Spinning almost 180° to look back toward where you’ve left your car or tour bus and the main complex across the steaming valley. (13:52)
The boardwalks safely direct you around a convenient path to enjoy some of the variety packed onto the hill and across the river from Old Faithful. (13:53)
Be sure to listen carefully as you’ll often be treated to many mini-geysers shooting off in irregular patterns all around you. (13:54)
Americas Vacation Center Photo Gallery
Then there is the little steamer Ilala in Crayford’s Gut, lying at the base of the reef in 18 metres. Its story and technical details are found at the end of this section. The lumps of wreckage lying in about 7 metres off the Northern Hares is referred to as belonging to the steamer Loch Leven, which was wrecked in 1902, so maybe someone somewhere has found something to identify that vessel too. There could, though, be the remains of other ships intermingled in the pile of jumbled iron and steel. The Loch Leven was reported as wrecked on Knavestone Rock on 15 April 1902, while voyaging from Aberdeen to Sunderland, in ballast, according to the Starke/Schell registers. Some accounts suggest that she struck the Knavestone, slipped back to the north and sank in the area known as Abraham’s Bosom. The Loch Leven (Official No.78679) was an iron-hulled 852-ton steam cargo vessel, completed in 1878 as Yard No.88 by Gourlay Brothers at Dundee and launched in April 1878 for David Ireland of Dundee. She measured 64. 10 m in length, with a 8.71-m beam. In 1881 the registered owner was Dundee Loch Line S.S. Co. Ltd and Ireland, Leitch and Co. was the manager. In 1884 she had the same owner but was managed by A. Leitch and Co. In 1899 the registered owner was J. and A. Davidson, Aberdeen. On 11 December 1977 the 23-ton MFV Constance ran aground on Longstone and later sank in 25 metres ofwater, 0.25 miles east of Longstone lighthouse, while en route from Peterhead to Bembridge; she was owned at the time by Mr Henley Bembridge. When Selby Brown found the wreck and saw the wheel standing upright, covered in soft corals and urchins, he was so impressed that he had a friend take some photographs of him standing holding the wheel, like a very determined Captain Ahab sailing after the great white whale Moby Dick. This was no mean feat by anybody’s standards: to stand on the seabed in 32 metres, without his diving gear on and in this particular area. There is quite a variety of marine life around the Christensen, with shoals of small coley and lots of seals. The current, though, is very strong and there is, at certain states of the tide, a pronounced downward flow near the bottom, much like an underwater waterfall, which can be very alarming if you are not expecting it. Visibility can be excellent during the summer months and may reach as much as 15 metres plus on a good day. The cliff face on Longstone end, at this point, is a mass of anemones and it is not uncommon to pick up a couple of lobsters.
