[Geysers] Trip report, late, River group

[Stephen Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

This is a partial late trip report for Memorial Day week (5-30 to 6-3-11).
My trip was cut short 'cause I didn't work hard enough or fast enough to get
there earlier.  Most of what was happening in the geyser basins have already
been reported but I thought I'd give a report on the River Group.   The mud
pots in the River group are fine, but not that wet.  I expected more water
after last winter's big snow pack but they had water levels and consistency
similar to how they usually look in mid-summer.  Just north of the northern
most mud pot is a buffalo carcass from this spring.  All the meat gone, just
bones and some skin and it looked to be several weeks old or older.  There
were no tracks around the carcass but there was one set of wolf tracks in
the mud pot area.   Pocket Basin Geyser did not erupt for me and it has a
full set of bacteria mats so I suspect it is still not erupting.  The area
above Dark Pool and Fortress continues to have less water however there
still were a couple of small geysers active in this area.  Fortress was more
geyser-like than I have seen in the past.  The boiling in Fortress is still
almost continuous but not as strong as I have seen in the past and then
every 10-30 seconds a big boil would occur to 3-10 feet.  You could say it
was erupting a few times each minute and I would not argue with you.  When
I arrived at Dark Pool it was low and I waited on it for over 30 minutes
without an eruption.  The pool level did rise and the pool did bubble more,
but that was all.  I should tell you that this was a very high wind day with
sustained winds over 35 miles per hour for the afternoon.  Since the pool
level was low when I arrived and rose while I watched it I think it is
possible it was erupting, but on longer intervals, maybe due to the high
wind.   I saw no activity from Brain Geyser or any of the other pools in
this area.  Cone Spring bubbled with steady overflow while Horn spring just
upstream had no overflow or water output.  Diadem spring continues its
dormant spell.  Azure spring was overflowing but not doing any palpitating
or firehole bubbles in the bottom of the pool.   UNNG RVG-4 was not active.
There is a thermal feature about 30 feet to the southwest of RVG-4 that has
a sinter lined runoff channel that I have never managed to catch in action,
but I finally saw it this trip.  It did not quite erupt, the pool was
sitting several inches below overflow, then it rose up to overflow.  When it
overflowed the pool palpitated and bubbled but not quite enough to call it
an eruption.  The overflow lasted about half a minute.  After that the pool
level dropped several inches.  I forgot to write down the time from overflow
to overflow but I think it was about one minute.  After several of these
overflows the pool dropped a bit more and after several minutes with no
further activity I left the area.  The wind that day was brutal.

Odds and ends.  Although the bear closed areas were supposed to open
Memorial Day weekend and I think they did, the bear closure sign was not
taken down at the Mary Lake trail head.  I did see someone had ripped it out
of the ground and tossed it down the trail on June 3.  And although the
Firehole loop road gate was open, the bear closure sign was still on the
open gate.

The hole in front of Bulger Geyser is impressive.  It is the third
(and biggest) new whole in the Sawmill group in the last five years.  It is
big and has an additional crack in front and to the right of it as you look
at it from the boardwalk.  The crack looks like it has erupted in the past
and I talked to two people (one seasonal employee with knowledge and one
visitor) who reported seeing the crack erupt at least once in the prior week
to a few inches high.  If I can figure out how to I will post some pictures
of it for all to see.  Unfortunately I did not catch it in eruption.  For
the week Tardy cycles continued to be the norm with Churn and Penta erupting
at least once a day for the days I was in the upper basin.

I think most everything else has already been reported.

Stephen Eide
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