[Geysers] 7/18/2015 Geyser Report (Stephens)

[Lynn Stephens]

I haven't noticed any major changes in geysers in the Lower Basin over the past two days.
 
Fountain reverted to intervals just below or just above 5 hours, despite the fact that durations seem to running about 30 minutes.
 
Pebble still can't garner enough energy to come to overflow, even when Gemini has an interval (initial to initial) of four hours.  Gemini is having "long" intervals between series, but "long" intervals can be anywhere from 50 minutes to 4 hours and "series" can be anywhere from one eruption to 10 eruptions.
 
I didn't spend the entire day at Gemini/Pebble today.  Pink Cone had not yet erupted when I drove past it at 0605, thinking I would possibly find it still in eruption.  Since it had not erupted, I decided to stay at Pink Cone until it erupted.  After reaching a low closed interval for the 2015 season of 20h38m on Juy 16, the next interval was 22h41m and today's interval was 24h04m.
 
Thank you to NPS for quickly responding to the report of grafitti in Bead's run-off channel.  The leader of the early morning Xanterra photo tour asked me this morning if I had seen it.  I hadn't because I parked by Pink Cone today instead of parking up by Shelf Spring.  She noticed it yesterday morning.  (One of her photo ops has been to have her passengers take pictures of the bison hoofprint in the orange run-off channel.)  I noticed the morning down-load ranger at Great Fountain, so I hopped in my pickup, drove up there, took a few pictures, and then flagged him down as he approached.  He also took pictures.  This afternoon when I drove past, I noticed the grafitti had already been removed.  Thanks again for the rapid response.
 
The elk calves were near 7 Mile Bridge this morning, but there aren't many people on the road at 5:30 am so there wasn't any traffic tie-up.  I came out earlier than usual today--about 5 pm--and didn't encounter any traffic jams although Rocco said there was one near Till due to a bison and visitors running up onto Till to get pictures of the bison.
 
Visitor comment of the day:  When I explained that neither Gemini nor White  Dome are regular and gave specific information, he responded "It's just potluck, isn't it!"
 
Flowers--I noticed gentians in bloom on the roadside along Great Fountain's run-off channel today as I was rapidly walking up the road to talk to the man who had his young (looked to be about 2-3 year-old) son in Great Fountain's run-off channel during Great Fountain's eruption picking up pieces of sinter.  I also noticed wild roses in bloom at the picnic area at 7 Mile Bridge.  I sometimes stop there on the way home instead of trying to get into Fountain Paint Pots, where the parking lot was still crazy at 1645 this afternoon, or Nez Perce or Firehole Lake Picnic areas.  The vault toilet at 7 Mile Bridge has a not unpleasant citrus smell.
 
Lynn Stephens 
 		 	   		  
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: </geyser-list/attachments/20150718/75d63895/attachment.html>