[Geysers] Shoshone GB Report (Sep 25 09)

[Kim Chambers]

Here is a brief report for my Shoshone GB visit on Friday,
25 September, 2009

Hiking in, I walked up to Lone Star, saw a few bursts of
water come out the top, then it promptly erupted (9:59 AM).
A good start to the trip.

All times are PDT using 24 hour convention.

As previous reports here indicated, the most active was
Velvet Spring - activity was consistent with the August
report. Here is some example times:

Start   End    Comments (ht=height)
12:57   12:59  ht:2ft
13:09   13:09  small burst,immediate drain
13:13   13:15
13:26   13:28
13:39   13:40
break in observation
13:55   13:57  ht:3-5ft
14:08   14:10
14:22   14:23
14:32   14:35  ht:5-6ft
14:45   14:77
14:57   14:59
15:09   15:11
15:22   15:24

Minute Man: when first seen (12:30) it was inactive with empty pool. I
was able to monitor it most of the day and the first eruption was
seen at 15:04, another at 15:06. The next was not until 15:40. I heard
it erupt again as I was leaving the basin around 17:00. These were
all "preliminary eruptions". I did not see the full series start.

Knobby: As was first noted a year or so ago, Knobby remains flooded from
apparent cold runoff into the collapse area above it. It was sad to
see it as it was one of my favorite. I don't thing anything I saw
could be called an 'eruption', although it did seem to occasionally
overflow and bubble in an attempted eruption (has anyone seen more
then this?)- here are the times:

13:35
14:40
14:53
15:06
15:19

Bead: One eruption seen, it seemed very short compared to what I have
seen previously. End of observation was about 16:40 so intervals are
longer then 2 hours as noted in previous reports.

Start   End    Comments (ht=height)
14:18   14:19  ht:5-6ft

Mangled Crater: active, 2 periods of greater activity seen

13:29
15:14

I saw 2 geysers I had never seen before. But from previous reports
and Scott's book I think they were as follows.

Frill Spring(?): One eruption seen (15:10). The eruption started small at
about 1ft but emitted an amusing hissing/bubbling sound loud enough to be
noticeable from 20ft away. This went on for about 4-5 minutes. Then,
suddenly, the eruption got bigger to about 6-10ft which lasted about
5 seconds. Some bursting of water occurred (1ft) for about 2 more minutes.
This was in the general area of Frill Spring.

"The Hydra": One eruption (15:54), south of Velvet Spring, several
different jets in various directions.

Many other geysers were active with no change from previous reports such
as: Trailside (several eruptions seen), Shield, Gourd, Iron Conch,
Bronze, and Black Sulpher.

Union: the same, dry and crumbling.

Even late in the season on a weekday, I counted 13 people in groups of 2
to 5 in the basin - so even the back country basins are under increased
pressure from use, as is Yellowstone in general in the past couple of years.

Kim Chambers