[Geysers] Trip report 4-27 to 5-6-13 Upper Geyser Basin

[Stephen Eide]

Greetings and Salutations,

Sorry for the delay in the trip report.  I'd say I was working hard since I
got back, but mostly I've just been spinning my wheels.   A bit of
background, for most of the week Sunrise was at about 0615, you can see
about an hour before that, and the sun was hitting Beehive and warming the
hill up by about 0700.  Sunset was at about 2025.  Temps were in the 20s at
night and 35 to 50 in the day, depending on the day.  Wind was high, but
only one day qualified for a bad weather day.

In the Upper Basin Old Faithful continues to do mostly longs.   Split Cone
was seen for two of the days.  From the looks of the area around the cone
nothing recent happened with Chinese Spring.

On the main hill Bronze Spring was always in quiet overflow when I went
past.  It is growing mats in the pool and is kinda a bronze color.  Little
Squirt was seen once for the week.  Big and Little Anemone were active and
I do remember seeing a number of dual eruptions.  Improbable continues to
be an occasionally boiling pool with steady overflow.  Plume did not erupt
for the week and at no time could I see water in Plume or hear hit
boiling/bubbling.  Sigh...

Beehive had one either false indicator or a mid-cycle indicator, its kinda
hard to say but it was followed by a very short interval Beehive.  Other
that that it appears Beehive was stable for most of the week in the 11-15
hour range and most in the 12-13 hour range.  The indicator usually started
about 14-20 minutes before Beehive.  In the subjective area, the times I
waited on Beehive it seemed to go from weak boiling and splashing to better
splashing to Beehive Indicator in about an hour.  I was told that someone
was throwing big ice chunks into Copper Kettle but it appeared unharmed.  I
did not see Copper Kettle in overflow all week.

Scissors continue as they have with the east vent boiling and the West vent
an intermittent spring.  Depression was active but I only caught a few
closed intervals which were about four hours.  The Mouth may have
significantly damaged itself.  The small vent away from the Boardwalk that
showed up over the winter appears to have blown itself a larger hole and
now the water from the Marmot Cave area runs into it is a steady stream.
No eruptions of Mouth were seen all week.  Arrowhead Spring was either at
overflow or just barely below overflow whenever I passed for the week.
Heart Spring was clear for the week.  None of the sometimes active geysers
between the Boardwalk and Dragon Geyser were seen during the week.  However
Dragon Geyser did appear to be hotter with some boiling and more steam than
is usual.

Little Cub was active all week as was Lion.  I cannot say what the average
numbers of eruptions in a series were.  Ear Spring appears to be normal.
The crack on the other side of the Boardwalk from Beach Spring was hot and
was overflowing each time I passed.  Beach Spring appears to be normal.  I
saw one weak eruption of Beach Geyser to maybe a foot for only a few
seconds before draining.

Aurum was still in winter mode with the observed closed intervals at about
four hours.  I did see one rocking/thumping event on Double Pools but I
wasn't watching them that often.  The little spouter just beyond the
Doublet Pool sign now has a little cavern under the sinter shield that it
is perpetually spouting out of.  Sponge was active but was weak.  Pump
continues to have frequent eruptions and some are up to ten feet high.  No
Plate eruptions were seen.  I do remember seeing Model once.   Giantess did
not erupt.  I thought I saw boiling on the pool a couple of times from the
Beehive area but nothing when I sat on Giantess.  However I only sat for
about 10 minutes.  Vault is about an inch an a half below overflow.  Infant
is unchanged.  I don't remember seeing anything from Dome for the week but
I didn't spend that much time in the upper basin.

In the Myriad Group White Geyser was active.  By the Three Sisters Basin
Spring was full and overflowing but no eruptions were seen.  The spring
that was a perpetual spouter on the other side of Basin Spring was quiet.
Little Brother did not erupt.  There does appear to be a new or
reactivedthermal feature to the north of Little Brother.  It was just
off the north
end of the parking pull out and about 30 feet off the road.  It is a hole
that has spraying water to a few inches high in it.  I could not tell if
the spraying was intermittent or if the spraying just occasionally got high
enough to see.  It did appear to have a slight runoff channel for about ten
feet.  But I never saw it put water in the runoff channel and the channel
was not wet when I watched it.

Castle did mostly majors for the week but I think there was one minor.
Sprinkler was active as usual.  One eruption of Tilt's Baby was seen.

In the Sawmill group for the first half of the week it was all Tardy
cycles, then for the middle of the week Sawmill made some appearances, and
by the end of the week it was again all Tardy cycles.  Penta erupted
overnight at least twice and once in the daytime when I was out to see
Fountain.  Many Churn eruptions were seen.  Bulger had series of minor
eruptions usually leading to a major eruption.  Crystal Spring's satellite
vents were seen in eruption only once.  Nifty was frequently active.  Old
Tardy was only seen once.  No eruptions were seen from Old Tardy's drain.
The little hole between Nifty and the Boardwalk to the Northeast continues
to steam and sometimes had bubbling visible water in it.  It is also
slightly larger.  Spasmodic was frequently active and was unchanged from
last year.  I did not  catch Uncertain for the week.

Grand was erupting with a window of about 6-8.5 hours.  It was capable of
throwing three six hour intervals in a row when it wanted to.   Almost all
eruptions were one burst with one two burst eruption.  All but one were
Turban starts.

Topsoil Spring appeared to be doing something but I never saw an eruption.
The water level in the pool varied from about six inches down to almost at
overflow and was up and down throughout the day all week.  The springs
below Topsoil to Wave Spring are all weak and support lush mats growing in
their pools.  For the week Beauty Pool had all the overflow but it did not
appear to heat up much.

Oblong was active and I seem to have a knack for walking away from it just
before the eruption.  Saturday and Sunday (4-27 am 4-28) had Grotto
Marathons all day and Giant had long periods without Bijou, however no
Giant Hot Periods were seen.  The signs are still in place.  I did catch
the start of Grotto Fountain once during the week and I watched Spa on
Sunday the 28th with some bursts to thirty feet.  Although Grotto was in
Marathon the water level in Marathon Pool was just about an inch below
overflow with intermittent bubbling  (not boiling).  Riverside continues to
erupt at about six hour intervals.

Fan and Mortar have not erupted.  I did not spend that much time watching
the rockpile but when I did there were quick cycles with no pauses.  Link
Geyser appears to be cooler and has mats growing in the vent.  North Chain
Lake and Clasp geyser (the northern and southern of the chain lakes behind
Link) both appear to be hotter with increased steam but I saw no eruptions.
 The river is still flowing slightly into East Sentinel Geyser and it was
not boiling however all the plant life in the alcove upstream of East
Sentinel is bent over pointing away from East Sentinel so it does appear it
erupted this spring some time or perhaps over the winter.  It did not look
like this in January when I was in the park.

Artimesia was seen from a distance several times during the week but it did
not erupt the few times I sat on it for a while.  I did see Atomizer
steaming and looking like it just did a major once.  No other activity was
noted from Atomizer.   Sprite Pool appears to be slightly cooler with
better matts in the pool.  I caught one eruption from Cauliflower, it was
only a few feet high but the eruption lasted two minutes.  Nothing erupted
in the Baby Daisy area.

Daisy had intervals in the 2.5 to 3 hour range.  No evidence of Splendid
activity.  Black Sand Pool continues to thump and boil with some boils
still 3-4 feet high rarely.  The thumping varies over time so it if appears
week when you arrive just wait for it, it may take half an hour but good
thumps will come.

No Black Sand Basin report because it is blocked off including the parking
lot.  I hear there will be several improvements besides moving the
boardwalk by Rainbow Pool and Sunset Lake.  I guess maybe we'll see for
Memorial weekend.  Its late so I will do Biscuit Basin as a separate report
tomorrow.  Also I need to get the Mammoth and Norris reports out.

More soon,
Stephen Eide
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