Geyser eruptions: Photos

During our first visit to Yellowstone National Park Pam and I were not just a little frustrated by events around Grand Geyser which developped as follows: As «Grand» is one of the geysers whose eruptions occur at vaguely regular intervals, park rangers are able to post predictions of the next eruption. On a beautiful but bitterly cold autumn day we arrived at Grand about half an hour after the beginning of the time window announced by the rangers (9 a.m. till 1 p.m.). As other people were waiting already it was obvious that the eruption had not taken place yet.

Despite the bright sunshine the waiting soon became an endurance test due to a persistent cold wind. At one stage my wife «risked» running away to get us some hot coffee from the shop at Old Faithful Lodge. Again and again we saw Old Faithful, Daisy and other geysers erupt in the distance, but not Grand. After what seemd endless hours there came the end of Grand's time window - but no eruption, not even at 1.30 p.m. At that stage a park ranger appeared and without any further comment replaced the figures on the plates: The eruption was now supposed to take place between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m..

At this stage we lost confidents of rangers' predictions and the cold got the better of us. We gave up. You already know what's coming. We hiked away, back to the Lodge, got to our room, tried to warm up, looked out of the window, and - of corse - saw Grand happily erupt in the distance, too far away for any productive photography. Anyhow, we promised to be back another year; and indeed we were, having more time and warmer weather at our disposal as the movies and photos on this page prove. Guess which geyser has become Jürg's favorite... ;-)

By the way - this story is not intended as critizism of the rangers' work. Predicions are notoriously difficult, in particular if the previous eruption happened at night.

Jürg Alean