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Northwestern Wyoming

There's a huge viewing platform which wraps almost 1/2 way around the geyser. When I arrive I notice quite a few people have already accumulated.

Looks like these folks have been waiting even longer. They're probably Old Faithful junkies and live on the platform. I just happen by during their nap-time.

The platform seems new and built out of plastic. I think it strange until I read the sign. It's good to see recycling in action.

I take a seat and decide to wait rather than go out sightseeing and risk missing the eruption. When I sit down Old Faithful is just belching steam. It still has 45 minutes to go before its predicted eruption time of 1:17pm.

As luck would have it, I'm sitting within earshot of a Park Ranger who's giving a talk about the history of Old Faithful. He says Old Faithful is special for 4 reasons, 1) it's predictable, 2) it erupts in relatively short intervals, 3) its eruptions are pretty high, 4) it doesn't seem to be affected by earthquakes and other geological events, thus it's reliable. He also discusses past vandalism to the Park's various geysers, people throwing coins and other foreign material into them. This effectively plugs them up and a few of the Park's geysers no longer erupt for this reason.