Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
More small geysers line both sides of the river near here, but they are difficult to see
through the trees. One of these was so directly a creation of the 1959 Hebgen Lake earthquake
that it's called
Seismic Geyser.
It erupted as high as 75 feet (23 m) during the following 15
years. In 1999 and 2000, a new and unnamed vent close to Seismic erupted frequently as high
as 20 feet (6 m) and sometimes much higher. Geyser gazers call it
Atershock Geyser.
Across the river from Seismic and from the trail, another very short-lived geyser, called
Fantail Geyser
for its angled eruptions, performed impressively for one spring and summer
(1986), then almost not at all since.
Beyond Atomizer, you'll find oblong
Gem Pool,
which overflows constantly. East of Gem
Pool and across the trail is
Bear Den Spring,
where, in spite of bubbling water at the bottom,
a crawl space under the rock ledge served at least once (in 1958) as a bear's winter home.
After descending the hill, look toward the west (left), where
Baby Daisy Geyser
may be
steaming. A smaller version of Daisy (
page 101
), Baby Daisy began erupting 30 or 40 feet high
(9-12 m) about every 45 minutes early in 2003 and continued through 2004. Farther along
and close to the trail, you reach pale sapphire blue
Mirror Pool,
with yellow to brown bacteria
around the edges.
Finally, you pass
Cauliflower Geyser
south of the small footbridge before you reach the
highway. The “cauliflowers” are the same type of formation as the biscuits of Biscuit Basin
(across the highway), but bigger. They are nodules of geyserite.
At the footbridge near Cauliflower Geyser, a trail leading north parallels the Grand
Loop Road to join the Mallard Creek and Fairy Falls trails about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Biscuit
Basin.
Geyser Route One features you may have missed
As you return from Morning Glory Pool, you'll have the chance to see a few hot springs and
geysers you missed if you took the recommended side trails on the way out. Three stretches of
the main trail are described below in sections labeled
(A), (B),
and
(C).
These letters corres-
pond to labels on the Upper Geyser Basin map,
page 83
.
(A)
After recrossing the bridge over the Firehole near Fan and Mortar geysers, continue
straight ahead (unless Riverside Geyser is about to erupt, in which case, don't miss it!). Here
you'll pass the
Chain Lakes Complex,
which consists of several hot springs and geysers re-
lated both to each other and to the Grotto Complex. The
Bottomless Pit
was described by the
geologist Albert C. Peale of the 1878 Hayden Survey as “a beautiful blue cavern-like spring of
great depth.”
Link Geyser
can (very infrequently) erupt to 100 feet (30 m) high.
Culvert Geyser
has an interesting story. Road engineers building the original Grand Loop
Road (now the walkway) buried one spring nearby and built a culvert around this one. This
