[Geysers] Geyser Report September 18

[Lynn Stephens]

items from the OFVC logbook

 

Castle:  0249E (major) 1615 minor

Daisy 0821, 1026, 1231ie, 1445ie, 1905ns

Fountain 1428 d = 32

Grand 1153, 1938

Great fountain 1306, of = 77, p = 2

Riverside 0812ns

 

Beehive 0632, 2020 (Ind = 2011)

Lone Star 1146vr

Plume 0748, 0844, 0946, 1151, 1247, 1452ie, 1553, 1753, 1854, 1948

 

Artemisia (no entry in the logbook but at 1445 it was still about 6" below overflow)

Atomizer 1444 minor, 1454ns major

Aurum 1926

Grotto 0630ie

Lion 1031, 1748, 1921

Little Cub 1825ns, 1905ie

West Triplet 0615ie

Rift 0644

Depression 0803, 1941ie

Sputnik 1008, 1059, 1129, 1210

Oblong 1104, 1610

Plate 1928ie

Logbridge 0652

Box Spring 0711

Pink Cone 0721, d = 99 min

Bead 0722

Flood 0801ie, 1419ie

Till 0842 major, 1748 major

White Dome 0926, 1003, 1027, 1146 (I=1hr19m), 1316 (I=1h30m), 1336, 1357

A-0 0936, 0957

Botryoidal 0935, 0940, 0944, 0948, 0953, 0959

Gemini 1300

Daisy 0012E, 0300E, 0536E

 

There was a coral glow on the eastern horizon from the sunrise this morning as Beehive erupted at 0632.

 

As I was driving toward the Lower Basin this morning, just as I was entering the geyser fog near Biscuit Basin, I realized there was a bull bison standing broadside in my lane.  There was a truck coming toward me in the southbound lane.  All I could think was, "My insurance agent isn't going to believe this.  And the insurance payment isn't going to come anywhere near the cost of replacing the pickup."  Thankfully I had slowed well below the speed limit before I reached the geyser fog so I was able to stop in time to avoid hitting the bison.  My heart certainly was pounding for awhile though.

 

The mountain bluebirds are still frequenting the geyser basins.  Recently they have been joined by several Clark's nutcrackers in the Great Fountain area.

 

Rounding the corner near White Dome, I glanced over to the meadow to the east and saw two sandhill cranes standing in the mist.  At first I wasn't certain whether the shapes I was seeing were actually birds or whether they were pieces of dead wood.  When one of the birds flapped its wings, there was no mistaking the birds for dead wood.

 

I cooked breakfast while waiting for Pink Cone to erupt, watched the start of the eruption, then drove back to Till.  I was treated to a symphony of bull elk bugling while I waited for Till to erupt.  I think there were at least two, and possibly three bulls sounding off this morning.  At least the bugles were coming from different directions and one bull had mastered the complete call whereas the other could barely manage the notes in the middle range.

 

After Till erupted, I returned to get the duration of Pink Cone (99 minutes, the shortest I've had this summer).

 

I thought yesterday afternoon's eruption of Great Fountain didn't expend a lot of energy, so I returned to Great Fountain in case it decided to back up a few hours.  Looking at the pool level, I decided it wasn't going to back up, but I didn't want to do any more driving, so I watched Botryoidal for awhile and got an interval on A-0 (21 minutes, the shortest reported to date this season).

 

White Dome had two consecuvie long intervals today, 1h19m followed by 1h30m.  The first long interval occurred before Great Fountain erupted and the second long interval overlapped Great Fountain's start, so we didn't have the "15-minute indicator" eruption of Great Fountain (one of the running jokes this summer) and we didn't have a White Dome right after the start of Great Fountain, so we didn't have the "pool-dropping" indicator (another running joke this summer).  Great Fountain didn't have much height to its eruption today, but we certainly did have a lot of blue--bubbles and blue at the base of several bursts.  

 

It's a good thing I'm not timing durations right not to see whether I need to move the mid-point of the prediction window.  Great Fountain had the regular first burst, "pookey" second burst, nice third burst, very good fourth burst, then did something I hadn't seen before.  We were in the pause following the fourth burst and Barbara and Maureen and I had moved from the benches toward our vehicles because the thundering dark gray cloud had reached us and was starting to drip water over our location.  Suddenly there was a blue based burst that went up about 50' feet.  Just one shot.  Then Great Fountain paused again.  Maureen asked, "What is that?  Burst #4.5?"  I didn't know what to call it.  After the pause following that burst, Great Fountain proceeded to have a regular fifth (or was it sixth?) burst.  It was what it was; I just didn't know what to call it.

 

Late this afternoon as I was driving from the office to the Inn parking lot, I saw a man, probably in his 70's wandering out toward White Geyser.  I stopped and called him back.  When he got back to the road, he asked me where Old Faithful was.  I gave him directions.  Then he gave me a very loud, outraged lecture saying "You folks should have more signs around here.  And you should put them farther back.  And also, you need more bathrooms.  The only ones around here are in the developed area."  I had to agree with him about having better signage and placing them farther back to allow people time to make a decision.  When I brought this up at a meeting several years ago I was told the signs are placed right before the turn or whatever because otherwise people will forget.  I didn't quite understand the logic of that, but I've given up fighting that battle.  I also wondered where, other than the Great Fountain parking lot and one of the picnic areas over on the Yellowstone River, he thought we needed more bathrooms.  I've found that the picnic areas and developed areas are reasonably close together.  I kept those thoughts to myself and responded, "Well sir, those things take money so I suggest you contact your congressman and tell him or her you think the Park Service budgets should be increased."  He indicated he was going to do just that.  As I drove away, I muttered to myself, and add "We need more garbage cans around the park" to your complaint!

 

Lynn Stephens

 

 

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