[Geysers] Upper Geyser Basin, Saturday, 12/11/2010

[Karen Low]

I went out in the basin after lunch, and headed up to Geyser Hill.  There were 
no human tracks from in front of the Old Faithful Lodge to Liberty Pool.  Lion 
was in eruption as I was passing the Observation Point trailhead at 1302.  I 
waited for Big Anemone to erupt (1307) while watching Lion die down.  From Plume 
down to Beehive, there was frost over about an inch of ice above snow.  The new 
railing means that side stepping isn't feasible, so I ended up taking off the 
skis, and post-holing through the ice.

Lots of snow around Penta and Churn (no runoff channels clear) implies Sawmill 
has been in charge of the group, but the group was quiet when I went by.  West 
Triplet was ie at 1336.  Turban erupted at 1337, but the pool was too low for 
Grand to be ready.  Beauty is cold, Chromatic slightly warmer.  I caught Daisy 
ie 1346 after I passed Oblong.  At Giant group, Bijou was on.  Grotto was quiet. 
 Riverside was not in overflow.  From the ice near Spiteful, I'd theorize that 
Fan & Mortar's last eruption was before the last snowfall.

Katy Duffy was putting out extra orange snow poles to reduce confusion as to 
location of the trail.  She said Carolyn Loren had done downloads this morning. 
 

At a bare patch on the bike path past Daisy, one set of wolf tracks crossed the 
path, from Round Spring Group heading towards Oblong.  At resource update on 
Tuesday, Dan (from Doug Smith's office) said that wolf 636M and 7 other adults 
and 2 pups seemed to be forming a pack that was hanging around the Firehole and 
Nez Perce drainages.  So perhaps the tracks were from one of that group.  I'm 
wondering how visible they shall be this winter.

Karen Low


      
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