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Photo: NPS Yellowstone slide file, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Norris Geyser Basin Museum is one of the park's original trailside museums built in 1929-30. It has always been a museum. It is an outstanding example of a stone-and-log architecture.
The Norris Geyser Basin Museum, also known as Norris Museum, is one of a series of "trailside museums" in Yellowstone National Park designed by architect Herbert Maier in a style that has become known as National Park Service Rustic. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is one of three parts of a National Historic Landmark, the Norris, Madison, and Fishing Bridge Museums, which were funded by Laura Spelman Rockefeller's grant of $118,000. Built 1929 - 1930, the Norris Museum is sited on a hill between the Porcelain Basin and the Back Basin of Norris Geyser Basin. Its central breezeway frames a view of the Porcelain Basin for arriving visitors.
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Norris Geyser Basin is the hottest, oldest, and most dynamic of Yellowstone's thermal areas. The highest temperature yet recorded in any geothermal area in Yellowstone was measured in a scientific drill hole at Norris: just 1,087 ft below the surface, and there are very few thermal features at Norris under the boiling point (199 F at this elevation). Norris shows evidence of having had thermal features for at least 115,000 years. The features in the basin change daily, with frequent disturbances from seismic activity and water fluctuations. Steamboat Geyser, the tallest geyser in the world (300 to) and Echinus Geyser (pH 3.5 or so) are the most popular features. The basin consists of three areas: Porcelain Basin, Back Basin, and One Hundred Springs Plain. Porcelain Basin is barren of trees and provides a sensory experience in sound, color, and smell; a 3/4-mile (0.75 mi) dirt and boardwalk trail accesses this area. Back Basin is more heavily wooded with features scattered throughout the area; a 1.5 mi trail of boardwalk and dirt encircles this part of the basin. One Hundred Springs Plain is an off-trail section of the Norris Geyser Basin that is very acidic, hollow, and dangerous. Travel is discouraged without the guidance of knowledgeable staff members.
The Norris Soldier Station (Museum of the National Park Ranger) was an outlying station for soldiers to patrol and watch over Norris Geyser Basin. It was among the longest occupied stations in the park. A prior structure was built in 1886, replaced after fire in 1897, and modified in 1908. After the Army years, the building was used as a Ranger Station and residence until the 1959 earthquake caused structural damage. The building was restored in 1991.
Artists Paintpots is a small but lovely thermal area just south of Norris Junction. A one-mile (1 mi) round trip trail takes visitors to colorful hot springs, two large mud pots, and through a section of forest burned in 1988. Adjacent to this area are three other off-trail, backcountry thermal areas: Sylvan Springs, Gibbon Hill Geyser Basin, and Geyser Creek Thermal area. These areas are fragile, dangerous, and difficult to get to; travel without knowledgeable personnel is discouraged.
A three-mile (3 mi) section of the old road takes visitors past 60 ft high Virginia Cascades. This cascading waterfall is formed by the very small (at that point) Gibbon River.
Next to the park road just north of Norris on the Norris-Mammoth section of the Grand Loop Road, Roaring Mountain is a large, acidic thermal area (solfatara) that contains many steam vents (fumaroles) which make noises ranging from a nearly inaudible whisper to a roar that can be heard miles away. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the number, size, and power of the fumaroles was much greater than today.
This small, nearly dormant basin lies at the top of a very steep one-mile (1 mi) trail. Highlights of the area include thermos-bottle shaped geyser cones that are remnants of a much more active time, several intriguing travertine structures, and some great views.