Lone Star Geyser

Today a big group from the dorms hiked to Lone Star Geyser, a few miles south of Old Faithful. Originally, we planned to combine this hike with Divide Mountain, but the weather was not agreeable. The trail was really flat and was even paved (it used to be a service road). It was about 2.3 miles out to Lone Star Geyser, which erupts every two to three hours. Lone Star is interesting because it is all by itself, far enough from the Upper Geyser Basin to be an anomaly. We didn't know whether we would be lucky enough to see it erupt, but thought it was worth a try. 

As the trail was very flat, we made very good time, walking about 2 miles in 25 minutes. As we approached the geyser, a group of return hikers told us to hurry, because the geyser was still erupting. We started sprinting, and arrived to see the geyser erupt for another 5 minutes at least. While we didn't see the beginning of the eruption, when water went forty feet into the air, we were just really happy to see it erupt at all.

Mo, Andrea, Will, Nick, Kate, Emily, Chris, Agnes, Michaela, Me

As the geyser erupted, it began raining, and we could hear thunder getting closer. We hurried back to the trailhead, but were all cold and wet by the time we reached it. We decided to scrap our plans to hike Divide Mountain because the weather was just miserable. Next time we go out that way, we will probably hike Divide and go see Grand Prismatic, one of the most amazing thermal features in the park.