[Geysers] Geyser Report (6/2) Stephens

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS REPORT IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE SUBSCRIBERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE REPRODUCED

FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT.

 

Great Fountain erupted near dark last night, with no sunset (2108, p=8, of=83m, I = 11h38m).  I left shortly after the end of the first burst because it was starting to rain, was dark, and I knew there was a small herd of bison just north of Biscuit Basin in the curvy section of the road.  Thankfully, as I reached the junction with the main road, I was able to pull into another person headed south and let them be the "sweeper" in case any of the bison were still on the road.

 

Till was ie as I drove past, but I didn't stay to get the end time so I could estimate a start time since I didn't want to run the risk of not having someone on the road in front of me on a dark and rainy night.

 

Till major was 0700 this morning (6/2), for a double interval of 19h01m, 9h31m average.  The average has been creeping up the past few days, but with the rain today, this afternoon's closed interval dropped to 9h06m.  I didn't get the start of overflow this afternoon, but this morning the overflow was 42 mintues and had not yet reached the road when Till started its eruption.

 

After Till's start, I quickly headed for Great Fountain.  Fountain was 0712ie (fairly close to start--it was not ie when I pulled into Great Fountain, but was ie after I updated the prediction board.)  

 

While I was waiting at Great Fountain, Jere B and Sabrina called on the FRS radio.  They were stuck in a bison jam between Fountain Paint Pots and the entrance to Firehole Lake Drive.  They were stuck there over 10 minutes, long enough for Great Fountain to come into overflow.  Even though I had been able to reach the Visitor Center on the NPS radio, Jere took the information to relay when they got up to the Upper Basin.

 

Jere and Sabrina came back from the Upper Basin, and Jim Schreier, Steve Eide, and Bill and Carol Beverly also came north for Great Fountain.  Great Fountain erupted at 0950 (p=8, oflw=86, I=12h42m).  

 

During the pause a bull elk (this season's antlers are just starting to grow) came running out of the woods to the east of Mushroom Pool, headed across the meadow and the road.  We were watching to see what had spooked him, but none of us saw what might have been chasing him.

 

The first burst was one of the stronger ones I've seen, sending a massive amount of water over the ledges to make impressive sounding (and looking) waterfalls.  Bill, Carol, and Jim stayed for the third burst, which had a vibrant blue bubble.

 

Steve Eide left near the end of the first burst because Pink Cone had not yet started.  He spent only a minute or two waiting at Pink Cone, which he called at 1012 (I=23h29m).

 

After Great Fountain ended, I took a 2-hour break to drive into West Yellowstone to run some errands, including checking out 3 new books from the Library.  A week or so ago Jere B commented that one of Yellowstone's institutions was missing--Lynn wasn't doing her needlework while waiting for geysers.  I brought plenty along of needlework with me for the summer, but so far had kept myself busy in other ways while waiting for geysers.

 

Out in West Yellowstone the plastic bison herd (26 cows and 10 calves) has congregated on the lawn in front of the Museum.  The painted bison will be auctioned off August 29.  If you want to learn more about the bison, see pictures, etc., information is available online at www.wyed.org.  If you can't be there August 29, you can also place your bids online at www.wyed.org.  (Current bid for the cows is $1,500; for the calves it is $800.  The tax accountant in me wonders how much of the final price will count as a tax deductible contribution.  I'll probably never know because I won't be bidding.)   Thankfully all the live, plain brown bison and baby orange calves were away from the road in meadows so I had few delays on my trip in and out to West Yellowstone.

 

On my way out to West, I didn't see the bald eagles at the nest west of 7 mile bridge.  On my way back, one of them was on the nest; the other was perched on a snag about 50 feet away.

 

I arrived back at the Inn parking lot about 13:30.  Beehive was splashing frequently and I could see that a number of gazers were on Geyser Hill waiting for Beehive.  A few of them left to go watch Lion, which was puffing.  Then I noticed Depression's steam cloud and called Depression 1335ie.  I watched most of the gazers troop over to look at Depression.  Then I saw the Beehive Indicator.  I was just raising my radio to call the Indicator when someone else did so (1337).  If I had been just a tad quicker to the draw, I could have made Emily Bailey (Bob and Emily arrived today) wonder where I was sitting that I could call Depression and the Indicator before people actually standing on the Hill were able to do so.

 

After Beehive (1348) I took some time out of the basin for administrative duties and had my radio off.  After hitting send on this message, I'll spend a couple hours typing logbook pages (I'm currently working on February 2009), then will call it an early evening since it looks like the sky is going to continue to be cloudy and drippy, I believe Great Fountain will erupt after dark, and I don't do dark and rainy drives much anymore.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 

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