Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Handkerchief Pool once drew down and regurgitated tourists' handkerchiefs.
The geyserite mound southeast of the parking area indicates that there has been a geyser
here for a very long time. It's been seen (and heard!) to erupt enough times to earn the name
Whistle Geyser.
Its rare eruptions are characterized by a powerful steam phase, described in
a 1931 newspaper article as sounding like “about four locomotives at a distance, with a shrill,
ringing tone to it.”
As you start along the main boardwalk,
Jagged Spring
and its smaller neighbor
Ragged
Spring
are the first features you meet. Actually geysers, they play in unison almost constantly,
and Jagged may erupt as high as 15 feet (5 m).
Cliff Geyser
across the creek is likely to be erupting, and its major eruptions may go to 40
feet (12 m) from a full pool, then drain the pool suddenly and completely.
Large and sometimes gloriously colored
Green Spring
to the left (south) of the walkway
can occasionally act as a geyser.
Turning right when the boardwalk forks, you'll see several bubbling and spouting holes.
The most vigorous of these in recent years has been the formerly famous
Handkerchief Pool.
One hundred years ago tourists would place a handkerchief in the water near the edge, watch
it be drawn out of sight by convection currents in the water, and then reappear, sometimes in
another vent.
