[Geysers] Brief Geyser Report May 23-24

[Lynn Stephens]

My grandchildren, Cassidy and Connor, are here in Yellowstone with me for the weekend.  My daughter, Erin, their mother, came down from Bozeman area today and the three of them will go home tomorrow.  Cassidy and Connor will be back here in August for our two week camping trip at Madison Campground.
 
Geysernews:  On the way in Saturday morning, Fountain was ie as we crossed Fountain Flats.  The parking lot was empty so we parked and walked up to watch the remainder of the eruption and view the new boardwalk.  Jet did not start erupting until 8 minutes after we arrived at Fountain itself.  
    Firehole Lake Drive opened Saturday morning.  Great Fountain was not in overflow as we drop past it.  As we approached White Dome, I saw UNNG-WTG-1 erupting.  (I didn't know what it was until Cassidy got out Scott's book.)  I had never seen any activity from UNNG-WTG-1 before.  We spent several hours parked at White Dome yesterday watching UNNG-WTG-1.  Cassidy and Connor asked if we could name it.  After discussing some of the requirements for being able to name a geyser, we chose the name "Rejuvenated" because it was a geyser that had rejuvenated after a about three decades of dormancy.  We entered information under "Other" geyser on geysertimes.  When UNNG-WTG-1 was added to the list Saturday night, our comment disappeared.  Scott's book has an excellent description of the feature--a small pool in a circular sinter basin.  The only above ground signal that an eruption is imminent is several seconds of wafting steam.  The eruption is a splashing type eruption with splashes 3-4 feet above ground.  Most eruptions are interrupted about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through the eruption by a brief pause that makes the eruption appear to have two "bursts."  The eruption has a fairly sudden ending with no audible steam phase.  Durations were about 2-4 minutes with intervals about 30 minutes +/- 5 minutes (times have been entered into geysertimes.)
    While we were watching "Rejuvenated" we also saw two eruptions of Gemini.  The eruptions were more powerful than any other eruptions I have seen in the decades I've been watching Gemini.  The eruptions were both taller and wider, with more water in both columns, but especially the eruption of the right (south) vent.  Durations, at just over a minute,were also longer than durations in previous years.
    We observed no activity from the Pink Cone road bubblers between 9:00 am and 15:20.  This afternoon (Sunday) the round thumb hole road bubbler was seeping water, but not pulsing.  The platform area above the thumb hole was filled with water.  The crack to the west of the platform was seeping water.  The cracks to the east of the platform and thumb hole were not seeping water yet.
   Saturday we had Flood Geyser under observation for 90 minutes and there was not eruptive activity during that time--no major, no minor, no splashes--nothing.   Thus, it appears Flood's intervals are longer than they have been in previous years.
   As has probably already been reported, Grand had a two burst eruption this (Sunday) afternoon.  The first burst lasted 7 minutes 15 seconds.  The pause was only 23 seconds.  The second burst lasted 52 seconds.  Since the total duration had been only 8m30s, we were hoping for a third burst, but no such luck.  Vent & Turban continued, but there was no afterburst from Grand.  While we were waiting for Castle this (Sunday) afternoon, I noticed that Vent and Turban were still in eruption at 1533.  I think Vent had stopped for awhile, but had not noted the time of the Vent stop, so can't be certain.  Vent (and Turban) continued until they ended at 1550, 107 minutes after Grand had ended.
    Also while we were waiting at Castle, Gizmo was active such that the steam vent was audible from the benches on the far side of the "road."  Unfortunately, Castle had an 8 minute minor.  As Erin said, we missed the best part of a Castle eruption, which is the steam phase.
    On the way back to West Yellowstone we swung through Firehole Lake Drive where we watched one eruption of Rejuvenated, but didn't wait with Steve Robinson for the start of the next Gemini series.
 
Yesterday morning on our drive into the Park from West Yellowstone we watched a bald eagle flying along the Firehole River next to us.  An osprey appeared to be following the eagle.  We've also seen mountain bluebirds, geese and ducks, but no swans yet.  There were three herds of bison with little orange calves between Seven Mile Bridge and Madison Campground.  Coming back to West Yellowstone Saturday evening, we only saw one small herd right at Madison Junction.  I was hoping all the herds had headed up to Mary Mountain, but this (Sunday) morning and late afternoon the herd was still at Madidon.  We've seen a few cow elk, but no calves.  We also saw a bear cross the road just north of Midway Geyser Basin.
 
As Barbara and others have noted there are a large number of drivers who do not know rules of the road.  Among other transgression we observed, a small car made a U-turn in front of us on the way back to West Yellowstone--no brake lights, no turn signal, just a sudden slow down, then a U-turn.
 
Lynn Stephens (with help from Cassidy and Connor)
 
 
 
 
   
 		 	   		  
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