[Geysers] Sunday, April 18

[Polly Panos]

Hello again.  Here are the times that I have for Sunday, April 18:

   There were phantom steam clouds downbasin, so I headed down there first when I came in.  I think that they were just steam from Oblong pushes and Link boils/maybe a minor.  The marker was still in place at Fan & Mortar (and now we know that it erupted on Monday).  Riverside was in overflow and there was quite a bit of steam at Daisy, so I decided to stay in the area for awhile.  A solo wolf howled for about 15 minutes straight, then kept going on and off for most of the morning.  His voice filled the whole basin and sounded very lonely.  My husband, George, said that it sounded like it was behind the Inn or maybe even over near the government housing.
   On both days, every time that I saw the Giant area, Bijou was on.  I saw a little bit of oblique water in Giant's cone.  Catfish was spurting a couple of times.  While waiting for Oblong on Saturday, I could see water in Mastiff at times, looking like I saw it last summer.  (Not depth charges, but splashing.)
   The sun was shining this morning, and the air was clear and crisp.  (It was about 26 degrees when we arrived compared to 40 the day before.)  The geysers were beautiful with the sun on them.
   0846 Daisy
   0916 Oblong   The eruption wasn't super high, but was very pretty.
   924ns Riverside  The sunlight wasn't all of the way down to the cone, but the droplets and spray of most of the water shone brightly.  It was a quiet and peaceful eruption, with only a couple of other people there.
   At this point, I thought that I'd watch Riverside for a few minutes, check the rock pile (F&M) again, and then head up to watch for Beehive.  But the best laid plans...   Kitt Barger called me on the phone while I was still at Riverside and told me that she could see Beehive erupting on the webcam.  Oh, well.  I did not hear a radio call for either Beehive or its Indicator.
   1046 Plume and 1049 Depression were both radio calls.
   Daisy was ie at 1107
   A very large bison herd meandered down from Geyser Hill towards the meadow.  They went out of sight by Castle or the Inn.
   I headed up to the Grand area, where West Triplet was ie at 1117.  (It was off ~ 1205.)  Rift was 1135ns, off ~ 1244.  I saw Artemisia's steam cloud ie at 1152.  At Beauty, it was fairly full, but well below overflow.  Chromatic Pool was in overflow on three sides.
   Grotto's steam cloud appeared at 1223, with steam to the right of it about a minute before (likely Grotto Fountain).  Grotto shut off at 1417.
   Sawmill and Tardy were on and off 2 or 3 times while I waited for Grand.
   Maureen reported that she saw Fountain at 1217.
   Daisy, at 1335, was a radio call, and a pretty view from Grand.
   At ~ 1355, both Christine and I saw spikes of water above the trees at Grotto.  Grotto turned off shortly after, so we thought it was likely a Rocket major.
   Oblong was called during Grand at 1438.
   Grand (1435 T2C) was one of the prettiest I have seen.  The beads of water falling and the streams going up were highlighted in the sun.  Grand stopped suddenly at 7 minutes and 38 seconds in.  The second burst was very high and clearly defined in the sun.  The total duration was 9 minutes and 5 seconds.  We were hoping for a 3rd, but the pool drained.  Grand was a satisfying end to my weekend geyser gazing.

   The amount of snow in the park seemed more like early May than April.  The roads were dry and there wasn't much snow along the edges of the roads.
   As Bill Warnock said, the bike path is almost completely clear.  On Saturday, there was just a slender path through the snow in the Castle area, but everything else was easy to traverse.  The bike racks were not out yet, except, of course, the one at the Lower Hams.
   The boardwalks were also mostly clear.  There were spots near Castle, Grotto, the bridge by the Lodge, around Beehive, and between Sawmill and Lion that had packed snow.  Speaking of the boardwalk, on Sunday while we were waiting at Grand, I looked up and saw 3 bicyclists near Sawmill.  I ran over to get their attention.  I spoke to the two in the rear, and told them that bikes were not allowed on the boardwalk.  They continued on anyway, so I radioed the Visitor's Center.  The cyclists were later seen over by Beehive.  Law enforcement was called, but I don't know if they ever caught up to them.
   We saw several different kinds of birds.  The bald eagles were on their nest by Riverside Drive.  I saw one trumpeter swan in the Madison River.  A few mountain bluebirds and some black and white mergansers (ducks) were in the Upper Basin.  On Saturday, I could hear a baby hawk whistling from its nest, and  sandhill cranes noisily flew over Daisy's hill.  The Canada geese were in their usual spots.  I heard woodpeckers or flickers.
   A big grizzly bear was seen several times in the Firehole Lake Drive area on Saturday and Sunday.  We saw him as we were leaving the park, and he was very dark with a slash of light-colored fur over its shoulder.  The consensus seemed to be that he was the one that is known as the "bison killer."  Apparently he had taken a bison calf near the overpass on Thursday.  They (bear management?) moved the carcass to the Firehole Lake Drive area, and the bear then showed up down there.  Speaking of bison calves, I heard reports of one or two here or there, but I didn't see any. 

  I hope to see many of you over Memorial Day weekend!
  Polly Panos