Grand Geyser
We decided that we would visit the world’s most famous geyser, Old Faithful, today. We had no idea of the huge number of spectacular geysers, steam vents, and hot pools we would see in the same area. It was a cool day, starting out below freezing at -2 C, but it was very sunny, not too windy, and by afternoon was about 15 C.
When we got to the Old Faithful Visitor Education Center and checked the schedule for eruptions, we saw that Grand Geyser was predicted to erupt in just under half an hour, as was Old Faithful. Since Grand only erupts once or twice a day we decided to walk the kilometre and a half to that geyser. It was well worth the effort and quick walk, as it erupted just shortly after we got there. It was a powerful eruption of water that shot in several bursts high into the sky, and lasted for almost ten minutes.
After that we walked back and saw Castle Geyser which was erupting a bit, but mostly just ejecting a short column of water a couple of metres above it’s cone. We continued on back, intending to eat our lunch. When we got to the Old Faithful area could see a huge crowd gathered there, as well as a park ranger giving an introductory talk, so we decided to watch. It erupted within five minutes of our arrival, so it was well worth delaying our lunch for a few minutes.
Grotto Geyser
After lunch we walked north to eventually arrive at the Morning Glory Pool, so named because it looks like a morning glory flower. Along the way we saw a lot of hot springs and geysers. One of the nicest was the Grotto Geyser. It was not in full blown eruption, but did shoot out many bursts of hot water every few seconds.
From Morning Glory Pool we walked back and our day enjoying the geysers was at an end.