Grand Geyser - The Tallest You Can Plan For

Photo: Yellowstone National Park, public domain (cropped)

A stop on Yellowstone Geyser Country, a free self-guided tour.

Benches face a wide, steaming pool here, and on some days hundreds of people sit on them for hours. They're waiting for Grand Geyser, often called the tallest predictable geyser in the world.

Grand is a fountain geyser. Instead of shooting from a narrow cone like Old Faithful, it blasts up through a broad pool, throwing water up to about 200 feet in a series of bursts. An eruption lasts roughly 9 to 12 minutes and can pause, then restart even higher. Keep an eye on little Turban Geyser beside it, which spouts every 20 minutes or so for hours beforehand; Grand usually begins within a minute or two of a Turban eruption.

In recent years Grand has mostly erupted every 6 to 7 hours, and rangers post a forecast with a window of an hour or more either way, so bring water, sunscreen and patience. Ferdinand Hayden, whose 1871 survey helped persuade Congress to create the park, gave Grand its name.

Getting here: Continue north along the boardwalk a few hundred yards from Castle Geyser to Grand's viewing benches.

Did you know?: After an eruption, Grand's pool drains and takes about five hours just to refill before it can build toward the next one.

Photo op: Sit near the back of the benches so the whole column and the crowd fit in the frame; burst mode catches the moment a second burst tops the first.

Nearby: None at the geyser. Restrooms and water are back near the Visitor Education Center, so fill your bottles before a long wait.

More on Wikipedia: Grand Geyser · Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden

Grand Geyser - The Tallest You Can Plan For

Stops on this tour