frequently. When you reach the bridge over the Firehole River, be sure to check out the Ojo Cailente Spring, a clear blue hot spring that flows into the Firehole River.