Violet Springs
Drag the handle to compare the two views. The orange dot marks the spring, in a frame about three quarters of a mile wide.
Violet Springs is a thermal spring in Yellowstone National Park, a little over three miles on foot from the Norris-Canyon Road. The record tags it hot but gives no measured temperature, so it cannot be called soakable and should not be treated that way. Public access is open under National Park Service management.
High Yellowstone plateau, over 8,000 feet. A hike of about 3.3 miles from the Norris-Canyon Road. Snow runs around 135 inches a year, and the climate is wet by interior standards. The Park Service owns it all. No description of the route, the vents, or the flow appears on file.
No best months are listed. Expect snow on the ground for much of the year. Indian Creek Campground is around eighteen miles away. Treat the water as hot and unmeasured. Park thermal rules govern the area.
Aircraft with laser scanners measured this ground to within inches. The scan strips out trees and buildings, leaving the bare shape of the land around Violet Springs.
- Setting
- Valley floor
- Gentle slopes rise on both sides.
- Highest ground nearby
- 103 ft above the spring
- Within a quarter mile, to the northwest
A slice through the ground from south to north, about 0.6 miles end to end.
Elevation data: USGS 3D Elevation Program. Aerial imagery: USGS The National Map. Public domain.
Landsat's thermal camera passed over on a clear winter day, December 3, 2022. This spring's heat shows up from about 440 miles up. The brightest yellow marks the warmest ground, roughly 17°F warmer than the land around it.
Drag to compare. The view is about 2½ miles across, and each thermal pixel covers roughly 300 feet of ground, so individual pools blur into one warm patch.
Thermal: Landsat 8/9 surface temperature, USGS (public domain), via Microsoft Planetary Computer. Aerial: USGS The National Map. More springs seen from space.
That's about twice the US average of 65. It's higher than at 73% of the springs on this site.
Heat flow measures the warmth working its way up through the ground from deep inside the earth. Where it runs high, rain and snowmelt that seep down through cracks in the rock come back up hot.
See every spring on the geothermal heat map →
Heat flow estimate: Stanford Thermal Earth Model (Aljubran & Horne, 2024), CC BY 4.0.
Overview Located about eight miles (13 km) south of Mammoth Hot Springs on the road to Norris, Indian Creek Campground—elevation 7,300 feet (2225 m)—sits near the base of the Gallatin Mountains and offers breathtaking views of Electric Peak. The area offers easy access to fishing and hiking. The campground is away from the main road and provides a quieter, more primitive, experience than many other locations. For reservations at the campgrounds managed by Yellowstone National Park Lodges (Fi...
At 8,069 feet, Violet Springs is in high-altitude territory where the air is noticeably thinner. Soaking in hot water accelerates dehydration and can amplify altitude effects like headache and fatigue. UV radiation is roughly 32% stronger here. Wear sunscreen even on overcast days and take breaks from the water to rehydrate.
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