Norris Geyser Basin

For our third hike/walk of the day in Yellowstone National Park, we went to Norris Geyser Basin and combined some loops, the top half of the Back Basin and part of Porcelain Basin. About 1.5 miles overall. This is a beautiful area! First we saw the gorgeous Emerald Spring.

We were told that Steamboat Geyser erupted 2 days ago, but was still spouting water and steam.

Cistern Spring

Veteran Geyser

Corporal Geyser

Palpitator Spring

Fearless Geyser

Monarch Geyser Crater

Other pools and geysers

Ledge Geyser

Various springs and geysers in Porcelain Basin

On our drive to and from Norris Geyser Basin we saw some Bison, and pulled off into a turn out to take photos

zoom of bison

 

Artist Paint Pots

For our second hike/walk of the day, we went to the Artist Paint Pots. A short trail leads to loop around paint pots, geysers and boiling mud. Fun to see!

Beginning of the loop, we choose to go around clockwise as we saw steam coming out of Blood Geyser.

Blood Geyser and some paint pots

lovely blue in this paint pot

blue paint pot and Blood Geyser

Overlook of one end of the boardwalk 

Larger area seen from the trail above

a variety of the paint pots

Overlooking the area with boiling mud

This pretty pool also had boiling mud in it.

more of the paint pots as we continued along he loop

View back near the beginning of the loop

 

Monument Geyser Basin

We drove to the west side of Yellowstone National Park to do 3 short hikes/walks. We started with the 2.5 mile round trip hike with 700 ft of elevation gain to Monument Geyser Basin. We didn't see any other hikers until we were on our way back down the trail. View of the Gibbons River with some steam vents across the road from the trail head.

View of the Gibbons River on the same side of the road as the trailhead from the bridge on the road.

Most of the trail is in the woods. The first 1/3-1/2 of the trail is fairly flat parallel to the Gibbons River.

View of the Gibbons River before the trail turns and goes up hill.

View to the south just before reaching Monument Geyser Basin

We saw several openings in the ground that were spouting steam.

zoom of open vents

In the distance is Monument Geyser and some other formations

zoom of Monument Geyser

View to the north from Monument Geyser

We saw some pine drops and pearly everlasting in bloom