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mal activity, as heated water lying beneath
the ground forces its way to the surface in
so many creative ways.
Old Faithful is the most famous of these
features, and this geyser gushes on a
rather predictable schedule — once every
87 or 88 minutes. It clearly does this so
tour guides can time their visits and thus
minimize how long their customers must
stand out in the freezing cold, so we were
grateful for that. The geyser sputters a few
times to tease the crowd, like a rock band
opening a song with a bass riff, then goes
full blast, every instrument blaring, steam
and water gushing 90 feet into freezing
air. It is a good show.
Old Faithful is one of thousands of such
features, and not the most colorful one.
Heated by magma churning beneath the
Earth’s surface, underground water builds
up pressure and must find an escape. Mud
pots, steam vents and boiling ponds are
common in the park’s several geyser
basins. Steaming mineral baths are home
to microbes that inexplicably subsist in
the scalding water. Luminescent greens,
yellows, blues and pinks stripe the ponds,
with each color indicating a different wa-
ter temperature. The ponds are huge
chemical percolators.
The largest and most memorable of

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