The Geyser of Calistoga, dubbed the Old Faithful of California had been faithfully belching out steam and scalding vapor ever since man had first witnessed this miniature wonder of the world.

Geysers work like heat driven fountains. You have an underground spring (cool or not, its still the same) that touches hot rocks (usually from a magma source). The ensuing pressure from the steam and superheated water causes the whole thing to shoot up via a small nozzle-like feature from the ground. And this is how geysers happen.

California’s Old Faithful is one of the three geysers in the world that have an internal clock inside of them. They are able to shoot out their deadly steam at timed intervals (this one has a set interval of 45 minutes, while the one in Yellow Stone had an interval of 80 minutes). Magma location, precipitation and the stream that flows into the chamber (an earthquake might break or improve the fountain’s height and length of gushing).

The geyser has its own park, is fenced off to protect the public and to at least get some profit. The geyser has been marked as a must-see attraction when passing by the Napa Valley. Most of the visitors that came here to see and taste the wine, often make a stop here to enjoy the sight of a large, gushy, geyser.

Nearby, there are llamas and fainting goats to keep you entertained if you had the bad luck of entering the park just as the geyser had stopped gushing. 45 minutes of boredom is hard. And when you do hit the 45 minute mark, you have 20 seconds to enjoy the buzzy, aerial hydro-ejaculation. Miss it, and 45 minutes of anguish again. Droll.

The performance time of the geyser today has been influenced by the non-rain. Hopefully, with the rainy season, we could gain a few more seconds with the geyser’s gushy-gushy.

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