Situated in the north of Yellowstone, the Main Terrace at Mammoth offers the highest terrace in the park. This rises over a hundred feet above the road. The terrace can be reached from a boardwalk, which runs around the top of the terrace and then by a series of steps to the village below.

The main terrace offers a host of exciting photography from the boardwalk that runs to a dead end alongside its southern edge. Here you can record the coloured terraces and the interaction of hot water and steam. This also allows location photographs with the surrounding mountains a backdrop. At the top of the terrace is a mile long one-way loop drive that takes you to Orange Spring Mound. A 20 feet high deposit with a hot spring at the top. The resultant run off area has created a number of streams consisting of yellow green and orange trails.

Continue around the loop road and you reach the top of the boardwalk where you can descend to the village below, passing the famous Minerva Terrace. This is one of the most fabulous sights in the park. However as of June 1999 the thermal activity has ceased here due to changes underground. Whilst this happens occasionally it is not known when thermal activity will resume on the terrace.