[Geysers] Ferris Fork Oct 1-6 2010

[Stephen Eide]

Hello Eric,

Thank you for the information.  I am trying to dig up more history on the
Ferris Fork Thermal Area but so far the going is slow.  And right now I
can't answer your questions, I hope someone else can.  This was my first
trip into the area.  Jim Holstein visited in 2008, 2009 and this trip in
2010 but I think 2008 was his earliest trip.  If I dig up more info I'll
post it.  Anyone else have any Info on the area?

Thank you,

Stephen Eide

On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 9:01 PM, Eric Hatfield <conanvandt at yahoo.com> wrote:

>  Interesting to hear about this area.  My dad and I were there in 1997.
> I'm most interested to hear about the features across the river from
> "Zealous Spring."
>
> I wrote an email to the server after that trip, some of which was
> reproduced in the Sput.  I described those features as "New Event," because
> when we were there, it seemed brand new, as in days, at least in parts.
> There were areas where profuse boiling overflow was still crossing dense
> grass.  I remember the "crack," which then was a bulky perpetual spouter
> (think Aurum 1/3 as high) to around 4-5 feet.  There were other furious
> boiling and splashing pools/vents immediately adjacent.  Altogether the
> runoff, which only ran a few feet before reaching the creek, seemed to
> measure in hundreds of gallons per minute.
>
> At that time, "Zealous Spring" (as I have just learned it is named), was
> about a foot below overflow.  Bubbling and thrashing could still be heard in
> the buried vents in its big sinter rampart, but otherwise the sinter mound
> was long dry.
>
> So, I ask, tell me more about "New Event."  What is this feature and what
> do we know about it?  When was it first described, and how often has it been
> active?  It sounds as if it was doing something in 2008, but not 09 or 10.
> What happened between 1997 and 2008, and before?  Does it usually subdue
> "Zealous"?
>
> Any info?
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* Stephen Eide <stepheneide at cableone.net>
> *To:* geysers <geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu>
> *Sent:* Sat, March 5, 2011 12:16:23 PM
> *Subject:* [Geysers] Ferris Fork Oct 1-6 2010
>
> Greeting and Salutions,
>
>
>
> This is a very late trip report from a hike I took with Jim Holstein on
> October 1 to 6, 2010 from OK1 (Lone Star trailhead) to 9K1 (Bechler Ranger
> Station).  I was late starting out so we did not get to visit Shoshone
> Geyser Basin but we did spend part of two days in the Ferris Fork thermal
> area.  I thought Rocco Paperiello and Marie Wolf had written about the
> area but I could not find it in the index to *Report on Lesser Known
> Thermal Features of Yellowstone National Park* so I guess I will just give
> a narrative of what features we saw.  Jim had been in the area twice
> before in 2008 and 2009 so I am including some of the information he gave me
> from his previous visit also.
>
>
>
> Just as background, the Ferris Fork Thermal area is about half a mile
> upstream from three rivers junction where Phillips Fork, Ferris Fork, and
> Gregg Fork meet to form the Bechler River.  There are also many more hot
> springs from three river junction several miles down the Bechler river but
> most of them appeared to be cooler, or at least not close to boiling.  However
> for the most part we just walked past the features on the Bechler River and
> made no attempt to visit the hot springs on the far side of the river.  The
> Ferris Fork Thermal area is about 15 miles from either end of the trailhead.
>
>
>
>
> You walk about 500 meters from the junction with the Bechler trail until
> you meet the first thermal area.  This area is about 150 meters east to
> west and about 50 meters wide.  Ferris fork is the right (south) border of
> the area and a thermal stream is the left (north) border.  The area runs
> mostly west to east.  There are three sets of hot springs in this area,
> none looking like they could erupt with their current activity.  Just as
> you enter the area the trail drops down an incline about six feet and
> crosses the thermal stream.  Just after you cross this stream there is a
> hot spring on your right, shallow, maybe an inch or two deep with many
> bubbling vents in a fine gravel bottom.  The temperature is below boiling,
> I suspect around 150 or 160 from the lighter bacteria growing in the pool.
> If you turn right before you cross the thermal water and walk about fifty
> meters to the south-west you reach another hot spring, it is deeper and
> appears hotter although I don’t think it was quite boiling.  It was
> bubbling vigorously.  Grass was growing down to the edge of the pool.  One
> point about the Ferris Fork Thermal area, all most all of the springs had
> strong bubbling, there seems to be a significant amount of gas evolution in
> almost all the springs in the area.
>
>
>
> The last spring in this first thermal zone is in the back-left of the area
> (north-east).  It is a series of many springs with one vent in the middle
> most active and the rest with minor to no bubbling/boiling.  The main vent
> there appears to be boiling however I cannot be sure.  There is a steady
> stream of water from these springs that I talked about earlier.  Grass was
> growing to the edges of all the vents.
>
>
>
> As you continue on the trail you pass through about 80 meters of
> non-thermal land before reaching the next set of thermal features.  Ferris
> Fork goes around a bend so for the remainder of the thermal zone Ferris Fork
> is running mostly south to north.  The next thermal area you reach is two
> sets of springs on both sides of Ferris Fork.  On the far side of the
> river (west side) is a large constantly boiling pool Jim tells be is call
> Zealous Spring.  And on the near side of the river (east side) is an
> unnamed pool and sinter area with two features that did not erupt for us on
> this trip but features that Jim has seen erupt in the past.
>
>
>
> First Zealous Spring, this is one of the most impressive features in Ferris
> Fork, at first it appears to be one pool but when you are close you can see
> it is three interconnected pools with the pool closest to Ferris Fork the
> only one with an active vent in it.  And it is very active, constantly
> boiling two to four feet high with occasional higher boils.  In some ways
> it resembles Crested Pool but the boil is more like the one-meter boil on
> Great Fountain.  There is a constant heavy outflow both over the lip of
> the pool and through some covered sinter tunnels that pop out in the sinter
> shield below the pool.  There is an overflow terraced pool in the sinter
> between the pool and Ferris fork that will remind you somewhat of the
> terraces at Mammoth.  After looking at sinter overflow channel I would not
> recommend walking on it, it has several covered channels in it that pop up
> here and there containing boiling water.  The sinter is very white, which
> is another feature of the Ferris group as a whole; most of the sinter in the
> area is very white in color.
>
>
>
> The grassy area just south of Zealous Spring is interesting also.  There
> is an area of grass covered ground that appears to be very soft with
> constant gas bubbles coming up through the grass.  When I stepped on the
> edge of it I got the impression of a quicksand-like area, firm looking with
> grass on top but with lukewarm thermal mud underneath.  However, I did not
> walk on it so I am unsure how correct this impression was.
>
>
>
> In the area on the east side of Ferris Fork across from Zealous Spring and
> between the trail and Ferris Fork is the second area of hot springs.  According
> to Jim two of these springs erupted in some manner in 2008..  The first
> spring was erupting out of a crack across the top of some sinter as a  perpetual
> spouter in a fan shape to 2-4 feet high in 2008 but was quiet in 2009 and
> quiet when we visited in 2010.  The other erupted out of a small pool to
> the left and forward of  the fan shaped spring (from the trail) with a
> height of 1-2 feet and an interval of a few minutes in 2008.  It also was
> quiet in 2009 and 2010.
>
>
>
> The next feature you reach is Mr. Bubbles, an amazing hot spring on the
> edge of the river with part of the river flowing into it.  Mr. Bubbles is
> roughly circular with a diameter of 10-14 meters by my guess.  A hot water
> creek flows into it from the east.  The water in the creek has green mats
> in it but is to hot to keep you hand in, or do more than just touch it.  There
> is another small geyser/spring on the east edge of Mr. Bubble with a light
> overflow into Mr. Bubbles but I will talk about it later.  Ferris Fork
> flows into Mr. Bubbles from the West.  In the middle of Mr. Bubbles is a
> bubbling vent, not boiling, but constantly giving off gas bubbles.  They
> cause the ground to thump and vibrate constantly.  You can hear Mr.
> Bubbles (and feel the ground vibrate) for 10-20 meters from the pool.  When
> you are in Mr. Bubbles you can stand on the rocks over the vent and feel
> them bounce up and down with the force of the gas coming out.  However it
> is hot so I couldn’t stand on the rocks for long because of the heat.
>
>
>
> You can soak in Mr. Bubbles but be careful where you enter, don’t try to
> walk in near the hot creek’s discharge.  Since the water enters the pool
> from the river, hot creek, side geyser/spring, and main vent of the pool the
> temperature of the water varies depending on where you are in the pool.  With
> the gas from the main vent and the thumping and vibration of the water it is
> quite an extraordinary soak.
>
>
>
> The little geyser/spring on the northeast side of Mr. Bubbles is a new
> feature.  Jim tells me there was no thermal feature there when he visited
> in early September 2008 but appeared about a week later in mid-September.
> It was a perpetual spouter with a height of about four feet in late 2008.
> The rangers called it a thermal explosion but in 2009 (and 2010) there was
> no debris from the spring so how it was formed is unclear.  From what Jim
> learned from the rangers in the area they closed Mr. Bubbles for the
> remainder of the 2008 season either because of the volume of hot water it
> put out or just as a precaution due to a new and unknown thermal feature.
> In 2009 it was a perpetual spouter to about one foot.  In 2010 when we
> visited it just bubbled/boiled with a small steady water output.
>
>
>
> If you travel up the hot creek entering Mr. Bubbles from the east you’ll
> find several interesting thermal features.  All along this creek are
> frequent small hot springs near the level of the creek.  I started walking
> up the creek on the north side through some low brush and bushes and if you
> walk this route be careful, I found a couple of lukecool springs in the
> bushes, very hard to see  because of overhanging  brush.  They were
> several feet across, very deep, and could have been unfortunate to step in.
>
>
>
>
> The first notable spring is on the north side of the creek a maybe 80
> meters upstream.  It is a beautiful white pool, oval in shape, with one
> large and many small terraces down the side of the spring.  It bubbles but
> I don’t think it is boiling, I think it is just gas.  After the water
> leaves the main pool the cyanobacteria starts as green with no other
> intervening colors so the spring is just white and green.
>
>
>
> Further up the creek another 100 meters or so are a set of formations on
> the north side of the stream.  The first is a couple of “anthill” like
> formations that are dry; the water appears to be leaking out elsewhere.  The
> anthills are covered with beautiful little terraces on all sides.  Not far
> above this is a larger feature on the north bank with a large vent into the
> hillside and a side vent that acts as a perpetual spouter one to two feet
> high.  The large vent appears to be boiling continuously.  The perpetual
> spouter is a mixture of water and steam with mostly water.  The wet rocks
> are either white or cyanobactria covered green.  The dry rocks tend to be
> either white or grey.  There is another lukewarm hot spring a few meters
> further upstream.
>
>
>
> Another 50 meters up the creek is a nice set of white pools on the south
> side of the creek, hot but not boiling.  There are a few more hot springs
> on up the creek. I quit following the creek when its water was cool water,
> showing most of the thermal features were downstream.  I think this was
> about 300 to 400 meters upstream from Mr. Bubbles.  Please keep in mind I
> was guessing at these distances from my memory.
>
>
>
> Starting back at Mr. Bubbles the trail past Mr. Bubbles thins out a lot.  You
> pass a pool on the right between the trail and Ferris Fork.  If you leave
> the trail here and walk in this area you will find many crater ponds in this
> area, all appearing to be lukecool to cold.
>
>
>
> If you follow the fading trail you come to another small hot creek coming
> in from the east.   It drains into a pool in a depression that Jim tells
> me is Dyslexic Spring.  Along this spring and up to ten feet uphill on
> each side of this creek are many hot springs.  One of these appeared to be
> erupting with a height of about a foot, duration of a few seconds, and
> intervals of 15-30 seconds.  Many of  the rest of these hot springs
> bubbles, again I think with gas but some of them could be boiling.  The
> trail essentially ends here.
>
>
>
> There is a little rise between Dyslexic Spring and Ferris Fork.  Over this
> little rise is several more hot springs with runoff down to Ferris Fork.  Down
> by Ferris Fork and a few meters downstream is an interesting set of hot
> springs.  Some of these springs are in the river coming out of a set of
> vents that will likely be low rock islands when Ferris Fork is very low
> however since we were in the area the first week of October I doubt Ferris
> Fork gets much lower.  Up on the shore is another set of two lines of
> small hot spring vents.  These appear to be boiling and are surrounded by
> a field of fresh sinter about two by  four meters.  Because the whole area
> is covered with fresh sinter it looks like it could erupt. On the first day
> when we were in the area I left a marker on this spring.  It was still in
> place the next day, so I removed the marker.  So I am unsure if this
> feature does anything more than we saw.
>
>
>
> Across Ferris Fork on the west bank are three active thermal vents that are
> active.  The first vent, the one most downstream, has a long run off  channel
> that parallels Ferris Fork for about eighteen meters before turning and
> entering Ferris Fork.  When we were there it splashed to one to two feet
> high every few seconds and it never overflowed into the runoff channel.  Jim
> tells me in 2009 it was erupting to 3-4 feet high with a duration of over 28
> minutes and one closed interval of 1 hour 56 minutes.  I believe he told
> me with those eruptions the runoff channel was used.
>
>
>
> The next spring upstream on the west bank of Ferris Fork currently looks
> like a quiet pool several feet in diameter with wood debris in it.  It was
> quiet while we were there but Jim tells me it did erupt to one to two feet
> as a perpetual spouter in 2008 and 2009.  In those years the water level
> in Ferris Fork was higher and closer to the level of this spring.  I think
> in the spring at high water this feature would be underwater.
>
>
>
> The last feature is the most upstream feature at the foot of a big rock.  When
> we were in the area it was a perpetual spouter to a foot or two high.  Jim
> did not remember it being active in the past.  This spring would also be
> underwater with higher water levels in Ferris Fork.
>
>
>
> Back on the East side of Ferris Fork I think about across from the third
> upstream spring by the big rock is one spring that looked just warm with
> broken algae mats in it.  However the runoff channel was full of broken
> pieces of matting seeming to indicate the pool had overflowed or erupted
> sometime recently.
>
>
>
> The last spring by Ferris Fork and the most upstream is on the east  bank
> farther back from the river.  The spring and runoff channel had sinter
> that was black when wet and grey when dry.  It bubbles or boils
> constantly.  The runoff channel has some interesting scalloped sinter rims
> and islands.
>
>
>
> From here I climbed up the hill to the east.  There I found a flat swampy
> meadow that looked like it had some warm thermal springs in it.  I decided
> not to enter this area.  The runoff from this are curved down and became
> the stream that enters Dyslexic Spring.
>
>
> Since then I looked at the area on Google Maps and found I apparently
> missed at least two features and perhaps three features.
>
>
> http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=44.287025,-110.878615&spn=0.003717,0.009624&t=h&z=17
>
> Google maps appears to show another thermal area about three to four
> hundred feet to the south-east of the swampy meadow area I found on the
> southeast boarder of the thermal area.  I saw nothing on the ground to
> indicate it was there but it could be over the rise.
>
>
>
> The other feature I missed is a pool about 30 by 40 meters that is on the
> West bank of Ferris Fork about 150 meters West-South-West of Mr. Bubbles or
> about the same distance South-west of Zealous Spring.  It may be an old
> spring or large explosion crater.  Then again, it may be a big beaver
> pond.
>
>
>
> There may also be an area of thermal ground just as you first enter the
> first thermal area.  If you cross Ferris Fork then go about 100 meters
> south there appears to be some thermal ground (or at least lighter patches
> of ground) on the Google map picture.  But at least these are things to
> look at or look for the next time I’m in the area.
>
>
>
> Only 41 days until spring opening (if Congress allows)
>
>
>
> Stephen J. Eide
>
>
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> 
>
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