YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK — Valentine’s Day is coming up this Saturday, so this week’s Caldera Chronicles aptly centers around a geyser that came back to life in August 2025 after lying dormant for 20 years: Valentine Geyser.
Valentine Geyser is located north of Norris Geyser Basin museum in the hillside, and is close to Ledge Geyser, which came back to life in 2019. It erupts from a cone that is about six feet high, which is likely the largest cone in Norris Geyser Basin. It’s unclear if the cone is solid silica sinter or a thin layer of sinter over bedrock.
It’s unknown when the Valentine Geyser was formed, but regardless, it received its name by erupting violently on Valentine’s Day in 1907 or 1909 (reports are uncertain). C.W. Bronson, winter keeper of the Norris Hotel, observed that eruption.
The geyser’s activity goes through periods of frequent eruptions. It can be so regular when active that the 1982 trail map of the park included a place for travelers to note eruption times. It’s adjacent to Guardian Geyser, with which it often shares eruptions.
“Valentine sprang to life once again on August 7, 2025 — its first documented eruption in almost 21 years!” wrote Scientist-in-Charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Michael Poland. “From that time through at least mid-October, the geyser erupted about every 4 to 6 days, always preceded by splashing in nearby Guardian Geyser, and ultimately with eruptions occurring from both geysers at the same time.”
It is still unknown why Valentine Geyser sprang back to life, but observations from the most recent eruptive period could hold clues. The Yellowstone National Park Geology Program set up temperature trackers and geologists hope to use data from mid-October until spring 2026 to understand more about the geyser’s eruptive patterns.
