Picnic area · Yellowstone National Park
A shaded riverside picnic stop near Old Faithful.
Overview
Map
Plan your stop
The highest, rockiest slopes around here are a summer buffet for grizzly bears.
Yellowstone Tour Guide
Parkwolf is a GPS audio tour guide for Yellowstone National Park. As you drive, it chimes in with what’s ahead: hidden gems, upcoming stops, history, geology, and wildlife, right through your car’s speakers.
See the Yellowstone audio tourRecorded for this area
The Flies Beside the Hot Springs“When you're walking a geyser-basin boardwalk, look for tiny flies around the runoff. Some live among the mats of microscopic organisms, and their larvae feed on algae there.”
Plays on the road 0.5 mi from Nez Perce Picnic Area in the Parkwolf Yellowstone Tour Guide.
More stories near here in the app
“First time driving through a national park. We used the Yellowstone tour on grand loop Road and it’s just like having a tour guide in your car with you.”
Guide
Nez Perce Picnic Area is a wooded, day-use picnic spot beside the Firehole River, close to where Nez Perce Creek joins it in the Fountain Flats area. It’s a good place to stretch a drive through the Lower Geyser Basin into a meal by the water; the shade and riverbank are the draw, rather than a separate attraction to build a day around.
There are picnic tables and a vault toilet, but no food service or potable drinking water. Bring what you need to eat and drink, and keep food, trash, and scented items secured when you’re not using them. Park guidance allows camp stoves or self-contained charcoal grills at picnic areas; overnight camping isn’t allowed.
Take Fountain Flats Drive off the Grand Loop Road near the Lower Geyser Basin and continue past Nez Perce Creek; the picnic area is shortly after the crossing. A fenced grave about 30 yards south of the restroom marks Martha “Mattie” Shipley Culver, who died here of tuberculosis in 1889 at age 30. She and her husband had worked at the nearby Marshall-Firestone Hotel the previous summer. Leave the grave and any historic material undisturbed.
Wildlife
713 sightingsGrizzly BearMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
743 sightingsWolfMost seen around 6 AMSighting map
5,273 sightingsBisonMost seen around 7 AMSighting map
3,258 sightingsElkMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
397 sightingsMooseMost seen around 7 PMSighting map
1,494 sightingsBlack BearMost seen around 7 PMSighting mapSighting maps show where each species has been reported across Yellowstone. Wildlife moves, so no sighting is guaranteed.
Keep exploring
EasyFountain Freight Road Trail4 mi · 2.5 hr · 0.8 mi awayA level old-road walk past hot springs, river, meadows, and a lake.
EasySentinel Meadows & Queen’s Laundry Trail3.8 mi · 3 hr · 1.2 mi awayA meadow walk to Queen’s Laundry and its 1881 bathhouse
EasyFountain Paint Pot Trail0.6 mi · 38 min · 2.4 mi awayMud bubbles, geysers and steam, packed into one short loop.
EasyThree Senses Nature Trail0.2 mi · 12 min · 3.3 mi awayA quick boardwalk stop beside Artesia Geyser
EasyMidway Geyser Basin Trail0.7 mi · 45 min · 3.5 mi awayA compact boardwalk loop to a giant spring and a blue crater.
EasyGrand Prismatic Overlook Trail1.6 mi · 1.5 hr · 4.4 mi awayA short climb to see Grand Prismatic from above
EasyFairy Falls Trail4.5 mi · 3 hr · 4.4 mi awayAn easy forest walk to a 200-foot waterfall.
EasyImperial Geyser Trail6.6 mi · 4 hr · 4.4 mi awayA forest walk to a 200-foot waterfall and two active geysers.
Picnic area · 1 mi awayFirehole River Picnic AreaPause by the Firehole where geothermal water warms the river.Sight · 2.3 mi awayFountain Paint PotThe mudpot is the star; the boardwalk adds three more thermal types.
Sight · 3.1 mi awayWhite Dome GeyserThe cone is the main show; an eruption is a bonus.
Beach · 3.1 mi awayFirehole Canyon Swimming AreaA river dip that follows the snowmelt’s schedule.
Sight · 3.3 mi awayGreat Fountain GeyserIts long, multi-burst eruptions reward a flexible wait.
Picnic area · 3.3 mi awayWhiskey Flat Picnic AreaA meadow-side picnic break where bison sometimes pass.
Sight · 3.7 mi awayGrand Prismatic SpringThe overlook turns a vivid close-up into a full ring of color.Sight · 3.9 mi awayImperial GeyserThe blue geyser pool adds 1.2 miles beyond Fairy Falls.Parkwolf’s Yellowstone ranking
The audio tour guide for the drive, plus offline maps, trails, and wildlife heatmaps for when the signal drops.
