[Geysers] Geyser Report June 14 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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A few years ago I met a woman at Artemisia who claimed that everything had 
spirits--plants, animals, rocks, and geysers.  (She also claimed that 
Artemisia's spirit liked her and she could communicate with it, that 
Artemisia always erupted whenever she walked up there to eat lunch, but she 
left a few hours later and Artemisia was still quietly overflowing.)  
Although intellectually I know that geysers are and insensate collection of 
rocks and hot water, I'm beginning to believe that some of them really do 
have spirits.

For example, Great Fountain--it seems like it often waits until the second 
half of the window to erupt when it's late at night and I want to get home 
for a few hours of nighttime sleep.  I think Great Fountain's spirt must 
have waited until the day after I posted my Great Fountain summary to show 
Lynn that Great Fountain is, after all, a geyser and will do whatever it 
wants, regardless of what it's done in the past.

Tuesday night the weather was nice while I was waiting for Great Fountain.  
I had set the midpoint of the window at 12:30 am, so the window was 10:30 - 
2:30.  I arrived shortly before 10:30 so I could start rolling the "near" 
side of the window forward.  A family of 4 arrived just at 10:30.  When I 
explained we still had at least 1 1/2 hours to wait, they replied they were 
prepared to stay from 10:30 to 2:30 if necessary.  And they did.  Great 
Fountain erupted at 00:24 (one of the nights it didn't wait until the second 
half of the window).  Since the weather was nice and I had pleasant company, 
I stayed for the duration, which was a weak 4-burst eruption.  Although I 
was predicting 10 1/2 hours, I didn't want people arriving at 8 1/2 hours, 
so I posted 9:30 to 1:30 as the prediction.

I planned to get out there at 9:30 to start rolling the near side of the 
window forward, but took a little longer in the office than I had planned.  
As I rounded the corner at 09:48, my stomach sank as I saw the big steam 
cloud.  Even though it was a cool morning, I knew that cloud was too big to 
be Botroydial.  Sure enough, Great Fountain decided to have the shortest 
interval of the season and I missed it.  The prior short interval was 10h11m 
on an eruption with a weak second, weak third, and weak fourth.  This 
interval was something less than 9h20m, and possibly less than 9 hours since 
the eruption ended at 10:16, and the nature of the pause between the first 
burst I saw and the next burst told me the first burst I had seen was at 
least the second burst.  Oh well, maybe Ralph's monitor got the start time 
because the VC monitor apparently is not working.  Last night's eruption was 
at 21:36, for a double interval of 21h12m.  I didn't stay for the duration.

Beehive also went shorter yesterday morning than people had expected.  Kitt 
and the Hoppes came out to see Great Fountain, but since it had also erupted 
earlier than expected, they arrived just as I had declared the eruption 
finished as far as expending energy, changed the board, and was starting to 
pull out of the parking lot.

Giant still has not erupted (6/15 6:50 am).

Visitor Comments:  Some of us were talking about how many of the visitors 
this early in the season seem to be really "dedicated" to seeing eruptions 
of the geysers.  I still have a lot of drive through the parking area 
without even looking at the board at Great Fountain, plenty of people who 
look at the board, and even with the half hour prediciton, decide that's too 
long to wait.  But I've also had some memorable cases of people who were 
dedicated to seeing Great Fountain this week.  One family was there for the 
21:19 raining, steamy eruption on June 9.  They didn't get up quite early 
enough on the morning of June 10 and arrived during the third or fourth 
burst.  So the afternoon of June 10, they arrived at 6:30 pm (the opening of 
the window).  Unfortunatly, that was one of the eruption where Great 
Fountain waited until the second half of the window and didn't erupt until 
22:09.  They had waited but there wasn't much light left by the time it 
erupted.

On the morning of June 12 I had posted a prediction of 8:30 am - 12:30 pm.  
When I arrived at 8:30 to start rolling the near side of the window forward, 
there were two vehicles in the parking lot, one with a single man in it; the 
other contained a family of 5.  The head of the family of 5 started talking 
with me.  He commented that he had planned 3 days and 2 nights for his 
family in the Park, and they really wanted to see Great Fountain.  It turned 
out the 3 days were really a half day on day of arrival, one full day and a 
half day on the day of departure.  He said he had discovered his plan wasn't 
really a good plan after all because there was just too much to see.  I 
explained that he could leave and do some other things for 1 1/2 hours and 
then come back to check on Great Fountain.  They discussed it for a few 
mintues, left, and then came right back because they REALLY wanted to see 
Great Fountain.  After awhile I was still saying it won't erupt for awhile.  
He had shown me his map of Yellowstone with some things underlined in pink 
highlighter.  I told him he really did have time to go see Midway and 
Biscuit Basin and maybe even Black Sand Basin, and said, "Be back at 10:45 
and you'll be safe."  After discussing it with the other members of the 
family for 10-15 minutes, this time when they left, they did not immediately 
return.  Great Fountain went into overflow about 5 minutes after they left 
and I was on tetherhooks hoping that Great Fountain didn't decide to do the 
shortest overflow of the year and erupt before 10:45.  They returned 
promptly at 10:45, Great Fountain erupted at 11:09, and both they and the 
single man who had been there since sometime before I arrived at 8:30 stayed 
through the entire eruption.

And then there was the family that shared the 00:24 6/14 eruption with me.  
The father and son stayed out on the boardwalk/parking lot with me through 
the entire eruption (the mother and daughter watched most of the first 
burst, then went back to the car,) even though they had to drive back to 
Island Park that "night".

Yesterday morning some people missed Great Fountain.  They had gone through 
the parking lot about 9:15 or 9:30, saw that my pickup wasn't there, saw the 
water running down the runoff channel but decided it must just be leftover 
from the rain.  Their comment, "You weren't here so we dediced it wasn't 
close to an eruption.  We left to come back later and then we missed it."  
Unfortuntatly, my presence is not an indicator for Great Fountain.  
Sometimes I leave to go do other things between the start of overflow and 
the start of the eruption.  Sometimes I just don't go to Great Fountain at 
all.  And sometimes I misjudge that geyser and miss the start because I 
arrive too late.

Weather report:  Yesterday was wave after wave after wave of rain, with 
little blue sky and sun between the waves.  As I was on my way back in the 
morning from the Lower Basin, just as I hit Midway the high winds hit the 
side of the pickup and the rain and then the hail started.  About two 
minutes later a general alert "The National Weather Service is reporting 
possibility of severe thunderstorms with high winds and possible hail over 
the southern portion of the park.  10:57."  When I got back to the trailer, 
there was hail piled against the side of the porch door.  We had another 
hailstorm and last night there was sleet and snow mixed with rain.  All in 
all a good day to stay in the office or watch geysers through the 
windshield.

Lynn Stephens

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