I don't know why, but Old Faithful is just one of those sites that everyone wants to see, and I was no exception. While I thoroughly enjoyed the Lower and Midway Geyser Basins, I really was all about getting to Old Faithful. Old Faithful is probably the most famous geyser in the world. It was named in 1870 when members of the Washburn Expedition noticed how regularly it erupted. Here it is smoking a bit.
Despite what you've heard, Old Faithful has never erupted "every hour on the hour." While it erupts more frequently than any of the other big geysers, it is not the largest or most regular geyser in the park. Its average interval between eruptions is about 90 minutes, varying from 51-120 minutes. We were lucky. We arrived at the Old Faithful Inn, checked out the clock inside, and had about 10 minutes before it was due to blow. These pictures below show how the geyser starts to sputter some water, gradually building to the big eruption.
Thar she blows!
Thar she blows!
An eruption lasts 1.5 to 5 minutes, expelling 3,700-8.400 gallons of boiling water, and reaching a height of 106-184 feet. As you can hear, it's fairly noisy when it erupts!
No comments:
Post a Comment