Old Faithful and the Petrified Forest
Definitely exploited tourist attractions. Purchased natural wonders now sold to the public for a hefty price and an annoying in your face gift shop. But I loved it. Who cares if i have to pay $8 to see some water shoot out of the ground for 3 minutes. Something I could see for free with my sprinkler at home. It was worth it. Plus there was a petting zoo :) Actually people left on there own will destroy natural wonders, there use to be 2 geysers there, but people left unmonitored were going right up to it and it eventually closed over.
At first glance old faithful isn't much to look at and somewhat of a let down. But then you start reading and that little jet of water is actually really cool. Here's a little info: Depending on the barometric pressure, the moon, the tides and the earth's tectonic stresses the height of the geyser and the timing of the repeat performance can be adjusted. On average the geyser shoots 60 feet in the air for 3 minutes every 40 minutes (day or night). But depending on tectonic stresses the geyser can become irregular, making it a great detector of earthquakes.
The petrified forest is made up of redwoods, and one pine tree, that were blast down by a volcanic eruption 7 miles north east,over 3 million years ago. All the petrified treetops point in a Southwest direction.
