[Geysers] The Pink Umbrella

[Tara Cross]

Lynn Stephens wrote:


"As Tara was headed north for Fountain this afternoon, she gave me Beehive's start time (1702) over the radio.  Tara said since she won't be near a computer for awhile, I could tell her story about a pink umbrella while they were waiting for this early afternoon Fountain (1242), but I said I'd just alert you she has a story and she can relate it the next time she makes a post."

Since I'm online briefly, I'll tell the story now.  I had left Grand in order to catch Fountain, and even though I heard Mary Beth call Grand on the very next Turban, I was glad that I left when I did because I was at Fountain for maybe 5 minutes before it started (1242, d=31).  The first half of the eruption was lovely--beautiful full sun, dark sky in the background for contrast, good wind direction, huge bursts from Morning's Thief.  But the second half was a completely different story, as a nasty squall passed through.  Along with stinging rain, the wind picked up and shifted 90 degrees, moving Fountain's steam from between Morning's Thief and Twig to between Jet and Super Frying Pan.

I had been sitting on the boardwalk and at first just hunkered down in my rain gear to sit out the squall--until I realized that it wasn't raining except where I was sitting and it was Fountain getting me wet.  So, I got up and moved over towards Spasm.  A few minutes later I glanced over at Jet and then did a double take.  Over Jet's cone I saw a color and shape that do not occur naturally in the geyser basins--and through Fountain's steam, realized that it was a pink umbrella.  And if it was a pink umbrella, then there had to be a person attached to it.  And if that person was standing over Jet, which I expected to erupt at any moment, they were in serious danger.

So I sprinted through the steam and saw that it was a foreign woman, standing right on the eastern edge of Jet's formation, taking pictures.  I immediately blurted out, "Please come back!  That's very, very dangerous!"  Then I saw that she was with 2 other people, and they started talking to her in their language.  She quickly returned to the boardwalk, and just in time--Jet erupted shortly thereafter.  I tried to explain how much danger she'd been in, but wasn't sure the message got through, until one of her companions asked me in fluent English about when the next Fountain eruption might be.  Quite frankly, I do not like being that close to having to radio Lynn and ask her to call an ambulance on the park radio.

As a completely unrelated aside, I was able to cross a major item off of my Yellowstone animal sightings wish list--tonight as I returned to Old Faithful from Gardiner, a cougar crossed the road in front of my car a few miles west of West Thumb.

--Tara Cross
fanandmortar at hotmail.com

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