Nugget B: Wonderful Geysers Not To Be Missed

Visiting Yellowstone Park in the summer, you'll want to devote at least a half day to a walk past the many different and beautiful hydrothermal features in Upper Geyser Basin. While out in the basin, plan on waiting for an eruption of one of the geysers that are predictable but not always dependable.

For Grand Geyser (left), you may have to wait two hours or more. But I've never heard of anyone being disappointed by Grand. Recently, it erupts about every 8 to 12 hours and may go to 200 feet (60 m). Don't leave after the first exciting burst of raw natural energy—sometimes it has as many as four bursts.

It's a longer walk to catch Riverside Geyser erupting (right). This one goes off close to every 6 hours and has been dependable for years. Its graceful fountain over the Firehole River may catch a rainbow when the sun is right.

Others with predicted eruption times listed at the visitor center are Daisy, Castle, and Great Fountain geysers. You'll need to drive 8 miles (13 km) north of Old Faithful Village to see Great Fountain Geyser (left). It's on Firehole Lake Drive, where there are numerous other features worth looking at with very little walking to do. Great Fountain has a beautiful crater built up of concentric circles of geyserite. Its thrilling eruption goes as high as 150 feet (45 m), and convenient benches place you very close to the action.

This next one is a bonus: nobody can tell you when and how to see an eruption like this. In September of 2001 (six days before 9/11), I had a rare and unpredictable treat—an eruption of Giantess Geyser. This one may erupt 3 or 4 times a year—or it may not. You can see in the picture at right, taken by Linton Brown, that the water from this geyser goes to amazing heights, dwarfing the watchers. What you can't see here is the deafeningly loud steam phase that Giantess's eruptions pass through between water phases.

CREDITS: The photos of Grand and Riverside geysers are by Bruno Giletti, the photo of Great Fountain Geyser is by Leslie Kilduff, and the photo of Giantess Geyser is by Linton Brown.

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 Find out how geysers work on pages 82–84 of Yellowstone Treasures.

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