[Geysers] Trip Report 4-30-14 to 5-4-14

[Stephen Eide]

Hello all,

This is a trip report for April 30 to May 4.  It covers only the upper and
lower basins with a little bit on Midway.  I didn’t get as much time in the
park as I wanted and I damaged my knee on Saturday so I had to cut some
things short.

Old Faithful started throwing in relatively frequent short intervals on
Wednesday.  It did long, short, long, short , long, short for the day.  After
that it moved back to mostly longs.   But talking to the staff at the VEC
it appears there have been more shorts lately.  Split Cone was active while
during this visit.  Nothing was seen from Teapot Geyser, Chinese Spring or
Blue Star.  There are no new wash areas around Chinese Spring

On the main hill Bronze Spring appeared to be acting as an intermittent
spring, sometimes in overflow and sometimes about an inch below overflow.  I
never saw more than light bubbling from it.  Little Squirt was ie on 5-3-14
at 0659.   I saw several eruptions of Big Anemone but I seemed to miss
Little Anemone, once I got there just in time to see Little drain
though.  Improbable
still just intermittently boils to a foot or two.  There was no activity
from Cascade.

Plume, alas, is still on sabbatical.  There is water visible in the vent
and it does appear to rise and fall slightly over time but I did not wait
to discover the interval on the rises.  It bubbles lightly.  Beehive
appears to be its normal self with eruptions apparently in the 11-20 hour
range but to be sure we will need more watchers in the park (or the
electronic data Will is working on).  Beehive indicator was usually seen
i.e. so it is unclear the time between BHI and Beehive.  The webcam data
currently is your best data.

No change in Scissors Springs for activity, the East vent boils
intermittently and the West vent overflows intermittently.   The Copper
Kettle is normal.  The vent between Scissors and Depression on the other
side of the boardwalk was quiet.  I wanted to catch a closed interval on
Depression but it was beyond me.  I suspect it is still in the 3.5-4.5 hour
range from last year but I kept arriving late and finding the water down in
the vent.  The shortest intervals from the webcam are 3.5 and 4.5 hours.  One
Dwarf vent is continuously active.  Arrowhead Spring had a low water level,
out of site from the boardwalk.  I did not know Pot O’Gold had changed so I
did not pay attention to it.  Heart Spring was very slightly cloudy.

Mouth still has significant runoff from uphill running into it and has been
quiet   Marmot Cave Geyser (I think I have this right, the pool just below
the little waterfall) was seen empty earlier this week.  I just caught it
in overflow as usual.  It bubbled every time I passed.  It appears to be
hotter with more steam and no algae growth around the vent.  I hope if it
is doing something, it keeps it up.

Little Cub was seen often but I have no closed intervals.  Lion was active
too, it was seen in series about once a day.  Nothing but the usual
intermittent overflow was seen from North Goggles.  Ear Spring appears
unchanged.  No eruptions were seen from Kitten.  Pendant Spring appears
slightly cooler to me with a bit more algae growth in the shallows.  Nothing
was seen from GHG-5.  The crack above Pendant Spring is overflowing lightly.

Beach Spring had some nice overflowing boils for me and I even caught a
picture of two of them.  There is an odd copper green color on the sinter
on the west edge of the pool, the side closest to the Solitary junction.  I
wonder if it is from pennies in the pool but I can’t tell.  It is an almost
perfect Copper Sulfate green though.  GHG-6 and GHG-7 were active with “6”
erupting a few times during my visit and “7” just giving an occasional
bubble.

Aurum’s in winter mode but the intervals are longer this year, in the
3.75-5.5 hour range.  Right now the area stinks due to the remains of a
bison and deer or small elk in the area.  The Bison is on the Giantess side
of Aurum and the deer or small elk is across the boardwalk near two warm
water muddy pools.  I guess the smell is a combination of rotting carcass
and bear poop.

Doublet Pool is acting normally.  I did get to hear one set of thumping.  The
little vents between Doublet Pool and the Boardwalk are still active and
have opened one more small vent.  The vents rarely put water above
ground.  Pump
Geyser is its usual self.

Sponge is active and maybe six inches high, maybe a bit more.  Plate has
water in it but no eruptions were seen.  Slot and Boardwalk filled with
water twice while I was watching, stayed that way for a while, and then
drained.  They did this simultaneously.

But the real interesting thing is the new hole just of the edge of the
boardwalk to the Giantess side if Sponge.  This looks like either a
breakout or a collapse, it is about 1 meter by a bit over one meter (3 by
3.5 feet if you like) and it has thermal water and energy.  On 4-30-14 I
could hear it bubbling down in the vent but I could not see any water.  Later
on 5-1-14 and 5-3-14 there was bubbling water in the bottom of the feature.
I will try to post pictures on facebook on the feature.  It is filled with
broken blocks of sinter.  It is in the general area of the steam vent that
appeared about eight years ago and lasted for a couple of years before just
filling in.

Giantess was only doing weak north face boils for me.  Vault is about two
inches below overflow.  Infant Geyser is almost in overflow, it looks like
some water is leaking out through the broken sinter around the edge of the
pool.  Butterfly Spring was quiet.  Dome had an eruption series on
5-3-14.  Model
Geyser was active but I saw nothing else erupt from the flat area beyond
Model.

Castle is unchanged.  I think the VEC is still using 14 hours to predict
the major to major intervals and 15 to predict the interval for the first
major after a minor.  It has one minor overnight for the visit.  Gizmo is
active, I think in series.  On one day there are several euptions at about
half hour intervals and then another day it is only rarely seen.  However,
there were few watchers in the park so eruptions were missed.   Tilt’s Baby
was seen once, it is unclear is it is less active now that Gizmo is more
active.  Again, more watches are needed to tell.  Crested Pool has some
nice boils while I was close by.  Sprinkler was frequently active.

UNNG CGG-10 was heard bubbling but no water was seen.  It has built up a
big wall of sinter gravel around the vent.  One or more of the vents of
Terra Cotta Geysers were seen erupting but the observation was from Grand
so I am unsure which vent was active.  Spanker Geyser downstream was acting
as a true geyser with short intervals and a couple of eruptions each minute.


UNNG-CGG-6 appears to be cooler also with no bubbling.  The Sawmill group
was in Tardy mode for three of the four days I was in the group.  The other
day was mostly Sawmill function.  Penta erupted once and Churn was seen
with most of the Tardy cycles.  For the most part, just about the time Oval
pool was nearly full the system would go into drain and Churn would then
erupt.  Crystal Spring was doing rocking and overflows with small eruptions
out of its satellite vents every minute or two for almost all the time I
was in the area during my visit.  No activity was seen out the Old Tardy
drain hole.  No activity from Slurp.  One Uncertain was seen on the day
Sawmill was in charge as was Nifty and Old Tardy.  Oval pool also has a
color change like West Triplet.

Bulger Geyser was very active.  For most of the time it followed is usual
pattern of minor eruptions every 10-20 minutes for an hour or so, then
throwing in some majors and finally after a few majors it would stop for a
while.  However on 5-1-14 it was having minors every 1-2 minutes for about
a half an hour, then had a major.  After that Grand started and I lost
track of what it was doing.  I have never seen minors every 1-2 minutes
before from Bulger.

Rift did not show for the visit.  Neither did West Triplet, it just had
that off olive green color and intermittently overflowed.  It would not
even start after Grand started.  I only caught two Grands, one T2C and one
T1Q.  The Turban intervals before Grand are longer, most were in the 22-23
minute range until the interval that caused the eruption.  I did not see
Percolator or the Sputniks.

Topsoil Spring appears unchanged.  Key Spring is flooded by spring runoff.
 Economic to Wave spring the features have water, but only lukewarm water
at best. Beauty Pool has the overflow.

Oblong, WOW, Oblong had a huge eruption on 5-3-14 seen by me and Will Bokel
at 1245 ie.  It started off big, as big as the largest eruption of Oblong I
have seen, and then it gave a bigger burst, not a boil, a burst that was
20-30 feet higher.  I am not that good at estimating height, but I estimate
it was 80-100 feet high for that one burst.   By the time I got my camera
out the big stuff was over.  The big burst looked like a tall shot from
Fountain or Morning.  Will tells me he and Rocco Paperiello saw Oblong
overflowing for about an hour before it started erupting before I got to
the park.  I am not sure I caught any closed intervals during my visits but
my shortest times between eruptions were in the 5-6 hour range.

Giant was quiet and Bijou was on every time I went past.  Grotto was doing
short durations and short intervals with no marathon eruptions that I
saw.  When
someone was down to watch them several ended with a Rocket Major.  No Spas
of course.

Daisy’s intervals are about 2.5 hours.  No evidence that Splendid made a
winter trip to the park.  I did not get out to Black Sand Pool but Kathy
and Andy Stirling did visit it and told me it is still thumping and having
boiling periods.

Riverside was usually caught once each day so it is hard to be sure of the
interval but from the daily data it appears the intervals are in the 6-6.5
hour range.  It usually walks forward about an hour or less each day.  Link
Geyser has very little overflow and was not boiling.  The snow buildup
around it seems to make any recent activity unlikely.

Fan and Mortar has not erupted since the part opened, or at least had not
as of 5-1-14.  I intended to visit again before I left but my bum knee
thought otherwise, and it won out.   Artimesia was seen a couple of times
during the visit.

In the Myriad group Litlle Brother bubbles intermittently but did not erupt
for me.  Three Crater Geyser did erupt a few times.  Basin Spring is
overflowing and is hot but I saw no eruptions while I was in the area.

In Black Sand Spouter Geyser is active.  Sunlight Geyser (BSB-6) has an
eruption about every minute or so with splashing 1-4 feet high.  It is
bigger than I usually see it, but still so far off that it is not much to
watch.  Cliff is active as usual.  Ragged and Jagged erupted during my
visit but only to a few feet high.  The perpetual spouter down the
boardwalk on the Ragged/Jagged side of the boardwalk is a bit stronger.  The
pool is a few inches below overflow and the splashing is 1-2 feet high.

UNNG BSB-2 has warm water and is bubbling but it does not appear to be
using its runoff channel.  Green Spring is hot and intermittently bubbling.
There are only a few new bison drops in the splash zone and no old ones so
it could have been active over the winter.

Cinnamon Spouter had all its activity from the main vent when I was
watching but it may still shift back and forth between the satellite vent.  The
runoff channels from the Satellite still are well demarcated.  The spring
to the east of the boardwalk going out to Emerald pool appears to be acting
as an intermittent spring.  Emerald Pool is about the same, maybe a bit
warmer with a little bit more runoff.

Handkerchief Pool and BSB-5 were erupting when I visited and Handkerchief
Geyser was several feet below overflow.  Neither Rainbow Pool nor Sunset
Lake would erupt for me but they did look pretty when the steam blew away.

In Biscuit Basin Rusty Geyser was its usual frequent self.  Salt and Pepper
are about the same, Salt has the stronger splashing because the runoff from
Black Diamond runs into the Pepper vent.  Black Opal pool is prettier, it
has a strong opalescence and appears to have some different water source
than just from Black Diamond.  Black Diamond is cloudy but not the strong
murkiness that occurs after a recent eruption.   Wall Pool has a couple of
hot, apparently boiling vents active.

Sapphire is unchanged from last year.  Jewel had intervals in the 7-8
minute range.  East Mustard had intervals of about nine minutes.  Shell
Spring was active while I visited.  Avoca Spring was much quieter this
spring, the water level is visible with very little rise and fall.  The
boiling at its best is about 1-2 feet high.  Nothing else was active in the
Silver Globe complex.  I did not catch an eruption from anything in the
area north of East Mustard.  Farther on Coral and Black Pearl sound like
they are boiling down in the vents but nothing makes it to the surface.

In Midway Geyser Basin Till was active and so was Flood.  I did not catch
any intervals.  Will Bokel tells me Opal Pool was drained out when he
visited.

In the Fountain Group Fountain is erupting with about 5-6 hour intervals
and durations of about 30 minutes.  The Fountain rise usually starts from a
pool that is out of sight from the boardwalk (if you are 5’ 8”) but on one
eruption I did see water in the pool before the rise started.  Usually you
will get two to three eruptions from Morning’s Thief after Fountain starts
and these may be bigger than Fountain.  There were no reports or evidence
of Morning being active.   Twig may or may not show up near the end of
Fountain’s eruptions.  Spasm may or may not show up before Fountain erupts.
No one saw any Jelly eruptions but one day it was cloudy.  Jet is all over
the place.  I did see my first Fountain eruption with no Jet eruption at
any time during Fountain.  Super Frying Pan is active like last year with
multiple rises that erupts on the rises.  Height is still 10-15 feet and it
can still hit the boardwalk.  The intervals appear to be in the 1.5 to 9
hour range.   PEANOT pool was usually full with rare intermittent periods
when it dropped an inch below overflow.  It was cloudy whenever I looked at
it so I suspect it still drains now and then.

The mud pots are in good condition and sometimes are throwing mud over 10
feet in the air.  The boardwalk around Red Spouter is currently torn out
and is being replaced.  No word yet if it will include guardrails.  The new
vent on the flat between the mud pots and the overlook took damage over the
winter, it looks like from Bison.  The edges have crumbled in several
places and it is partly filled in.  But it still has a pool of water and it
still bubbles.

The Weather was usually good but windy with highs around 60 and lows of
about freezing I think.  As for animals, I saw no bear this trip.   The few
Bison I saw still have their ribs showing and some have some patches of fur
missing.  As for birds I saw mountain bluebirds, osprey, a bald eagle,
there are several sandhill cranes in the upper and lower basin, the ravens
are out of course, and one day at Fountain I watched seven turkey vultures
circling around looking for bear leftovers.  The marmots are out and
running around like kids in the spring weather.  Some chipmunks are out
also.

The VEC is on short hours and short staff.  The Geyser Grill is open and
the Snow lodge opened on 5-2-14.  The Inn should have opened 5-9-14 and the
Snow Lodge next weekend.  Upper Ham opened on 5-2-14 and Lower Ham will not
open until Memorial Day weekend.  The lower gas station also opened on
5-2-14.  Gas prices in West are about 3.50/gal.  Not bad really.  Sorry, I
don’t know what is open in West Yellowstone.

If I think of any thing else I will post it later.  Too bad I didn't have
time to catch Vixen again.

Stephen Eide
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