The Upper Geyser Basin, Y.N.P.

Yellowstone is most known for its wildlife, endless backcountry, and hydrothermal features. The upper geyser basin, where Old Faithful is located, is one of three locations on the earth with a large concentration of hydrothermal activity. Magma is somewhere from 3 to 8 miles below the surface of Yellowstone and provides the heat necessary to create hydrothermal activity. When rain water and melted snow seep through the cracks of the earth, it gets low enough to be heated by the magma. Steam and pressure is created under the earth and something gives to release the pressure. The pressure is released in many forms. Hot springs have water that rises to the surface and either pours off the side or is cooled enough to return back below. Fumaroles are steam vents which constantly vent sauna-hot air. Mudpots have just enough water to form mud and the heat is released via the boiling mud. Finally, the most famous of the features, geysers have pressure build below the surface and once the pressure gets too great, a violent explosion of hot water and steam are vented. These explosions can be minutes to hours long.

There are two types of geysers, cone-type and fountain-type geysers. Cone-type geysers send a constant jet of water out when they erupt. Fountain-type geysers gush a bunch of water in numerous spurts and in various directions.

In Yellowstone, Old Faithful is the most famous of all the geysers.

It erupts an average of once every 92 minutes and lasts from 2 to 5 minutes in duration. It spurts water into the air anywhere from 106 to 184 feet. Its consistency is due to its plumbing system not being closely linked with any other hydro-thermal features. Its consistent performance and spectacular height, neither a common trait, have earned it deserved fame.

Although many will just stay long enough to see an Old Faithful eruption, there are many other thermal features in the upper geyser basin. The closest geyser to Old Faithful that I have seen go off is Lion Geyser, part of the Lion Group geysers. The Lion group consists of 4 geysers: Little Cub, Lioness, Big Cub, and Lion. Lion is a cone-type geyser with a large cone. It erupts approximately 80 feet in the air for 1-7 minutes. It showed off to me during sunset.

The park rangers predict eruption times for 5 geysers in the upper geyser basin. They are Old Faithful, Castle, Grand, Daisy, and Riverside. Castle erupts about every 13 hours to a height of 75 feet. The prediction time is typically plus or minus 2 hours so it can be a time consuming process to wait for it. The geyser is named for the sinter cone it has made over thousands of years of eruptions.

Grand geyser is the second most popular geyser in the upper geyser basin. It is the tallest predictable geyser in the world with eruptions up to 200 feet. Grand is very different from Old Faithful in that it is a fountain geyser. Water is shot out in spurts. This is Grand geyser when it is dormant.

This is Grand geyser when it is active.

Riverside geyser is next to the firehole river and provides unique scenery for a geyser eruption. It’s eruption is much longer than Grand or Old Faithful, lasting approximately 20 minutes. Riverside erupts once every 6 hours at heights up to 75 feet. It is a fountain-type geyser. Note the boiling hot water next to the river on the left hand side of the photo, that’s a dormant riverside geyser.

This is an active riverside geyser.

These are the only geysers we have captured on camera. Hopefully, this blog entry can be updated with shots of an active Castle geyser or Daisy geyser.

Although geysers attract the most people, many of the hot springs around the upper geyser basin provide incredible color and beauty. My personal favorite is Chromatic Pool.

Note the amazing number of colors in the hot springs. The colors are due to thermophiles, heat-loving algae, bacteria, and archaea. Lots of research is being put into understanding thermophiles and how they survive incredible temperatures. NASA is a primary sponsor of the research, so they can understand how to search for life elsewhere in our universe. The colors also help represent the temperature of the water at certain points. The sapphire blue is the hottest region. The orange-red is the cooler region. Sorry, but I can’t recall the temperature ranges.

Gem Pool has classic hot spring shape and color.

Sapphire pool is a large pool with incredible color. It erupted in 1959 blowing away numerous “biscuits” that had surrounded the pool.

To view all of these thermal features and many more, it was a comfortable 2.5 miles walk. Truly an amazing place on planet earth.

Lake Village, a trip down memory lane

Laura and I met each other at the Mallard Dormitory in Lake Village, Yellowstone during the summer of 1997. This is our 10 year anniversary of knowing each other. What better way to celebrate than to go back to the origins of the relationship. Our first full evening off we decided to travel to Lake Village for a trip down memory lane. It was exactly that as we reminded each other of all the different things that happened that summer. From the pool playing at Lake pub to the ranger arrest at Lake Yellowstone to the romantic getaway at storm point. Memories came roaring back.

Our first stop was Lake Yellowstone where we took in the spectacular mountain view across the lake.

Then, we walked up to Lake Lodge, the location where Jeremy worked as a stock boy. The lobby and adjacent employee rec center looked nearly identical to the one in our memories. From there, we visited Mallard dorm and our old rooms. The faces were all different but the building was exactly as we left it. Finally, we went to Lake pub, the gathering place for all employees after a hard days work and one of the coolest pubs in the world. The pub contains thousands of signatures combined with years written on all the walls, ceilings, logs, etc. Back in 1997, we had written our names up on the ceiling. We had to know if it was still there. There will be no greater site for us in all of Yellowstone than this one.

The lake pub timber contains our signatures and our good friend from Florida, Jeff Laurie. After seeing our signatures, we tossed back a beer each and watched the 2007 Lake employees do the same things we did years ago.

From there, we moved on to the Lake Hotel where Laura had worked. Haunting work memories flooded back to her and we had to leave Lake Village once again.

Arrival to Yellowstone National Park

Our Colorado visit was a great opportunity to catch up with old friends. A special thanks to Pete, Craig & Cinthia, and Win & Tracy for beds to sleep on. We started on a double bed with a bathroom just outside the door, then got a room with its own bathroom, then got an entire apartment! That’s some good friends.

Laura and I arrived in Bozeman, Montana on labor day after a 10 hour drive from Lakewood, CO. The next morning we drove to Gardiner, Montana where we were to check in for our Yellowstone assignment. Gardiner is a small town immediately to the north of the north entrance to Yellowstone National Park. We checked in and were excited to hear our assignment was kitchen crew for the Old Faithful Inn. During our 1997 summer work, we were both stationed at Lake Lodge and didn’t have many opportunities to explore the Old Faithful area (called the Upper Geyser Basin but we’ll save that for next blog post).

After receiving our uniforms, we entered the world’s first national park for the first time in 10 years. Ahh, the memories. Roosevelt Arch welcomed us into the park. Inscribed on the top of the arch are the words, “For the benefit and enjoyment of the people”.

We stopped at Mammoth Hot Springs to grab some lunch at the EDR (Employee Dining Room) before continuing on to Old Faithful, which is approximately 50 miles from Mammoth. There’s nothing good to say about the EDR except that they all have a decent salad bar. I’d actually trade my EDR tickets for Mama Gladness’s rice and beans dinners from Africa. At least in Africa, the food was natural.

We drove our way South and numerous sites made it impossible not to stop. Along the way, many of the Yellowstone lifers also welcomed us.

When we arrived at the inn, we checked into our accomodations and were assigned a 10:30 AM meeting with the inn management to receive our direct assignment. Having the afternoon to do as we wish, we decided to get settled into our rooms and then explore the inn.

The inn is more than 100 years old and made mostly of lodgepole pines, which Yellowstone is full of. It also was designated a National Historic Site in the 1980s. We were immediately blown away by the lobby.

The lobby had 4 floors of which tourists could meander on 2 of them (2 are unsafe for constant traffic after an earthquake some years ago). A large fireplace is a major part of the lobby floor.

The park service offers inn tours so Laura and I hope to go on one of those. Of course, what really makes this rustic hotel famous is its proximity to the Old Faithful geyser.

It’s possible to watch Old Faithful fire off from the inn’s second floor outside deck, but most want a closer, more personal glimpse.

Old Faithful is a cone geyser which is famous for its timeliness. The geyser can be predicted within +/- 10 minutes which fits well into most Americans’ schedules. It also occurs quite frequently, going off about every 90 minutes. The inn even has a clock within its lobby so guests can check out the next “blast time”.


Old Faithful is the most visited site in Yellowstone making the inn the most popular place to stay and eat. The restaurant has approximately 200 tables.

The next morning we reported for duty and were assigned the lowest, dirtiest kitchen job at the inn, DISHWASHER! The only thing that’s made this job fun is the people you work with. I’ve been working in the dish room with Debbie, a Montana native, who gets about twice the amount of work done in half the amount of time that I take. We run a huge industrial dishwasher.

Laura is working with Nadim, an Indian man from Portland, Oregon. Nadim is the best conversationalist in the park; he’s got great stories. They are the pot scrubbers.

Laura has been picking up extra shifts as hostess in hopes of getting out of the dishwashing gig.

I’m going to be doing the same as a restaurant busser in the near future. Things seem to change fast in the kitchen so I think we’ll be moving around before long. Because help is far and few between, we’ve got 6 9-hour days this week so it will be a rough one. Just gotta keep remembering how great that day off will be!