[Geysers] Report 5/27/2011

[Lynn Stephens]

The drive in this morning was interesting.  There was about 3-4 inches of frozen slush on the road from West Yellowstone to Madison Junction.  Craig Pass was closed and the snow tires/chains required sign was up at the West Entrance.  We had to take snow tires off by April 1, but I have almost new all-season radials plus 4-wheel drive, so I decided I wouldn't have any problemms.  I did pull over just inside the entrance to let the one vehicle behind me go ahead; I didn't want anyone tailgating me if I decided I didn't want to go more than 25 mph.  I felt comfortable going 35-40 mph most of the time, except when the suicidal cow elk came running across the road right in front of me.  Thankfully I didn't hit her.  A few hundred yards down the road was a lone cow bison with a tiny calf, which was standing on the pavement.  Thankfully, I also didn't hit it.  
 
At the top of the hill from Madison Junction headed toward Old Faithful, the road cleared and  there was almost no snow on the trees, so the rest of the trip in was made at the speed limit.
 
I arrived at Atomizer in time to catch the last minor so I was able to give a 30-minute prediction for the major.  Between the last minor and the major, I was walking around, looking at the snowshoe rabbits in the meadow on the east side of the trail near the top of the hill.  No one took me up on the prediction, probably because any gazers up and about were on Geyser Hill waiting for Beehive.  Atomizer had a closed interval of 17h30m major to major.
 
After Atomizer I was going to go out Firehole Lake Drive.  On my way north there was a bear on the hillside just south of the Fairy Falls trailhead.  I guess the bears haven't gotten the eviction notice.   On the other hand, the information I'd been given that firehole Lake Drive would open today was wrong; it opens tomorrow, so maybe the bear was staying until the last minute.  
 
I went up to the Fountain overlook where the water in Morning was really low and Morning's Thief wasn't bubbling.  After yesterday's 31 minute duration, Maureen Edgerton said, "Maybe it will go back to short intervals."  I timed a Spasm and a few Jets, then decided it was going to be awhile so I went down to time some Flood intervals.  Maureen caught Fountain at 10:28, duration 30 minutes.  She said it was a beautiful eruption with sun on it.  She did not see any eruptions of Morning's Thief prior to the start of Fountain, but said there could have been some that she didn't see.
 
When she stopped to give me the Fountain time, I realized I had left my quart ziplock bag with three notebooks (one empty, one with only a few pages for my handwritten spreadsheets for Fountain, Till, and Atomizer, and one with a bunch of quotes I had copied from books, items overhead at the Fountain Overlook, etc., for potential use in Sput articles) in it at Fountain Paint Pots.  I went back to see if it was there; unfortunately, it wasn't.  So I made my first trip in to the OFVEC to file a lost and found report and to download some times into the logbook.
 
With Flood doing 45-50 minute intervals, I was able to squeeze the two trips in between eruptions of Flood.  Back at Flood after my trip to the Upper Basin I heard a radio call Fan & Mortar 1238ie, but the call was subsequently changed to Grotto Fountain.  I was hoping Fan & Mortar had decided to come out of the spring doldrums, but no such luck yet.
 
Since Fountain had done comparatively short intervals overnight (presumably the 1228 5/26 to 1028 was 22 hour triple for a 7hr20m average), I went back to Fountain about 15:30.  I saw one Spasm eruption, a few eruptions of jet, very low water in Morning and no bubbling in Morning's Thief.  This morning I had dressed for snow and had blue sky.  This afternoon I had left the snow boots and some of the rain gear in the pickup.  After about 40 minutes of a powerful wind blasting heavy wet snowflakes against my poncho, I finally gave up and went to the pick-up.  Thankfully Tara Cross and Dave Monteith came by a little while later.  After a few minutes of conversation, they decided to walk up to Fountain, and walk up they did--Fountain erupted at 17:52, an interval of 7 hours 24 mintues.  This eruption lasted 34 minutes, so we'll see what kind of interval it has overnight.
 
Driving out to West Yellowstone, I exited the heavy snowstorm somewhere north of Fountain Flats before Firehole Canyon.  Just east of the West entrance I passed Pat Snyder on her way in through the hailstorm that was sending hard white pellets onto the road.  A short while ago there was another hailstorm here in West.  Typical spring weather in the Rockies--driving snow one minute, blue sky a few minutes later, then a return to snow and hail.
 
Lynn
  		 	   		  
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