[Geysers] geyser report Thursday May 24, 2012

[Barbara Lasseter]

I am returning early each day, so reports are brief.

Beehive: 0946    indicator:0932ie
Grand: 0708     W triplet 0750ie
Plume: 0752...0945
Oblong: 0817ie
Riverside 0818
Daisy: 0800
Flood 1013ie

At 0915, Artemisia was almost full, even a bit of overflow.  Atomizer
was steaming gently with no water around the cone.  A cow elk was
monitoring the comings and goings on the muddy trail from Biscuit.
The snow around Mercury Geyser and in the runoff channel was melted,
and the water level in the pool was hanging at the edge of the red
stuff.

There was a bit of the winter wonderland to the landscape early this
AM.  I stopped repeatedly on the trip in to take photos.  Still hoping
to observe a bison calving, but did get to see a newborn elk calf rise
from the snowy meadow E of 7 mi bridge, struggling to keep his legs
under him, and wobbling over to Mom, but uncertain exactly what to do
once he got there.   A second new calf  in the same area had the hang
of it.

Again we had bands of sunny blue skies alternating with snow--I saw
both the large flaky stuff and, at the edge of a new front, storms of
snow pellets.  I met a northbound snowplow near the "S" Curves.
Dunraven, Beartooth, Craig, Sylvan were all closed--local traffic only
S of Old Faithful interchange as of the time I left.

Beehive by all rights should have had rainbows, but they weren't
apparent in the area from the overlook to Blue star spring.  Perhaps
the sun at Beehive wasn't as strong as on this side of the river.

On the trip home, much of the overnight blanket of snow on the meadows
had melted, despite periodic replenishment as the weather bands passed
over.  The new elk calf had definitely learned where to find
nourishment.  It was still in the high 30's with light snow in West at
11:30.  At 1800 the pavement outside is dry and the sky mostly clear.

Barbara Lasseter