It was ungroomed and crusted, uneven because of the boots of hikers who had preceded us. By moving into the snow beside the trail, I found I could move faster than most of the skiers in our group. A writer for National Geographic in an article some years ago wrote that Old Faithful erupted every hour on the hour. If it had been summer rather than winter, there might have been hundreds, even thousands, in the viewing audience. Other geysers in the park are less regular and less predictable than Old Faithful.
Geysers are sudden spurts of hot water.
In hot springs, the water flows from holes in the earth, rather than spurts. In mud pots, the water gurgles and bubbles. In fumaroles, you get vapor, not water. We were standing on a snow-covered boardwalk beside the Fountain Geyser when it and two other geysers nearby began to erupt. The Fountain Geyser erupts only once daily, and it could be at any time.