A Geyser: "California's Old Faithful"
The Bay Area has many fascinating places to visit--if you know where to find them. My wife and I found one place that we didn't know existed.
Because we were staying home, Foster City, CA, on weekends, we didn't have any place to go or anything to do except to travel to San Francisco and see the same sites that we have been seeing for the several weeks, so we decided to go to the "Napa Wine Country." We left Saturday morning and, within several hours, we were in St. Helena visiting a winery.
Within twenty minutes from the winery, we were at a geyser that's located outside of Calistoga, California. The geyser, "California's Old Faithful," is hidden among bamboo and plumed pampas grass. If you drive to fast, you will miss the turn off. When you make the turn to go into the geyser area, you will have the impression that there is nothing there.
To the right of the parking lot and among the pampas grass and bamboo, you will find the area where the geyser is located. The water from the geyser shoots up approximately sixty feet into the air for three minutes every forty minutes. There are signs, everywhere, warning not to stand to close to the area where the geyser shoots from, because the water temperature is around three hundred-fifty degrees and you can get a serious burn.
From research, we found that geysers only exist where conditions let them exist. For instance, there must be a natural supply of water, a heat supply with a series of fissures, fractures, and cavities. The surrounding rock formations must be strong to maintain intense pressure of steam when the geyser explodes. The water, in the geysers, flows over hot magma or lava, deep in the earth, and then collects in large cavities while boiling--when conditions are right it explodes.
The only deviations from this normal pattern of geyser behavior seems to indicate some sort of earth movement, which scientist think will cause an earthquake; in otherwords, a prediction of earthquakes.
We stayed until 4:30 p. m. and watched the geyser shoot it's stream of water. Before the main stream of water, there were to small spurts of steam and then the main sixty foot spurt. After the main spurt, we left and traveled to Santa Rosa for dinner and stayed overnight, which we did not expect to, but it was getting late and we were becoming tired.
We returned to Foster City the next morning, ready to go on another outing, but one on a weekend is enough. There is always another weekend to explore California from Foster City, CA.
