[Geysers] Brief weekend visit (Kitt) 9/28 - 29

[Barger]

Hello!
     I left work at 3:30 PM on Friday, 28th, and was at Old Faithful by 2015.  The Visitor Center Log Book had 4 eruption times listed on the left page plus the predictables.  Unfortunately they had missed Jim's call that Grotto ended.  I didn't know that there had been an 18 hour marathon that ended just before 2 PM.  I decided to wait until daylight and hope.  I crawled into bed 45 minutes before Giant erupted.  
     It rained for a while Friday night.  I headed out to the basin just before daylight.  I watched Old Faithful at 0640 and Plume at 0651.  Someone biked down basin and radioed that the signs at Giant had rolled (as I was biking toward Castle).  I knew it had been about 8 days since the last Fan & Mortar so I went down there.  Main started splashing within 2 minutes of my arriving at 0723.  After 3 River Vent pauses with plenty of white stuff including one 3 foot splash, I was getting pretty hopeful.  Jim joined me as River finally came on, but Gold and Hi showed no interest and took 16 minutes to finally come on.  The boardwalk was still wet from the overnight rain and ?.  We were joined by Dave (sorry, I don't know his last name) who told us how after finishing work (washing dishes) he had headed out into the basin in his work gear only to arrive just as Mastiff was starting to erupt at ~2340 and then in a breezy, moon lit night Giant soared skyward at ~2345.  He said it didn't appear to be a particularly tall eruption, but the moon lit it all and he could watch the eruption from the cage.  Late into Giant's eruption, he had headed down to F & M and the board walk near the bridge was damp, while the boardwalk in front of Spiteful and toward Morning Glory Pool was dripping wet.  He thought he might have missed an eruption of F & M.  Apparently there had been one or more "nice" event cycles on Friday.  Unfortunately no one had replaced the marker, so.....  An Interpretive Ranger came down that morning and she replaced the marker, so it is marked now.  So I marked Giant and F & M off of my choice list and headed toward Grand.  Jim told me that Grand had pulled a short interval ~ 6 hours, so I pedalled up toward Daisy's sign.  I was waiting for Riverside, which had started Over Flow at ~0730.  There was a radio call that Grand had pulled a short interval, so they were moving the window up.  They radioed to predict Grand for 9:30 AM.  Grand erupted at 0911 (a T2C) and was very pretty viewed from afar.  Riverside erupted at 0935.  I called a Plume at 1018 and left for the Lower Geyser Basin.  (I had noted a Fountain time of 1357 ie from Friday's Log Book.)  I drove by Great Fountain which was still down 6 or more inches and headed to Fountain.  After studying how damp the area was and taking into consideration the lack of sun, the cloud cover, and the cold breeze, I felt I would have about an hour wait.  I noticed Spasm trying to fill starting at 1159.  It would splash and then drain.  There was a weak Jet at 1218.  Spasm was trying again when I heard the splash and turned around to see Fountain start erupting at 1233 with a duration of 30 minutes.  Even with the wind it had some very high spikes during the last half of the eruption.  After enjoying Fountain I checked on Great Fountain and found that the water had dropped.  As I waited with a large visitor group, the water slowly returned.  I figured that Great Fountain would probably reach over flow within the next 30 minutes, so I headed back to the Upper Geyser Basin and radioed the update.  I had radioed to find out about Beehive (unfortunately the last one in the Log Book was for the 27th - not the 28th).  I watched the hill from the Inn Parking lot enjoying the break from the chilly breeze.  I checked Great Fountain again at 1530 and the pool had crashed again.  I returned to my parking lot view of the basin.  I radioed another Great Fountain update.  The sky was partly cloudy, but I finally identified Riverside's steam cloud at 1621 as Sara radioed Riverside at 1620.  I enjoyed a crisp looking Aurum at 1630, and Grand popped up at 1637ns (I believe it was a T2C).  Sara radioed Grotto Fountain at 1645 ie.  I saw Grotto's steam cloud at 1702 although it probably started before that.  I headed back to the Lower Basin hoping I hadn't watched for Beehive too long.  Artemisia was in eruption at 1720.  I rounded the corner at 1727 and knew I was late for Great Fountain due to the huge steam cloud that dominated the area.  The people I had left saw the start and said another person who had seen many eruptions, said the start was at 1725.  The couple said there was a huge burst (~140' to 150') that had wowed the crowd.  Fountain was in eruption at 1750 as I headed back to Old Faithful.  The snow was getting a little thicker and I had decided to head home.  I radioed the Great Fountain and Fountain times after I heard someone radio Castle at 1814 ie.  There was light snow falling on Craig and Sylvan Pass and some rain in between.  The bison are taking over the Fishing Bridge area.  I arrived home at 12:15 AM.  
     I'm running out of weekends.  I hope to see some more gazers in next weekend.  The seasonal Interpretive Rangers finished this weekend, so they are running a small group from now on.  If at all possible, stop by the Visitor Center and hand them a list of geysers and times that you have seen for the day, etc. so they can check to see if the calls were heard and made it into the Lob Book or if the calls were missed and they need the times.  Thanks!  Well, its back to a week of preschool, lesson plans, open house tours for parents, and only 5 days until I can return to Yellowstone.  Go Giant and Fan & Mortar!!!!  Kitt Barger    
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20070930/2fe3e725/attachment.html>