[Geysers] weekend geyser report

[Polly Panos]

Here are some more times from the opening weekend that I don't think have been mentioned yet.  Some of them were my times and others were radio calls.

Friday, April 17
  934 ie Lion
  1011 ie Rift
  1058 Daisy
  1509 Riverside
  
  The Grand at 1723 was a T1C, duration 9 minutes & 10 seconds.
  Sawmill was off when I came near at 1004, then started at 1008 while I was standing there.  I noticed that it was off again at around 1400, and Tardy was ie at 1612.  There was water in Penta with a little overflow.

Saturday, April 18
  929 Plume
  1011 ie Grand _2Q  (I walked out from Castle at the start and was the only one near there!)
  West Triplet was on as Grand ended, then went off.  I don't know when it started.  Later in the day it was in overflow with no bubbling.
  1045 Plume
  1139 Grotto
  1351 Aurum
  1539 Plume
  1600 ie Daisy
  1621 Lion initial
  1652 Plume
  On the drive out at 1745 Flood was bursting 3-4 feet or so.
  Penta was in overflow again today.
  We watched Fan & Mortar for a few minutes.  It didn't look like it had erupted since the likely/possible one last Tuesday.  The water in the catch basins was almost empty.  We did not see an event cycle, but apparently Diane & Andy had seen one on Friday.

Sunday, April 19
  Tardy was ie at 825 and off before 933
  West Triplet was in overflow again with no bubbling.
  939ns Oblong - as seen from Grand, it had very high bursting throughout much of the eruption
  Also from Grand, we saw what appeared to be a 2-3 minute Bijou pause, with an increase of steam from the area.
  1045 ie West Triplet 
  1056 ie Tardy
  Penta was in overflow past the sign and up to the boardwalk.  Bubbles were coming up at times.  We left the area, though, because a herd of bison moved in and blocked our path to Castle.
  
Every time that I walked by Giant, Bijou was on strong, Mastiff was depth charging, and there were oblique surges of water in Giant's cone.  I couldn't see water in the GIP.

Every Plume that I saw was 5 bursts.

Getting around was challenging at times and time consuming, especially down basin.  The boardwalks have deep snow in some spots and are clear in others.  The bike path has not been plowed.  (The word that I heard was that the bobcat that they use to plow was broken.  However, they had a bobcat working on the Lower Ham parking lot.)  On Friday, the snow was not well packed down and we fell through it several times.  It got better as the weekend progressed as it got packed down more firmly and started breaking up in spots.  The warm weather made it slushy in the afternoons.

The weather was warm for April on Friday & Saturday.  I didn't even put my coat on on Saturday.  On Sunday, the wind picked up and I wore my coat & multiple layers most of the day.

We didn't see or hear of any bears in the basin.  There were a few elk near the tree line and a marmot was out at Grand.  A small herd of bison (about a dozen) moved back into the basin on Sunday.

It was great to be back in the basin again with geysers and good company!  Other gazers that were able to come in were Darrel & Ann Scharf, Andy & Diane from California, Tom from West Yellowstone, and Dee, also from West Yellowstone.

Polly Panos