Things to do near Norris | Yellowstone

We find Norris to be the one of the most overlooked areas in Yellowstone National Park. This area features some amazing thermal features, but because many of the geysers are not very predictable, people tend to spend more time in the Old Faithful area. If you haven’t been to Norris, make it a priority on your next trip to Yellowstone. There are also some of our favorite hikes near Norris. We are sharing our favorite things to do near Norris in Yellowstone in this post.

The Norris Geyser Basin is located on the west side of Yellowstone’s figure-8. It is a major junction, but has a relative small Visitor Center and far fewer amenities than the larger cities at Mammoth, Canyon, and Old Faithful. It’s geysers are among the best in the park, but you probably won’t be lucky enough to catch one erupting.

The tricky part about visiting this geyser basin is the limited parking. The lot fills up quickly, so we highly recommend arriving early in the morning before 9 am and visiting on a weekday. Evenings after 6:00 pm are also less busy if a morning visit doesn’t work. There is some extra street parking, but that adds distance to the hike.

Norris Geyser Basin Loop

There are two loops to walk at the Norris Geyser Basin: Back Basin and Porcelain Basin. We find Porcelain Basin to have the prettiest colors and pools, and Back Basin to have the better geysers, but that is our opinion. The Porcelain Basin walk is 1.0 mile roundtrip. The Back Basin loop is 1.75 miles roundtrip, but there is a shortcut if you don’t want to walk the full loop. We like to walk the entire look and it’s about 2.25 miles total.

The boardwalks walk right through the pools and geysers.

There are some beautiful blue pools at Norris.

There are yellows, oranges, greens, and blues at Norris Geyser Basin.

Steamboat Geyser is the largest in the world, spurting a whopping 300 feet into the air when it erupts. Unfortunately, the eruptions are irregular and rare. There were only a few dozen eruptions before 2017, but there have been nearly 50 each in each of the years since, so chances are increasing!

Steamboat Geyser is always bubbling and splashing.

Our favorite thing along this trail was Vixen Geyser.

Norris Museum

There is a small open air historic museum at Norris. The Norris Museum is a historic landmark because it was originally built in 1930, and has exhibits about geysers and other hydrothermal features. The museum is located right along the trail for the Norris Geyser Basin Loop. There are always rangers around to answer questions, too. A small bookstore is located at Norris and sits slightly closer to the parking lot.