[Geysers] Yellowstone Report July 1

[Lynn Stephens]

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July 1--Again, a mixed weather day with mostly sunny skies with a few showers sprinkled in throughout the day and evening.

 

I started the day with Karl Hoppe's radio call of Beehive at 0203.  (I had forgotten to turn off the radio when I plugged it in.)  Beehive erupted again this afternoon at 1416.  But I promptly went back to sleep, awakening in plenty of time to get out to Great Fountain.

 

Great Fountain erupted at 0730 (p-3, oflw=82, I=12h10m).  It had a HUGE superburst.  I was sitting where I normally do in the morning to watch the waterfalls.  My fingertips were almost straight above my head as I was following the water droplets up, up, and up above the steam cloud.  It was one of those superbursts that instanteously created a wave of water 4-6" deep over the ledges.  Waterfalls appeared everywhere simultaneously.  Deep runoff arrived at my viewing point within seconds after the water started coming down bringing with it large pieces of loose sinter from the platform. It doused the south end of the parking lot (although I wasn't worried about the windshield because it was safely wrapped in its orange plastic drapery).  As I've often said though, the strength of the first burst does not determine whether the entire eruption will release an equally strong amount of energy.  The evening eruption started at 1822 (p=0, oflw = ?), an interval of 10h52m.  Although I didn't stay for the duration of the 0730 eruption, the "short" interval indicates it probably had, at best, a weak fourth burst.

 

I didn't stay for the eruption of Great Fountain because I wanted to get a start on Pink Cone, which started at 0915 (Interval-22h32m).  Duration was 102 minutes.  While I was at Pink Cone, I saw one eruption of Labial (1115) and one of Narcissus (1025ie, d>= 9 min), but didn't get intervals on either one of them.

 

Stephen Eide reported Fountain at 0636, Bill Warnock reported Fountain at 1246, and Kitt Barger reported Fountain at 1838.

 

More and more flowers are blooming every day.  Lilac tresses are in bloom in the meadows north of Biscuit Basin and in the Lower Geyser Basin.  Bright lemon yellow buckwheat. cow parsnip, yampah, and cinquefoil have joined the numerous yellow and white flowers, most of which I can't identify, even though I'm carrying around Shaw's "Trees and Flowers of Grand Teton and Yellowstone" with me.  Thistles and harebells have joined the list of blue-purple flowers in bloom.  In one meadow north of Biscuit Basin I stopped to look at the white flowers that looked like cottonballs from the road.  Turns out they are flowers that have gone to seed with thick, silky milkpods that have opened up such that they look like fluffy white clouds among the green stems.

 

The evening rainstorms with sunbreaks on the western horizon and rain clouds on the eastern horizon both yesterday (June 30) and today (July 1) have created beautiful rainbows near the time of both evening eruptions of Great Fountain.

 

The redtail hawk was circling the meadows along Firehole Lake Drive again today and the Whiskey Flat sandhill cranes were calling to each other this evening.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 

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