Hiking the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone: Artist Point to Backcountry Geysers

The day opens with a view that stops you — the ribbon of the Yellowstone River carving a wide, rust-and-gold gorge, the Lower Falls throwing spray into a cool, mineral-scented wind. That is Artist Point: a vantage point photographers race to at first light, and the official starting pulse for a day spent reading the canyon in person. From here, Wildland Trekking’s guides lead a route that threads between crowds and into quieter places — fragrant lodgepole forests, wildflower meadows, high alpine lakes and, less expected in a canyon-oriented day, a secluded backcountry geyser basin where steam and mud pots burble without a boardwalk between you and the ground.