[Geysers] Morning Mist Group and Culex Basin

[sgryc at comcast.net]

     On July 2 I walked with Will Moats and his son Steven along the Mary Mountain Trail to visit the Morning Mist Group and Culex Basin despite the dire warnings of grizzly bears and swarms of ravenous bugs that we had heard.  
     Porcupine Hill Geyser will hot and boiling, but there was no evidence to suggest that it has erupted. recently.
     Morning Mist Geyser’s large vent had a deep blue color indicting that it is hot enough for an eruption.  A small ridge of fine gravel and sand was pushed up on one side of the crater suggested that waves from an eruption had formed the ridge.  Even a moderate rain would have smoothed the sand, so the eruption must have been recent.  Morning Mist’s pool began to overflow as we observed it.  After leaving Morning Mist for a little less than an hour, we returned to find the pool still overflowing with the water far down the long run-off channel.  When we had seen the run-off channel dry, it looked as if it had been washed.  Since Bryan says that Morning Mist will erupt 12 to 36 hours after overflow begins, we decided not to wait it out though we were convinced that an eruption would take place.
    Later in the afternoon we surveyed the small hot springs on the slope south of the Morning Mist Group (maybe the springs are part of the group).  We visited these springs so that you don’t have to.  Footing was unsure on the slope, and there was nothing of much interest or attractiveness to see.
     Culex Basin proved to be of only moderate interest.  A bleached bison skull was the most dramatic sight in the area.  We saw a couple of what we assumed were perpetual spouters that sprayed water a few inches high.  Will had said that the most interesting feature of the group was a perpetual spouter on the western side of Culex Creek that poured water into a pool.  There was no spouting to be seen, and only a tiny wave of water flowed from the hole at a rate a little faster than one per second.  Closer to the slope was a small but pretty spring of blue-green water, the most attractive feature in the basin.  On the steep eastern side of Culex Creek we found what may be Bryan’s UNNG-CLX-1, a spring with some convoluted sinter deposits.  The crater periodically filled and overflowed, but we saw no eruption.  The insects in Culex Basin were only moderately annoying.