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- May 31, 2015
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- 3,313
July 18-20, 2025
Over the winter, we had formed the idea of going to Joseph's Coat and Fairyland Basin, and since permits are not in high demand for the area, we went ahead and booked a trip after the lottery period closed. I'm pretty sure I've now read every resource on the Fairyland area at least twice and watched every video about it because they're so limited. The scenery probably doesn't greatly appeal to most people, and it takes a bit of effort and patience to get there. Joseph's Coat is not that hard to get to but still doesn't get visited a whole lot, probably for similar reasons. We were up for it though.
Andrew, Steve, and I started off around 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, from the Wapiti trailhead near Canyon. We had a little over 8 miles to walk to our Moss Creek camp site. Storms had been developing during the afternoon and some small ones had rolled through. We had some bison walk through the other end of the parking lot as we were getting ready, which some kind tourists felt the need to point out to us for our safety.
Fortunately, there were no storms as we walked through the very upper end of the Hayden Valley.
The wildflowers were great.
We got to the edge of the meadows and crossed a very thermally influenced creek.
Then it was several miles of beautiful forest to our camp site.
It rained lightly on us for a lot of the walk in the forest, and we had quite a bit of thunder too. Pretty cool conditions really. Very pleasant hike. The bugs were kind of bad, but a little bug spray did the trick.
We got to camp and set up the tarp to cook under, and then the rain stopped, and we saw the sun for just a bit.
Steve and Andrew still under the tarp while the sun was out.
Moss Creek, as evidenced by its banks.
A nice quiet night passed, and we were on to Joseph's Coat the next morning. Because of time constraints, we needed to get to camp, set up, and head off for Fairyland as quickly as possible. Total mileage for the day would be somewhere around 12-13 based on our estimates, and vertical would not be too much of an issue aside from a couple short steep portions.
Some thermal sections of Moss Creek upstream, right next to the trail.
Then we left the trail to get to the camp site. There is no trail to it, and if there is a social trail, we did not find it on the way in or the way out.
Morning in the Bambi forest. Nice walking through here, but the undergrowth was pretty wet and got our feet wet. We didn't stay on the best course possible, but it was fine.
And here we are at the unnamed tributary of Broad Creek that runs down into the Joseph's Coat area.
Much more thermal here.
And now we're almost to the main area.
We thought this place was awesome.
The camp site took a little poking around to find. We found the fire ring, but there is no longer a hang pole, and there is no indication of where to set up tents. Hardly even apparent where others have set up in the past. Based on a little looking around, the old site must have had a bunch of dead trees blow down within the last few years. We found the collapsed hang pole (photo later on) and the old fire ring pretty close by.
Bison skull right at the fire ring.
Where we decided to set the tents. Pretty nice spot! All sorts of bison, deer, and elk sign throughout here.
Remnants of a fire ring under a fallen log.
We had taken a tad longer than we had hoped to get to camp and get set up. We headed out for our next objective around 11:30 a.m.
Grasshopper nymph near the creek. The color was perfect to blend in with the soil/crust in the area.
Started off following Broad Creek.
Just wonderful colors.
We tried to go up high to the woods soon after, but we came back down and found a wildly clear trail that is most likely primarily maintained by bison.
The trail soon ended, and we had to go up the hill. Into the deadfall, which we had expected to see plenty of.
It was slow going and not all that fun. We found a few short less bad stretches, but nothing consistently good.
We got to Coffee Pot Springs by around 1:30.
This was on the other side of a little ridge from the springs.
Below the main area.
Big mud pits.
Andrew and Steve out looking around.
By this time, we were pretty sure we would not being making the full Fairyland Basin attempt. Our agreement was that we would only make the attempt if all 3 of us agreed. I won't speak for the others, but I was pretty beat already from the bushwhacking, and it was supposedly pretty bad closer to the end. We figured it would be 4 hours round-trip to get from Coffee Pot to Fairyland back to Coffee Pot (plus time checking out Fairyland), then another 2 hours back to camp. Plus all the fatigue that comes with it. Felt lame to abandon the ultimate goal, but in order to enjoy ourselves, we decided to pull the plug on Fairyland.
Although it's not a priority, if we try this one again, we're going to give ourselves an entire day to make the attempt at Fairyland. And I'd recommend that for most people, unless you're a fast deadfall walking machine or you just like pain and suffering. I don't think I was fully mentally prepared for it. We maybe could have muscled through it and gotten back around sunset, but that didn't sound good to me. I didn't really want to take the risk of impaling myself on deadfall in the dark, miles from the nearest trail.
We went a bit farther out just to look around though. The going was pretty easy for this bit, and the views were grand.
Snacking and relaxing.
Looking out to Broad Creek and Yellowstone River canyons.
Then it was back to camp, back through the deadfall.
We found our big bison trail and followed it to where it crosses the creek. We forded the creek, and as we were changing our shoes, we heard some crashing in the trees on the hill. We had seen so much bison sign in all areas we had been through on this trip. Even in the middle of the deadfall, at Coffee Pot, and beyond. So we just assumed it was a bison. Nope, it was a tree falling down in the breeze. Stunningly loud when it came down. I have heard trees come down in the wind while camping before but never actually seen one until this time.
And because I just mentioned it, it bears saying a bit more about: it was so cool to see how bison pass through all areas. Even in the middle of nowhere in the deadfall, or out on the plateau between Broad and Shallow Creeks, we'd see sign of them every few yards.
We looked around Joseph's Coat area a bit more once we were back.
We took a dip in Broad Creek by the camp site to rinse off all the sweat. It was cold and refreshing. The evening was nice and cool, but not cold. It was clear and dry out, but our tents were wet inside and out in the morning, I think because of all the steam and the topography of the area.
There is a fumarole probably 200 feet from the fire ring and similarly close to the tents. It has an somewhat irregular, very low rumble that vibrates the air and sounds almost like a big engine. It was tough to adjust to that as we fell asleep.
In the morning, I found the collapsed bear hang from the old camp site. It's only about 50 yards from the new fire ring area.
We had about 11 miles for our hike out. We like to plan trips where the last day is shorter, but oh well.
We tried a slightly different course back to the trail, staying farther south to avoid ups and downs through ravines where we could.
Between the thermal ponds.
In a ravine despite our best efforts.
Several miles later, back on the trail and almost to the cars. We saw zero people on this trip aside from at the parking lot. There was one tent at the Moss Creek site on our hike out, but that was it.
We stopped for a chili dog lunch at Canyon Village. I've spent a fair bit of time in the park but had never spent any time at Canyon Village before, so that was new. I expected the food would cost more than it did. Pleasant surprise.
Despite not reaching our ultimate goal, it was still a great trip with a lot of great scenery, and I'm glad we went! Incredible little area if you're into thermal features.
Over the winter, we had formed the idea of going to Joseph's Coat and Fairyland Basin, and since permits are not in high demand for the area, we went ahead and booked a trip after the lottery period closed. I'm pretty sure I've now read every resource on the Fairyland area at least twice and watched every video about it because they're so limited. The scenery probably doesn't greatly appeal to most people, and it takes a bit of effort and patience to get there. Joseph's Coat is not that hard to get to but still doesn't get visited a whole lot, probably for similar reasons. We were up for it though.
Andrew, Steve, and I started off around 4:30 p.m. on a Friday, from the Wapiti trailhead near Canyon. We had a little over 8 miles to walk to our Moss Creek camp site. Storms had been developing during the afternoon and some small ones had rolled through. We had some bison walk through the other end of the parking lot as we were getting ready, which some kind tourists felt the need to point out to us for our safety.
Fortunately, there were no storms as we walked through the very upper end of the Hayden Valley.
The wildflowers were great.
We got to the edge of the meadows and crossed a very thermally influenced creek.
Then it was several miles of beautiful forest to our camp site.
It rained lightly on us for a lot of the walk in the forest, and we had quite a bit of thunder too. Pretty cool conditions really. Very pleasant hike. The bugs were kind of bad, but a little bug spray did the trick.
We got to camp and set up the tarp to cook under, and then the rain stopped, and we saw the sun for just a bit.
Steve and Andrew still under the tarp while the sun was out.
Moss Creek, as evidenced by its banks.
A nice quiet night passed, and we were on to Joseph's Coat the next morning. Because of time constraints, we needed to get to camp, set up, and head off for Fairyland as quickly as possible. Total mileage for the day would be somewhere around 12-13 based on our estimates, and vertical would not be too much of an issue aside from a couple short steep portions.
Some thermal sections of Moss Creek upstream, right next to the trail.
Then we left the trail to get to the camp site. There is no trail to it, and if there is a social trail, we did not find it on the way in or the way out.
Morning in the Bambi forest. Nice walking through here, but the undergrowth was pretty wet and got our feet wet. We didn't stay on the best course possible, but it was fine.
And here we are at the unnamed tributary of Broad Creek that runs down into the Joseph's Coat area.
Much more thermal here.
And now we're almost to the main area.
We thought this place was awesome.
The camp site took a little poking around to find. We found the fire ring, but there is no longer a hang pole, and there is no indication of where to set up tents. Hardly even apparent where others have set up in the past. Based on a little looking around, the old site must have had a bunch of dead trees blow down within the last few years. We found the collapsed hang pole (photo later on) and the old fire ring pretty close by.
Bison skull right at the fire ring.
Where we decided to set the tents. Pretty nice spot! All sorts of bison, deer, and elk sign throughout here.
Remnants of a fire ring under a fallen log.
We had taken a tad longer than we had hoped to get to camp and get set up. We headed out for our next objective around 11:30 a.m.
Grasshopper nymph near the creek. The color was perfect to blend in with the soil/crust in the area.
Started off following Broad Creek.
Just wonderful colors.
We tried to go up high to the woods soon after, but we came back down and found a wildly clear trail that is most likely primarily maintained by bison.
The trail soon ended, and we had to go up the hill. Into the deadfall, which we had expected to see plenty of.
It was slow going and not all that fun. We found a few short less bad stretches, but nothing consistently good.
We got to Coffee Pot Springs by around 1:30.
This was on the other side of a little ridge from the springs.
Below the main area.
Big mud pits.
Andrew and Steve out looking around.
By this time, we were pretty sure we would not being making the full Fairyland Basin attempt. Our agreement was that we would only make the attempt if all 3 of us agreed. I won't speak for the others, but I was pretty beat already from the bushwhacking, and it was supposedly pretty bad closer to the end. We figured it would be 4 hours round-trip to get from Coffee Pot to Fairyland back to Coffee Pot (plus time checking out Fairyland), then another 2 hours back to camp. Plus all the fatigue that comes with it. Felt lame to abandon the ultimate goal, but in order to enjoy ourselves, we decided to pull the plug on Fairyland.
Although it's not a priority, if we try this one again, we're going to give ourselves an entire day to make the attempt at Fairyland. And I'd recommend that for most people, unless you're a fast deadfall walking machine or you just like pain and suffering. I don't think I was fully mentally prepared for it. We maybe could have muscled through it and gotten back around sunset, but that didn't sound good to me. I didn't really want to take the risk of impaling myself on deadfall in the dark, miles from the nearest trail.
We went a bit farther out just to look around though. The going was pretty easy for this bit, and the views were grand.
Snacking and relaxing.
Looking out to Broad Creek and Yellowstone River canyons.
Then it was back to camp, back through the deadfall.
We found our big bison trail and followed it to where it crosses the creek. We forded the creek, and as we were changing our shoes, we heard some crashing in the trees on the hill. We had seen so much bison sign in all areas we had been through on this trip. Even in the middle of the deadfall, at Coffee Pot, and beyond. So we just assumed it was a bison. Nope, it was a tree falling down in the breeze. Stunningly loud when it came down. I have heard trees come down in the wind while camping before but never actually seen one until this time.
And because I just mentioned it, it bears saying a bit more about: it was so cool to see how bison pass through all areas. Even in the middle of nowhere in the deadfall, or out on the plateau between Broad and Shallow Creeks, we'd see sign of them every few yards.
We looked around Joseph's Coat area a bit more once we were back.
We took a dip in Broad Creek by the camp site to rinse off all the sweat. It was cold and refreshing. The evening was nice and cool, but not cold. It was clear and dry out, but our tents were wet inside and out in the morning, I think because of all the steam and the topography of the area.
There is a fumarole probably 200 feet from the fire ring and similarly close to the tents. It has an somewhat irregular, very low rumble that vibrates the air and sounds almost like a big engine. It was tough to adjust to that as we fell asleep.
In the morning, I found the collapsed bear hang from the old camp site. It's only about 50 yards from the new fire ring area.
We had about 11 miles for our hike out. We like to plan trips where the last day is shorter, but oh well.
We tried a slightly different course back to the trail, staying farther south to avoid ups and downs through ravines where we could.
Between the thermal ponds.
In a ravine despite our best efforts.
Several miles later, back on the trail and almost to the cars. We saw zero people on this trip aside from at the parking lot. There was one tent at the Moss Creek site on our hike out, but that was it.
We stopped for a chili dog lunch at Canyon Village. I've spent a fair bit of time in the park but had never spent any time at Canyon Village before, so that was new. I expected the food would cost more than it did. Pleasant surprise.
Despite not reaching our ultimate goal, it was still a great trip with a lot of great scenery, and I'm glad we went! Incredible little area if you're into thermal features.
