Upper Geyser Basin
PREDICTED GEYSERS
Quick Guide

Castle Geyser | Daisy Geyser | Grand Geyser
Old Faithful Geyser | Riverside Geyser

Upper Geyser Basin Quick Guide | Quick Guide
Yellowstone Travel Guide | Yellowstone's Geysers

Castle Geyser usually erupts every 9-11 hours to 60-90 feet. The twenty minute water phase of a major eruption is followed by a 40 minute steam phase. The first 15 minutes of the steam phase is relatively forceful and fairly loud so try to be close for this part. Castle often has minor eruptions which last only a few minutes. When it has a minor eruption, Castle becomes unpredictable until it has its next major eruption.

Upper Geyser Basin Map | Top

Daisy Geyser usually erupts every 90-110 minutes to 60-75 feet and lasts 3-4 minutes. It is very predictable. I like the view from the side away from Old Faithful the best.

Upper Geyser Basin Map | Top

Grand Geyser usually erupts every 8-12 hours to 150-180 feet and lasts about 12 minutes. It will often stop after about 9 minutes and then restart after a minute or so. This second "burst" and any subsequent bursts are among the tallest if not the tallest of the eruption. Be sure to wait and see if there is a second burst.

Upper Geyser Basin Map | Top

Old Faithful Geyser erupts every 35-120 minutes for 1.5-5 minutes to a height of 90-184 feet. The rangers say that 90% of their predictions are within +/- 10 minutes. The time to the next eruption is predicted using the duration of the current eruption. The longer the eruption lasts, the longer the interval until the next eruption. For instance, a 2 minute eruption results in an interval of about 50 minutes whereas a 4.5 minute eruption results in an interval of about 85 minutes. It is not possible to predict more than one eruption in advance. Old Faithful is deceiving. The benches around the geyser are over 300 feet from the geyser but with nothing to judge the distance by, I rarely realize just how big the geyser is until I get further away. I like the view from Geyser Hill. As with any geyser, watch the wind direction or you may only see steam.

Upper Geyser Basin Map | Top

Riverside Geyser usually erupts every 5.5-7 hours to 75 feet. The water phase of the eruption lasts about 20 minutes and is followed by a 30 minute steam phase.

Upper Geyser Basin Map | Top