[Geysers] Yellowstone Report 6/20 and 6/21 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

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Yesterday evening (6/19) when I got home from Lone Pine I had to do some housecleaning.  A mouse had found some of the food items in the milk crates on the porch, so I had to move some of the food inside.  Thankfully I slept in this (6/20) morning so it was fully daylight before I started to leave the trailer.  As I was picking up the radios, I noticed a mouse very neatly placed in the center of the small wooden coffee table that MaryBeth brought.  The head was facing the "kitchen" area, the tail lay in a straight line behind it, and the hind legs were splayed at right angles to the body.  Usually when MaryBeth brings a toy for Cocoa Kitty, she tells me, so I suspected that despite the fact it was so neatly placed on the table, it probably wasn't a kitty toy.  Using a paper towel, I carefully picked it up, noting that it was rather soft and there was a wet spot on the side of its throat.  I guess Cocoa decided to earn her keep, unlike one summer when I came home unexpectedly to find her sprawled out on the living room floor with nine, count them, nine, inch long baby mice playing all around her!  She couldn't understand why I was chasing them around with a towel, catching them and throwing them outside.  But the next evening she did show she knew that adult mice were not allowed in the trailer.

 

It was warm enough that I biked to the north end of the basin at 0600 with just sandals, no socks.  When I returned, Barbara Lasseter and Tara Cross were near the gas station looking at the Myriad Group family of sandhill cranes.

 

I decided to go to Great Fountain early because the 6/19 afternoon eruption had been fairly weak, but not quite early enough.  As I rounded the corner to turn onto Firehole Lake Drive, I noted a lot of steam from the Great Fountain area.  I had barely parked in the parking lot when Great Fountain (0834ns 6/20) sent up a small burst, then a who-omph large burst followed by a huge wave that emptied out the crater, indicating I had arrived at the beginning of the first burst.  I was talking with Ralph Taylor.  The fourth burst had a blue bubble.  There was a 9 minute pause between the end of the fourth burst and the beginning of the fifth burst.  The fifth burst was quite strong, so I knew Great Fountain would go on the far side of the evening window, but I wanted to get to Pink Cone so I didn't stay to see how many more bursts Great Fountain had.  

 

This morning (6/21), on my way to Pink Cone,  I stopped at Great Fountain to change the prediction board.  Looking at the crater I could tell it had erupted way past the far side of the window.  Some visitors who had seen/heard part of the eruption said it erupted sometime between 1 and 2 am (the prediction was 6:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.).  Scott stopped by while I was at Pink Cone and he said he would let the Visitor Center know I was predicting the next eruption at 1pm +/- 2 hours.

 

When I next arrived at Great Fountain at 10:55, overflow had started just a few minutes earlier--it was out the center crater, but not overflowing off the first big terrace yet.  So I used the park service radio to call the Visitor Center to put up a prediction of 12:15 +/- 15 mintues.  Then I decided to swing through Firehole Lake Drive to check on Gemini, which wasn't erupting.  I don't know what time Great Fountain erupted, because I got diverted, which I'll explain in a few paragraphs.

 

Back to 6/20--I waited for Pink Cone, which erupted at 11:47.  

 

I got Pink Cone again today (6/21) at 0853 (I=21h06m).  I stayed for the duration (105 minutes).  While I was watching the Pink Cone Group I recorded several eruptions of Bead and Box Spring, Labial at 07:19 (6/21), Narcissus (6/21)  at 7:29ns (L) and again at 9:26ns (S).  Pink erupted (6/21) at 9:13 (d ~ 12 minutes).  Ralph told me yesterday (6/20) that a four-legged critter had gotten the monitor at Narcissus over the winter and it appears another critter got the monitor at Pink.

 

The interesting observation today (6/21) was a closed interval on Labial's Satellite Vents.  I can go for hours, days, even weeks without seeing even one eruption.  This is only the second time I have seen a closed interval.  Both eruptions lastered about 12 minutes and the interval was 2h35m.

 

While I was at Pink Cone this morning (6/21) I was entertained by half a dozen or so bluebirds.  I also watched the two adult sandhill cranes for several minutes.  They were calling to each other, but I never saw a chick with them.

 

After Pink Cone on 6/20, I decided to go into West Yellowstone to restock my reading material.  Jere B. was at the library (LSU won its baseball game, he said "it was a romp").  When Jere saw how high of a stack the 3 books I had chosen made, he asked whether I was checking books out by the title or by the inch.

 

On the way back from West Yellowstone I stopped at Nez Perce Creek to take pictures of the masses of very pale yellow flowers with a bright orange center on a short stem.  The flowers were two to three inches in diameter, probably White Mules Ear.

 

The rest of the day (6/20) was a bust as far as geysers go because I decided to go over to Lone Pine since the week Dave Leeking was here, it appeared Lone Pine was doing intervals of 21 hours or less.  When I arrived, it was very windy.  There were large white caps on the Lake.  So, I attributed the lack of bubbles to the blowing wind making it difficult for me to see the bubbles.  Awhile later the wind stopped and the rain started.  Now I could see plenty of ripples on the surface from the raindrops, but I still kept trying to convince myself that Lone Pine must be bubbling.  Then the rain stopped and there was no way I could pretend that Lone Pine was bubbling.  Since it had bubbled for five hours as I was watching it 6/19 before it finally erupted, I decided to give up and go home.

 

While I was at Lone Pine I watched a black and white woodpecker with a red stripe on the back of its head pounding away with its beak at some downed tree trunks.  I think it was a hairy woodpecker rather than a downy woodpecker because it was drilling away at the tree trunks and its beak appeared to be as large as its head.

 

I also watched four pelicans flying around over the lake.  I wonder how many pelicans it takes to make a flock.

 

As I was putting stuff away in the pickup getting ready to leave Lone Pine, I noticed that I had become surrounded by vehicles and traffic was not moving in either the north or southbound lanes.  A bull elk--6 points on each side of its velvety antlers so far--was grazing on the west side of the road.  It took about 15 minutes before I could finally ease into traffic to make my way home.

 

At least I was able to safely ease my way into traffic.  This morning (6/21) as I was making my way south on the main road to enter Firehole Lake Drive, I noticed a two-vehicle traffic accident.  The parties involved said no one had called for help yet, so I got on the NPS radio.  Shortly after, while I was waiting for NPS personnel to arrive, Brandy and Kristine arrived.  Dennis Young, law enforcement officer from Madison, arrived within minutes.  Brandy grabbed an orange cone and a stop/slow sign, took one of my FRS radios and he went south to stop northbound traffic.  I had a park service radio in one hand, the FRS radio in the other hand, and started coordinating with Brandy to stop/start southbound traffic.  During the process, I noted Great Fountain's steam cloud, but didn't even note the ie time since I knew that Scott and Jere and probably some others were at Great Fountain.

 

The MVA was almost cleared when a pickup came roaring up toward me while I had southbound traffic stopped.  The driver of the pickup said, "There's a one-vehicle roll-over north of Fountain Flats drive."  So, here I was on the NPS radio again reporting another accident.  Thankfully no one in the roll-over was injured.

 

As the MVA was finally cleared, Brandy handed me the traffic cones and stop/slow sign that belonged to Dennis Young.  I agreed to head north to deliver them.  As I pulled up, Dennis said he was glad to see me, not because of the cones, but because he needed someone to help stop/start traffic until more law enforcement rangers arrived.  While I was helping direct traffic, I was entertained by a bald eagle circling overhead for a while.  There was also a reported road-rage incident at the scene of the roll-over but because several law enforcement officers were there when part of the incident occurred, I didn't have to get on the radio for that one.

 

Today (6/21) I did see two Fountain eruptions--0557ie and 1236ie.

 

The weather today has been a series of showers and storms.  Luckily most of the showers occurred when I was able to stay inside the pickup and not when I was standing in the road directing traffic.

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 

 

 

 

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