Castle Geyser (80 ft.) and Sunshine Pool, Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Publication

Castle Geyser (80 ft.) and Sunshine Pool, Yellowstone Park, U.S.A.

Description

Castle Geyser is located a little less than half a mile north of Old Faithful Inn, which is a short distance to the left of the view. One can not fail to see the geyser as it has the largest and most conspicuous cone in the Park. There is an immense deposit around the geyser, showing that it has been in action for ages. On one side the cone is broken in such a way that it does not look unlike the ruins of an ancient feudal castle. This broken condition allows one to walk to the top of the cone and get a good view of the interior of the crater. We will see that the aperture of the geyser tube, which is of an orange color, is about thirty inches in diameter. Castle geyser is often seen in action, as eruptions take place about every thirty-six hours, but it is only once or twice during a season that it is at its best, and one may consider himself very fortunate indeed if he should see it then. In an ordinary eruption the water is thrown about 80 feet, while on those reare occasions of which we have spoken it is thrown to more than twice that height. Some few hours before an eruption it throws out little jets of water and it usually "plays" about twenty minutes, but when at its best, it continues almost an hour. After the column of water has fallen, there follows a "steam period" when large quantitites of steam arise from the crater; this phenomenon occurs in only a few of the geysers. In the foreground we see a beautiful spring, Sunshine Pool, which is lined wth most brilliantly colored geyserite, and it does indeed look like a veritable pool of sunshine.