[Geysers] Geyser Report May 26 (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.
Snow in the morning, a break in early afternoon so Maureen and I could watch Fountain, then rain, then rain and snow mixed this evening.  I drove in to Old Faithful this morning before the roads were plowed.  There was about 4 inches of wet snow mixed with slush.  I put the pickup in 4-wheel drive and had no problems, but kept it at 35mph on the way in, except when I had to slow for the accident.  Somebody was driving faster than they should have been and did a 315 turn, ending up with the front end off the road against a little tree.  I saw the old yellow bus early morning lower basin tour headed north this morning at 6:17 as I was headed south.  The plows got out from Madison to Old Faithful sometime before 8 am, but didn't go from Old Faithful toward Madison until about 8:15.  Thankfully I was parked on the west side of the road at the entrance to the steel bridge as the plows were headed north, otherwise the pickup would have been covered with heavy wet slush.  I probably won't go in early tomorrow morning.  The pickup goes into 4-wheel drive quite easily, but didn't like going out of it today. I got another closed interval on Till today (5/26) of exactly 10h10m.  The average for the quadruple interval was just a few minutes over 10 hours.  The other morning I timed one overflow at about 30 minutes.  Today both intervals were close to an hour long--one just under an hour, one just over an hour. In between the two Till majors I collected another Cliff full pool to full pool interval of 44 minutes.   I saw 6 consecutive eruptions of Flood.  All of them were 6-7 minute duration majors.  Intervals varied from 32 to 37 minutes. Fountain cooperated by erupting during a spell of partly sunny weather with no snow or rain.  Unfortunately the wind was blowing out of the north.  The steam from Fountain's runoff reduced visibility when standing near Clepsydra, and Fountain's steam cloud across the boardwalk made negotiating the boardwalk to the east side interesting.  I pretended I was blind and slid one foot along the little 2x4 board rail to make certain I didn't walk off the side.  Today was a day of obnoxious international visitors who wanted to get interesting views of Clep's Well, Fountain, Jet, etc.  And only one of them was willing to return to the boardwalk as soon as someone asked them to.  All the rest of them kept wandering around until after they had taken all the pictures they wanted and seen the things they wanted to see.  Fountain's duration was 46m50s.  As expected, Twig erupted with Fountain, starting 2 minutes after Fountain ended.  Maureen and I stayed for two Clepsydra pauses before heading for the parking lot. Both Maureen and I had stayed in or near the upper basin, hoping for a chance to see Beehive.  She got to her viewing spot in time to see Morning's Thief at 1107.  There were 6 additional eruptions of Morning's Thief before Fountain started. Bear closure continued in effect on the east side of the Grand Loop Road today.  Fairy Falls closure was lifted this morning, and the other bear closure signs on the west side of the road also came down.  However, bear closure signs stayed up at Whiskey Flats Picnic area, both ends of Firehole Lake Drive, and Mary Mountain trailhead.  As I left Fountain this afternoon headed south at 1500 I could see from the road that Great Fountain was in overflow.  Great Fountain was ie at 1512 per steam cloud from the road. I saw the Upper Basin great blue heron this morning at 0809 as I was leaving for Till.  On the way home this evening I saw sandhill cranes at Whiskey Flats and on Fountain Flats.  Three different sets of bison walked through Fountain Paint Pots between 11:30 and 13:00 today, blocking the boardwalks.  A herd of bison down on the flats created a long traffic jam until the Rangers came to move people along. Lynn Stephens    		 	   		  
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