[Geysers] Pocket Basin, River Group, and Boulder Springs

[sgryc at comcast.net]

     I visited Pocket Basin with Will Moats and his son Steven on July 3.  The mud pots were lively.  Part of the large, dog-legged mud pot that is northern most was active.  The part of the crater that has thrown up globs of thick mud periodically in the past was inactive.  Just to the southeast of that large crater is another smaller circular mud pot that was great fun to watch and to hear.  It threw out globs of hot mud up to 12 feet above ground which is even more impressive when you consider that the mud comes from about six feet below ground level.  It could throw mud at an angle too and seemed to take aim at us at one point.  The plopping, thumping, sighing and hissing sounds it makes are wonderful and constantly changing.  I wished that I had my recording equipment.  I could listen to it for a long time.  
     Further south, the large crater that contained three distinct pools within it was also active.  Each pool has a different water content, and they vary from a wet bubbly pool of mud to the south, to a thicker pool that bubbles and has large doming bursts from its center, to a very thick mud pot that sends thick globs of mud skyward a few feet.  The wet southern pool is the largest and the thick northern pool is the smallest.  
     The mini-volcanoes of Microcosm Basin were active with some perfectly shaped mini-cones only a few inches high.  
     We visited Pocket Basin Geyser.  Encouraged by bubbling fills, we sat through 13 overflow cycles without seeing an eruption.  
     Along the Firehole River, Diadem Spring seems to have cooled a bit as its blue-green color is not so bright or rich as in recent past seasons.  Azure Spring continues to earn its name.  On the other side of the river, Mound Geyser had good eruptions with intervals of 26 and 14 minutes that matched up well with an apparent double interval of 41 minutes.  Unfortunately, two fairly large tree stumps have been thrown into one end of Mound Geyser’s crater and pool.  One marvels at the effort that truly malicious people will expend for the sake of mischief and mindless destruction.
     We then hiked to Boulder Springs.  The hot springs were vigorously boiling and spouting to five feet from both main vents.  The more easterly vent has given the rock next to it a marvelous shiny patina that looks like gold leaf.  

Steve Gryc