Grotto Geyser's distinctive sinter formation fills the frame of this albumen cabinet card, photographed by F. Jay Haynes, Official Photographer of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The sculpted silica deposit, with its arched tunnels and rounded bulbous masses, rises from a shallow thermal pool in the Upper Geyser Basin, and a plume of steam vents from behind the formation against a pale sky. A dense stand of lodgepole pine covers the hillside in the middle distance, with isolated conifers rising sharply at right.

The geyser cone's surface texture is rendered in fine detail, showing the layered, cauliflower-like sinter crust built up over successive eruption cycles. A fallen tree lies at the right edge of the frame, and the flat sinter apron surrounding the formation's base reflects a shallow sheet of thermal water.

F. Jay Haynes (1853–1921) held his Northern Pacific appointment beginning in 1876 and operated a concession within Yellowstone for decades, producing the most commercially significant photographic record of the park in the nineteenth century. His Yellowstone views were sold individually and through illustrated catalogues distributed to tourists and railway passengers throughout the region.

The recto mount bears the printed caption "3589, Formation of the Grotto." The verso carries the full F. Jay Haynes imprint with his St. Paul, Minnesota address, a solicitation to send for a catalogue of views, and subject categories reading "Northern Pacific, Yellowstone Park, Pacific Coast and Alaska." A handwritten notation "95" appears in pencil at the upper right of the reverse. A blind stamp reading "F. Jay Haynes, Photographer, Yellowstone" is faintly visible at center right of the reverse.