Geysers

New Zealand Geysers

Yellowstone Geysers

I stand behind the flimsy wooden railing, restless, tired of the anticipation.  The rotten egg smell is triggering my gag reflex.  My eyes are burning from staring into the sun-drenched mud, waiting for something to happen.  If this sucker doesn't blow within the next sixty seconds, I'm outta here.  I need a tall glass of iced tea.  With lemon.  Or better yet, a bowl of vanilla ice cream.  Is there such a thing as an iced tea float?

And then I see it.  Steam.  Bubbles.  More steam.  Then out of the bowels of the Earth erupts a fountain of water.  The plume plunges, teasing me, but then rises again.  Higher and higher, creating a white water explosion as beautiful as the fireworks on the Fourth of July.  It is over within seconds, but all thoughts of air-conditioned restaurants are now gone.  I walk along the boardwalk to the next geyser and wait once again.

Geysers are one of Mother Earth's freaks of nature, which continue to delight and baffle us mere mortals.  For a geyser to erupt, there needs to be an abundant supply of superheated water below the ground and a narrow vent for the pressurized water to escape from.  There are not that many places in the world that have such reservoirs.  Even the geysers on the North Island of New Zealand are becoming a thing of the past because geothermal plants have tapped into their supplies.  Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming is by far the best place to see this rare phenomenon.  There are hundreds of geysers within the park's boundaries.  Good ole Old Faithful stills blows every 90 minutes!  Iceland is another great place to see geysers and for the very intrepid there is the Valley of the Geysers in Siberia, El Tatio in Chile and Umnak Island off Alaska.
Of course, I want to see them all!

Old Faithful