http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fly-ranch-geyser This alien looking geyser on the edge of Black Rock Desert is actually man made. Man made by accident, that is. There are actually two geysers on the property. The first was created nearly 100 years ago as part of an effort to make a part of the desert usable for farming. A well was drilled and geothermal boiling water (200 degrees) was hit. Obviously not suitable for irrigation water, this geyser was left alone and a 10 to 12 foot calcium carbonate cone formed. In 1964 a geothermic energy company drilled a test well at the same site. The water they struck was that same 200 degrees. Hot, but not hot enough for their purposes. The well was supposedly re-sealed, but apparently it did not hold. The new geyser, a few hundred feet north of the original, robbed the first of its water pressure and the cone now lays dry. This second geyser, known as Fly Geyser, has grown substantially in the last 40 years as minerals from the geothermal water pocket deposit on the desert surface. Because there are multiple geyser spouts, this geyser has not created a cone as large as the first, but an ever growing alien looking mound. The geyser is covered with thermophilic algae, which flourishes in moist, hot environments, resulting in the multiple hues of green and red that add to its out-of-this-world appearance. The geyser is on Fly Ranch, is private property and trespassing is illegal. However, if you drive to the neighboring town of Gerlach and go to Bruno's restaurant they can put you in contact with the owners who do day tours of the spring for seasonal pricing. EDITED BY: Amber_Clisura, Dylan (Admin), EricGrundhauser (Admin) ==================== http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fly_Geyser Fly Geyser is not an entirely natural phenomenon; it was accidentally created by well drilling in 1964 exploring for sources of geothermal energy. The well may not have been capped correctly, or left unplugged, but either way dissolved minerals started rising and accumulating, creating the travertine mound on which the geyser sits and continues growing. Water is constantly released, reaching 5 feet (1.5 m) in the air. The geyser contains several terraces discharging water into 30 to 40 pools over an area of 30 hectares (74 acres). The geyser is made up of a series of different minerals,] but its brilliant colors are due to thermophilic algae. ==================== https://roadtrippers.com/places/fly-geyser-washoe-county/5138041c7f3d771e4b0064a7 Note: This is on private property, but the owners do conduct tours seasonally for $25-$50/day (head to Bruno's Restaurant in Gerlach and they've been known to put tourists in contact with the owners). Or contact these guys: http://blackrockdesert.org/friends/2008-1004-fly-geyser-tour ============= http://www.weather.com/news/science/nature/worlds-most-amazing-places-fly-geyser-20130617 About 20 miles northeast of the tiny town of Gerlach, Nev., lies one of the planet's rarest oddities: a man-made geyser. Only a handful of them have ever been "discovered" like Oregon's Old Perpetual and Geyser Park in Soda Springs, Idaho which makes getting the chance to photograph one of them an opportunity that doesn't come along every day. That's what attracted Warren Willis, a 68-year-old retired Navy officer, small business owner and amateur photographer who lives in Las Vegas and specializes in landscape photography, when he stumbled across Nevada's Fly Geyser on the pages of National Geographic. His passion for exploring and photographing old abandoned ghost towns, mining camps and southwestern desert scenery have taken him across much of the Southwest and into national parks in the U.S. and Canada. Capturing the Fly Geyser – which turned out to be located on a private ranch in Nevada's Black Rock Desert – proved to be a more daunting challenge than expected. Weather.com spoke with Willis about how he found the geyser and what it was like to be there: Q: How did you discover the Fly Geyser, and what drew you to photograph it? Warren Willis: I first discovered Fly Geyser when viewing some National Geographic photos in an article. Seeing all those colors, I just had to find out where it was in Nevada and how to photograph it. The geyser is located on the Fly Ranch. The Fly Geyser is not a natural formation. The geyser was created accidentally in 1964, after a geothermal power company drilled a test well at the site. While the groundwater in the region turned out not to be sufficiently hot to be tapped for geothermal power, it did have a temperature of more than 200 degrees. According to later newspaper reports, the well was either left uncapped or was improperly plugged. The scalding water has erupted from the well since then, leaving calcium carbonate deposits growing at the rate of several inches per year. The brilliant red and green coloring on the mounds is from thermophilic algae thriving in the extreme micro-climate of the geysers. Q: The geyser is located on private land. How did you get access to shoot it? WW: The geyser is fenced off from the public, with a security guard posted at a gate. I actually got two opportunities to photograph the geyser, the first time was only for 15 minutes, after receiving permission from a reluctant security guard. I could only shoot one angle in the 15 minutes, but it was a clear sunny day and what photos I got the colors really stood out. The second time was for two hours in a fee-paid organized tour sponsored by [a travel company that offers guided tours in the Black Rock Desert]. From what I hear now, they don't even have access to the geyser anymore. In this second shoot, the weather wasn't the best, it was overcast, and the air was very cold which resulted in a lot of steam rising from the geothermal water. Q: What is it like being near the geyser? How does it behave? WW: It just continually spouts hot geothermal water, from several spouts, about five feet into the air where it is collected in several terraced pools. Q: Can it be seen from the road, or from a place that's viewable by the public? WW: It can be seen from the road, but it is pretty far off in the distance. I first tried shooting from the road with a Canon 400 Telephoto lens, but it was too far away to get a decent shot. Q: Why the different colors coming out of the geyser? Do its colors ever change? WW: No, the colors do not change. The colors come from the high calcium carbonate mineral content of the water and the buildup of thermophilic algae from the hot geothermal water. ================== https://www.google.com/search?q=fly+geyser+access&rlz=1C1CHYD_enUS578US579&es_sm=93&tbm=isch&imgil=QOoVOqbQEefj5M%253A%253BgkGIHuIlr01GNM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.zmescience.com%25252Fscience%25252Fgeology%25252Fthe-fly-geyser-a-man-made-surreal-wonder%25252F&source=iu&pf=m&fir=QOoVOqbQEefj5M%253A%252CgkGIHuIlr01GNM%252C_&usg=__VYKS6K7T1Tfi4FFK8m9qL3ZJSv4%3D&biw=1496&bih=935&ved=0CFoQyjc&ei=vbhdVMzILMv5yQTJyIHYCw#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=c0D7HPDbw2y66M%253A%3BP7i-uEkZHs_X1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fupload.wikimedia.org%252Fwikipedia%252Fcommons%252F4%252F41%252FFly_geyser.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fen.wikipedia.org%252Fwiki%252FFly_Geyser%3B1600%3B1208