[Geysers] Park visit

[David Monteith]

A message From David 
Monteith                                                        10/26

A couple of comments. The first is a thanks to Steve for his Great Fountain 
report. The second is more disturbing but of importance.

Steve, your description of Great Fountain sounds very similar to what I've 
seen in the past as Great Fountain recovered from a wild phase. It took 
about a week for Great Fountain to "recover" from the last wild phase that 
I saw. In the first few days following the wild phase, Great Fountain was 
low and quiet. A day or two preceding the first eruptive phase after the 
wild phase, Great Fountain's pool cycled repeatedly just as you indicated. 
And, like you, the first eruptions I've seen coming out of the wild phase 
tended to be fairly short in duration, though I've seen some nice height. 
Unlike you, though, I did not post my observations, something I regret. 
Thanks for sharing.

The vandalism of the Aurum fence was despicable. The fence is needed to 
protect winter visitors. While the fence was a nuisance to summer gazers, 
solutions were being worked on. My favorite was an offer by geyser gazers 
to remove the fence each summer season and reinstall it each fall (the 
fence was only attached by 12 bolts and could easily have been removed with 
enough manpower.) Unfortunately, the vandals made this option nearly 
impossible. The vandalism was carefully thought out. It not only destroyed 
the fence so it was not reusable, it was also done in such a way so that 
there was no damage to the thermal features. All small pieces and sawdust 
were removed; the area was left very clean. The two large pieces of the 
fence were moved away from Aurum and placed where they would not damage 
thermal features and could not be used by visitors to damage thermal 
features. It took three park service employees to pickup and move each of 
the fence sections. Thus, it was probably a group that vandalized the 
fence. The destruction was complete and appears to have been meant to send 
a message. The vandalism occurred the night of the annual Labor Day social.

So, what is the fallout of this? Well, the most telling is that the park 
service's initial report was that the vandals are probably "rogue geyser 
gazers." (The circumstances, the night involved and the evidence I saw 
leads me to the same conclusion. A conclusion which disgusts me.) It is 
encouraging that our relationship with the park service has improved to the 
point that they didn't blame all of us. But, the action of these vandals 
reflects on us all. It damages our relationship with the park. It shows a 
disregard for the rules and more importantly a disregard for protection of 
the park resources. I strongly condemn the action of these vandals. I hope 
they are caught and expelled from the park. If I find out who did this I 
will do everything I can to make that happen.

Dave Monteith

At 11:16 AM 10/25/06 -0600, you wrote:
Greetings and Salutations,

I made a quick four day visit to the park Friday to Monday and finally
caught Giant from the start. More on that later, but Great Fountain was
not acting normally so I thought I'd start by relating what it was
doing.

.
.
.


Stephen Eide

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