There are a lot of geysers in Yellowstone National Park. Most of us don’t encounter geysers during our everyday life, but when you are in Yellowstone for a couple days they can become almost commonplace because of how much geothermal activity is all around you. However, Steamboat Geyser in the Norris Geyser Basin is a special geyser.
How to Get to Steamboat Geyser and the Norris Geyser Basin
Located on the northern side of the Grand Loop Road the Norris Geyser Basin does not receive as many visitors as areas like the Upper Geyser Basin where Old Faithful is. It is not hard to get too though. Most visitors will probably come in to the park on Highway 191 and then get on Highway 89 (Grand Loop Road) at the Madison Campground. You stay on Highway 89 until you reach the Norris Geyser Basin. Instead of turning right onto the Norris Canyon Road you will turn left onto a small road that will take you to the parking lot.
There a quite a few geysers to see in the Norris Geyser Basin, but to get to Steamboat Geyser you want to go south from the visitor center and continue south on the boardwalk until you reach Steamboat Geyser. There is an upper viewing deck and lower viewing deck for this geyser since it a very large geothermal feature.
What You Will See at the Norris Geyser Basin
The Norris Geyser Basin is pretty large. Boardwalks can take you all around a large collection of geysers and other thermal features. We visited it on our last day in the park and needed to be heading home so we did not walk around the entire area. We took the south path to see Steamboat Geyser and Cistern Spring.
Steamboat Geysers is one of the largest, and for the last hundred years or so the largest, geyser spout in the world. It is worth seeing because it is so large. While it sometimes goes years in between eruptions the last three years have been very active with a few happening each month. While we did not see an eruption we did see a lot of steam coming out of the geyser.
We are not exactly geyser enthusiasts I guess because we were not willing to wait at Steamboat geyser more than a few moments. There were a couple people set up at the upper viewpoint who I think were planning to be there the whole day. I’m sure it would be something to see, since eruptions can reach more than 300 feet in the air.
Cistern Spring is just down the path from Steamboat Geyser and it is a larger blue pool. The geysers are very cool to see, but the pools are better for taking pictures, so make sure you make your way down to Cistern Spring as well. It is actually connected to Steamboat Geyser via geological plumbing and will sometimes drain during or after an eruption.
Sum Up
Like I said, we did not spend a lot of time at the Norris Geyser basin but there are a lot more geysers you can see via the board walk. There is a small museum here and a bookstore. The NPS stamp for Norris Geyser Basin is found in the bookstore. This area is a nice walk and not nearly as crowded as some other areas of the park so it is certainly worth a visit.
