Someone drilled a well in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert 60 years ago and it never stopped growing

It’s Still Growing Every Day

Fly Geyser sits on 3,800 acres of private ranchland in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, about 20 miles north of a tiny town called Gerlach and roughly two hours from Reno. Nobody designed it.

Nobody planned it. A drilling crew made a mistake over 60 years ago, and the earth has been building something on its own ever since.

Today, the only way to get close is through a guided nature walk on the property, and what you find out there looks like it belongs on another planet.

Two Botched Wells and 60 Years of Buildup

Back in 1916, locals drilled for irrigation water on the Hualapai Geothermal Flats in Washoe County. They hit near-boiling geothermal water instead.

That abandoned well slowly built itself a calcium carbonate cone, about 10 to 12 feet tall, over the next few decades. Then in 1964, a geothermal energy company drilled a second well nearby.

The water ran too cool for their purposes. They reportedly capped it, but the seal failed, and scalding water started shooting from the ground. The pressure shift killed the original geyser.

Water That Shoots Nonstop at 200 Degrees

Most geysers erupt on a schedule. Fly Geyser does not stop.

Water pushes up to five feet into the air from multiple vents, around the clock, at temperatures above 200 degrees Fahrenheit.

Every drop carries dissolved calcium carbonate and silica, and those minerals stack up in new layers constantly. The cones themselves stand about six feet tall, but they sit on a mound that rises 25 to 30 feet high.

The whole thing keeps getting bigger.

Living Algae Paint the Geyser in Color

Those reds, greens, and yellows covering the formation are not paint. They come from living organisms.

Thermophilic algae and bacteria thrive on the hot, wet surface, and different species settle into different temperature zones along the heat gradient.

The arrangement shifts with the seasons and with changes in the microbial communities. You could visit twice in the same year and see a different color pattern each time.

The geyser is its own canvas, and the artists are microscopic.

Quartz Forming Thousands of Years Too Fast

Geologist Carolina Muñoz Saez studied the geyser and found something that caught the scientific community off guard.

The water carries unusually high levels of silica, and that silica, combined with the extreme heat, is producing quartz inside the formation at a speed that should not be possible.

Quartz normally takes up to 10,000 years to develop in geothermal systems. Fly Geyser is only about 60 years old.

Muñoz Saez has said the geyser is unlike any other she has studied.

40 Hot Pools Spread Across 74 Acres

The constant water flow has carved a network of travertine terraces that fan outward from the main mound. Between 30 and 40 shallow geothermal pools fill those terraces across about 74 acres.

Mineral-rich water deposits fresh layers as it flows and cools, so the landscape keeps reshaping itself. Tall reeds and grasses ring the terraces, and the whole scene sits in the middle of open desert.

You walk through dry flats and then suddenly you are standing at the edge of a warm, green oasis.

Three Separate Geysers Share One Ranch

Fly Ranch does not have one geyser. It has three.

The first, sometimes called The Wizard, formed from that 1916 well and built a calcium carbonate pillar 10 to 12 feet high. It went dry in 1964 when the second geyser shifted the underground pressure.

A third geyser, called Will’s Geyser, showed up in 2006 and is believed to have formed naturally with no drilling involved.

The guided nature walk takes you past all three, and each one tells a different chapter of the same geothermal story.

Burning Man Bought the Ranch for $6.5 Million

For years, Fly Ranch sat behind locked gates. Trespassers left trash and caused damage to the property.

Then in June 2016, the nonprofit Burning Man Project purchased all 3,800 acres for $6.5 million, funded entirely by private donations rather than ticket sales.

Their goal was to preserve the land as a sanctuary for art, ecology, and community.

Public access opened in May 2018 through guided nature walks, and the geyser went from an off-limits curiosity to a place you can actually visit.

A Three-Mile Walk With Art and Geysers

You can only see Fly Geyser up close through an official guided nature walk run by the nonprofit Friends of Black Rock-High Rock in partnership with the Burning Man Project.

The walk covers about three miles and lasts around three hours.

Along the way, you pass through wetlands, spot wildlife, and come across large-scale Burning Man art installations scattered across the ranch.

All the proceeds from these walks go directly toward conservation work in the Black Rock Desert region.

Wild Horses and 138 Bird Species on the Ranch

Fly Ranch holds 640 acres of wetlands fed by dozens of natural springs that range from hot to cold. Researchers have counted 144 plant species, 15 mammals, 138 bird species, and 12 reptile species on the property.

Wild horses roam the land, and you might spot them during the walk. Since taking over, the Burning Man Project has focused on restoration and rewilding.

The ranch also runs a beekeeping operation that produces hundreds of pounds of organic honey each year.

A 60-Year-Old Mistake That Won’t Stop Building

Fly Geyser is not finished. New mineral deposits keep reshaping the mounds, terraces, and pools year after year.

Scientists treat the site as a rare real-world laboratory for studying rapid mineral formation. The combination of geology, biology, and human accident makes it one of a kind in North America.

What started as a failed well in the Nevada desert is now one of the most photographed and studied geothermal formations in the country, and it looks a little different every season.

Saturdays Only, and Tickets Go Fast

Tours typically run on select Saturdays from April through October, and you need to check the official website for current dates. Tickets work on a donation basis, but reserve yours in advance because walks sell out.

You will meet at the visitor center in Gerlach and carpool to the ranch, about a 30-minute drive from town. Bring plenty of water, sun protection, and sturdy shoes.

There is little shade on the trail and almost no facilities on site.

Visit Fly Geyser in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert

You can find Fly Ranch about 20 miles north of Gerlach off State Route 34, roughly a two-hour drive north of Reno.

No drop-in visits are allowed, so you will need to book a guided nature walk in advance through the Friends of Black Rock-High Rock.

You can see the geyser’s steam plumes from the road, but the up-close experience requires the tour. Check the official website for current tour dates and ticket availability before you make the drive.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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