[Geysers] Saturday report

[Polly Panos]

Hello All!
   I was fortunate enough to be able to make a weekend trip to the park with my husband, George.  It was so great to be there!
Here are the geyser times that I had for Saturday, April 17:
   Old Faithful was ie at 804 as I got my gear together to head out.  I headed towards Castle, where I watched the basin for some time.  The weather was overcast, and as the morning progressed, we had steady rain and then some snow.  
   0827 Plume
   Sawmill was off.  A coyote was howling and yipping somewhere out of sight near Castle.
   0834 ie Riverside (steam cloud)
   0853 ie Grotto (It was close to the start.)
   0903 ie Daisy
   0905 Sawmill
   0922 Plume
   0945 ns Old Faithful
   0955 Aurum was called on the radio
   Sometime after this, I apparently leaned over and dropped my radio in the rain.  It was a few minutes before I realized it, and afterwards I found it I had a difficult time receiving and sending messages.  
   I walked over to Grand, and saw Bulger ie at 1034.
   1036 Plume (radio call)
   At Grand, Victoria and I could see steam in the Fan & Mortar vicinity.  It was not an eruption, but looked steady enough to be something going on down there.  So, she walked and I hopped on my bike to check.  She was past Grotto, and I was nearly there when we heard a call of water in Beehive's Indicator.  (Of course - isn't that the way it goes!)  The Indicator was called at 1106, and Beehive at 1111.  I was able to make it to Castle to see Beehive take off, then rode up the path a ways to watch it.  Victoria was still walking, but she did catch Oblong ie at 1107.  (Later, we also had a report from Maureen that Fountain erupted at 1151.)
   Back at Grand, we had a steamy eruption at 1129.  I heard Turban start, and then a second later Grand rose up through the steam.  (We couldn't see the pool.)  After an 11 minute first burst, I had little hope for a second.  We could not see if there was still water there, but after a wait Grand suddenly shot up for a second burst.  This burst lasted over 2 minutes.  Vent and Turban quit after Grand.
   Sawmill was off before 1145 and Grotto was off before 1209.
Shades of Labor Day Past:
   After Grand, I rode down to Fan & Mortar.  When I arrived at 1210, River Vent was off and there was steam in Main Vent.  I began to hear steam rushes from Main Vent, and Bottom Vent began spritzing.  At 1216 I had my first Main Vent splash.  Bottom Vent and Lower Mortar alternated splashing, and Main Vent continued to splash.  (By this time, my radio was not working at all, and I had to use my phone to call the Visitor's Center so that they could relay reports.)  As the event cycle proceeded, we had a double River Vent pause and many splashes from Main Vent, 2 of which were quite large (the kind that are strong enough to have water come out of Angle, too).  Sometime during all of this, my husband came to my rescue and brought down a spare radio for me!  When River came on at 1301, we had nice, high water levels.  By 1319, High and Gold were steady and high enough to look like a lock.  They continued like this for several minutes.  It was steamy and hard to see, but I did not see much steam from Main Vent during this time, and there was NO steam in East Vent.  At 1326 we had one of those Main Vent splashes that often sets off the eruption, but nothing happened.  By 1329 Gold started to lose its punch, and by 1331, Fan's vents had gone to steam.  Ouch!
   Oh, and at 1250 Daisy was called.
   As we were getting ready to head out, the bison herd that had been at Castle earlier came down the bike path.  Most of them turned off to the river bank, but one began walking across the bridge towards a group of us.  As we tried to get out of his way, though, he rethought his path and went back with the others.
   Some of us went to Riverside, which was called at 1413.  As it was finishing, Grotto Fountain was called at 1433.  Grotto began erupting at 1435 - a nice, vigorous start.
   I decided to go to Oblong and watched for Daisy from there.  Daisy - 1533.
   Oblong at 1541 was steamy, but had great thumps.  
   Two more radio calls before I left the basin - Aurum 1640 and Depression 1635ie.
   We went out to Fountain to wait for the evening eruption.  Spasm was ie at 1727, probably near the beginning of the eruption.  Fountain began at 1812.  It was a beautiful, high eruption with the sun out and the wind blowing it away from us. Morning's Thief was difficult to see with the wind direction, but I saw it at 1813 and 1815.  Jet finally began at 1840.  The duration of Fountain was 31 minutes.

  More info about Sunday and park conditions will come in a later report...
  Polly Panos