[Geysers] Geyser Report May 25 (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

THIS REPORT IS FOR THE PERSONAL USE OF THE READERS OF THIS LISTSERV AND IS NOT TO BE REPRODUCED FOR ANY OTHER PURPOSE, INCLUDING PUBLICATION IN THE SPUT OR THE TRANSACTIONS. Winter weather today with snow all day long.  The most that accumulated on the boardwalks out at Fountain Paint Pots was about 2" because the temperature was just above freezing.  It was heavy wet snow most of the time.  Thankfully the roads were bare when I drove back to West Yellowstone late this afternoon. I got three intervals on Cliff (full pool)--43m, 41m, and 56m.  I had planned to do more intervals late this afternoon but as I was sitting at Black Sand Basin I heard someone call Beehive's Indicator at 1608 and decided I wanted to see Beehive up close and personal.  Only it was a false alarm.  I decided to stick around anyway and was staring at the hill when Gary Einstein called the Indicator at 1632.  Beehive waited until 1651 before it started, so I could have strolled up to Geyser Hill instead of hustling, but better safe than to have it start when I was in the trees on the bridge over the Firehole River.  I missed the North Goggles major, and didn't hear it called on the radio although I heard other calls while I was sitting over at Black Sand Basin. Most of my gazing day was spent at the Fountain overlook--5 1/2 hours in a driving snowstorm.  People walking past me thought I was crazy.  One man jokingly offered to go get me a blanket, but I think a heavy wet blanket would have just made things worse.  I was warmly dressed, had my poncho and a tarp and some of the people walking around were wearing shorts, and sandals or other types of open-toe shoes, so I thought they were the crazy ones.  The most interesting group though was a group of four guys who had a bright kelly green tarp about 6-8 feet long.  They were walking along carrying the tarp over their heads--two of them in front, two of them in back.  It reminded me of the dragons you see in parades celebrating the Chinese New Year. I got an interval on Spasm, and one on Super Frying Pan.  The second Spasm started barely 30 seconds before Fountain started.  That's the third consecutive Fountain eruption I've seen where Fountain erupted a few minutes after Spasm started.  Having written that, who's taking odds that tomorrow Fountain starts when Spasm isn't erupting, as it was doing the first three days I was here.  The first Super Frying Pan eruption this morning had a duration of 9 minutes.  The second eruption, which occurred during Fountain had a duration of 14 minutes.  Super Frying pan tried to turn off about the 10 minutes mark (as well as doing the drop out of sight act in the second minute of the eruption), but decided to have a second burst. Nothing different out of Jet and Bearclaw. When I arrived Morning's Thief didn't have any water in the basin around the crater.  There was snow on the outside of the berm around the basin.  I had only been there about 20 minutes when Morning's Thief erupted, but I believe that eruption was the first one in the series, because it left water in the basin around the crater, and as I just noted, there hadn't been any water there before.  Morning's Thief was active for 4h10m before Fountain finally erupted.  I got hopeful I might get out of there in time to get the start of Till's afternoon eruption when Morning's Thief had an 11 minute interval between 1011 and 1022, but no such luck. Double interval for Fountain was 22h56m.  Fountain's duration this afternoon was 46m20s, so I think there'll be plenty of time to check out Firehole Lake Drive tomorrow morning before there's a need to start worrying about Fountain. I didn't stay to see whether Clepsydra shut off after Fountain quit because I was hoping maybe I could catch the end of Till's major eruption to make an estimate of the start time to make an estimate of the double interval.  No such luck.  I did stop at Till, and the first minor I saw was one of the 7 minute minors.  Dang, I sure wish I knew whether it was the first or second in the series, but maybe some other time. There were plenty of bison jams on the way from Old Faithful back to West Yellowstone.  Plenty of bison walking down the road accompanied by little orange calves, although some of the calves were born early enough that they are already brown.  Anyway, it seemed like everyone had to take a picture instead of driving ahead when the bison moved to the side of the road.  I saw a snowshoe bunny near the top of Madison Hill on the way into Old Faithful this morning, and one again on the way back out.  The only white on the one this morning was its four feet.  The bunny this afternoon was dotted with wet snow.  People at Fountain Paint Pots were commenting on the poor frozen little yellow flowers--dandelions and balsam arrowroot.  There's also some larkspur in bloom. I saw osprey, robins, swallows, chickadees, great blue heron and sandhill cranes today, but haven't seen any bald eagles yet.  I also haven't spotted the elk calves near Seven Mile Bridge although I looked last night and again tonight. Lynn Stephens     		 	   		  
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