We camped at Norris Campground, just across from the Norris Geyser Basin. This is truly a phenomenal place, where sulphuric acid bubbles up from the ground, and the colors are more pastel and subtle than in the pools around Old Faithful. The walk puts you closer to the vents, boils, and fumaroles than at Old Faithful, and you're often walking through thick, sulphur-scented steam.
I love the tiny "volcano" at the bottom right of this picture. It looks like something we'd make with baking soda, soap, vinegar, and paper mache!
The Porcelain Basin and Springs presents a rainbow of colors, both from the boardwalk above...
...and up close
I wasn't kidding about walking though the steam - many parts of the Porcelain and Back Basin trails make you feel like Darth Vader.
This was my favorite "hydrothermal feature walk" in Yellowstone. The Old Faithful trails are certainly more dramatic and more intensely colorful, but they are also crowded and set on a wide open plain in most places. The Norris Basin trails wind through open spaces, among trees, and above and around a crazy quilt of colored pools and streams. Combined with the relative lack of crowds when compared to other places in the park, I enjoyed the Norris trails best.
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