[Geysers] Report May 21-28

[Kyle Chumbley]

The goings-on at Giant are being well-covered by
others, so I will mention some of the things I saw, or
didn't see, during my week in Yellowstone that aren't
part of that stubborn platform.  

My brother and I arrived in the Upper Basin on Sunday
morning, May 21 and left during the heavy snow on
Sunday, May 28.  This was Bart's first real geyser
gazing experience, and he is now convinced we aren't
all as crazy as he thought.  Says he, "I can see how
this can be addictive."

On Geyser Hill: The Beehive eruptions that I saw
ranged from 13 to 22 hours apart.  I heard of one
seven-minute indicator, but most were between ten and
twenty minutes. Little Squirt was seen on the 22nd and
the 26th.  Dome was active for most of the latter half
of our time in the park.  The eruptions we saw reached
perhaps a foot above the rim.  After the rain on the
22nd, Aurum's intervals became briefly regular at
around three and a half intervals, but by the 24th
they were back to their usual summer irregularity. 
Lion was having series of at least two and typically
at least three eruptions.  The late-series eruptions
looked bigger to me than I have seen them before.  I
don't know anything about the activity of Depression. 
Plume was active for the entire time.  Pump is having
quiet periods followed by fairly vigorous (for Pump)
eruptive periods.  Nothing at all from Giantess,
Butterfly Spring, North Goggle, or Boardwalk.

Castle Group: Tilt's Baby was active on at least some
days, with intervals around fifty minutes.  Castle was
having fairly frequent minors.  I saw some VERY large
boils from Crested Pool, which had a lot of
entertainment value - they often surprised folks
watching Castle.

Sawmill Group: Sawmill was in firm control of the
group for almost the entire time I was in the basin. 
Until the 28th, I saw only one weak Tardy cycle.  Deep
drains  were a daily phenomenon; often there were two
in one day.  Uncertain was seen at least four times,
and I imagine it probably erupted without being seen a
few times as well, since there weren't many people
paying attention to the area.  On the 28th, Tardy
cycled all day, with Penta looking increasingly good
as the day progressed, but the snow drove me away
before I could check to see if one more cycle could
coax it into erupting.  Bulger had at least two
eruptions, but I'm not clear enough on what makes a
Bulger eruption major or minor to declare what they
were.

Grand group: Grand is being predicted with a six to
nine hour interval, and at one point, the window was
only two and half hours long.  So, yeah, Grand is
doing well.  West Triplet and Rift are both quite
active.  I'd say my burst average was around 1.5, as I
saw about as many one-bursts as two.  The one-bursts
that I saw were very tall, though.

Beauty and Chromatic both looked fairly unattractive. 
Not Liberty Pool bad, but an unaesthetic shade of
orange-brown permeated both springs. 

Oblong was having intervals around five hours for the
most part, but every time I waited, it dragged out to
something longer.  I never saw it from the start.

Giant did not erupt in daylight while I was there.

Grotto Group: The only things I can add about the
Grotto Group are that I saw a very large Rocket major
on the 24th, and that Spa was having some very nice
eruptions to perhaps thirty feet on the 25th during
Grotto's twenty-seven-hour marathon.  I try to catch
something out of Spa every time I come to the park,
and this was the best I've seen.  Could have been the
good lighting and the favorable wind direction, I
suppose, but it certainly looked strong.  Startling
erupted on the 22nd, but it didn't appreciably delay
Grotto Fountain.

Fan and Mortar: Inactive.

Daisy Group: Daisy was being predicted on
three-hour-fifteen-minute intervals.  I don't know how
closely it followed those predictions.  

I have nothing to report from any other basin.  We
spent all our time in the Upper Basin.

I think I'll stick to July from now on, but it was
nice to see the park in somewhat wintry conditions and
with fewer tourists, and I certainly enjoyed the gazer
company.  The bison were on the move; essentially
every trip in and out of the park along the loop from
Old Faithful to Madison and along the west entrance
road included one or more delays due to bison on the
road.  Grizzlies were apparently swarming around Old
Faithful, but we didn't see any of them.  Just bison
and more bison and more bison.

Kyle Chumbley

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com