[Geysers] Quick weekend trip

[Gary Einstein]

Thanks for the detailed report

Gary Einstein

On 4/24/2012 7:56 PM, Polly Panos wrote:
> Hello Everyone!
>
>     My husband and I were lucky enough to be able to make a quick trip 
> to the park for the opening weekend.  I spent all day Saturday and 
> part of the day Sunday in the Old Faithful area.
>     The lack of snow in the basin was surprising.  The boardwalks were 
> clear, except for a little snow on the bridge near the cabins.  (There 
> may also have been snow on the path between Sawmill & Lion, but I 
> didn't travel that way.)  The Firehole River was full, but I didn't 
> think that it looked high.  The weather was chilly in the mornings, 
> but quickly warmed.   On Saturday, the wind was a bit cold at times, 
> but by Sunday I was wishing that I had brought some lighter clothing!
>     The birds were back and enjoying the sunshine!   In the basin, I 
> saw a pair of sandhill cranes, along with bluebirds, robins, geese, 
> mallards, red-wing blackbirds, ravens, an osprey and some very noisy 
> killdeer.  I didn't see any eagles during my trip.
>     The eagle's nest by Riverside Drive looks to be in need of 
> repair.  It seemed to be unoccupied, but on the drive out I saw a 
> goose sitting in it again.   Whiskey Flats was Whiskey Lake, as it 
> often is this time of year.   We saw no carcasses anywhere between 
> West Yellowstone and Old Faithful.  The bear that was at Old Faithful 
> on Sunday was the only one that we saw.  My husband saw a fox chasing 
> a rabbit near Biscuit Basin, and Kitt and I saw a snowshoe hare near 
> the same area.
>     Many of the geyser eruptions have already been entered into Geyser 
> Times from other gazers that were also in the park and by relays to vw 
> (who very kindly entered them).   I'll go back later & see what else I 
> can add.
>     Grand intervals were running on the early half of the window.  
> West Triplet, Percolator, and Rift were active.  All three Grands that 
> I saw were 1 burst (although one of them tried valiantly to do a 
> second), but they were beautiful in the sunlight!  One of them was a 
> Grand start, and Turban took a full minute before it joined in.  The 
> marmots are out.   During one of the morning waits, a very loud and 
> shrill marmot alarm was sounded.  As we watched carefully to see what 
> the danger was, a coyote finally poked out from the trees.  No marmot 
> breakfast this time, however!  The Oblong that we watched from Grand 
> Saturday morning was nice and large.
>     Kitt and I spent Saturday afternoon on Geyser Hill.  Beehive 
> apparently had a very large splash (reported to be 15' plus) sometime 
> between noon and 1:00, and also some large splashes an hour or two 
> later.   Then it was fairly quiet until it started splashing nicely 
> again just a few minutes before we had water in the Indicator.  At one 
> point during the wait for Beehive, I watched North Goggles Geyser and 
> Goggles Spring periodically overflow and pulse.   I timed one interval 
> for the overflow at about 10 minutes, and the pulsing lasted about 3 
> minutes before it drained.  I also saw Sponge Geyser produce a thin 
> spray of water a few inches high on two occasions.
>     Fan & Mortar looked the same as Carolyn L's last description.  I 
> didn't stay to watch cycles.   The signs were in place at Giant.
>     The big news, of course, was the bear on Sunday.  It was a large, 
> dark grizzly, with markings similar to The Bison Killer (Preacher 
> Bear), but not as distinct.  It sounds like the rangers believed it to 
> be the offspring of The Bison Killer.   We were at Grand when 
> Beehive's Indicator started.   We had a low pool and Turban started 
> just about the time that the Indicator was confirmed.  We started 
> hustling, wondering if we should go to the hill.  Just past Tardy, 
> though, the bear came out from near Castle and started walking toward 
> the meadow between Lion and the Inn.  He spent several minutes roaming 
> around and foraging, and finally found something good to dig up and 
> eat next to Beehive's overlook path.  (We watched Beehive near Liberty 
> Pool, just before the trees.)   The rangers were with people at the 
> Old Faithful benches, and at one point we heard them hitting 
> sticks/boards together to let the bear know that they were there.  
> After that, the bear went into the trees near Blue Star Spring, and 
> apparently bedded down for a few minutes near the bridge that is by 
> the cabins.  Later I heard that he was up and moving, but I did not 
> see him again.  I heard that the area from Sulphide Spring over toward 
> the Old Faithful benches was closed for a time while the bear was 
> there, but people seemed to be moving through there later after the 
> bear had moved.
>    Even though it was a quick trip, it felt great to be in the park 
> again!
>
> Hope to see many of you there this summer!
> Polly Panos
>
>
>
>
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