[Geysers] Trip Report January 7-13, 2016

[Stephen Eide]

Hello all, 
I was fortunate enough to visit the Upper Geyser Basin from January 7 -12, 2016.  I was on foot so I limited my trips to the area from Old Faithful to Fan and Mortar with one trip out to Black Sand Pool.  
    For Beehive the bubblers were on in winter mode, the strongest one is on the other side of Beehive toward the Inn.  I did catch five eruptions  of Beehive in five days, three at about 24 hour intervals.  Beehive appeare to have very weak splashing until about one to two hours before the eruption.   Four of the five eruptions were preceded by Beehive indicator.  For one eruption the water came up in the Indicator then dropped, rose and dropped again, and on the third rise Beehive started to splash, five feet, then ten feet, then ten again, then it just started.  The water in Beehive Indicator continued to rise and drop for two more minutes before the Indicator started.  Bronze Spring was in overflow every time I looked at it but sometimes it was just barely in overflow and other times the pool bubbled more and the overflow was heavier.  Little Squirt did not erupt while I was watching it but it had washed the snow out of its run off channel. The Anenomes were active, some with solo eruptions of Big or Little, and I saw several dual eruptions.  I only caught one eruption of Depression from up close, it was the weakest eruption of Depression I have seen so far.  The whole eruption consisted of three splashes of about one to three feet from the back left vent.  That was it.  
    Heart Spring was cloudly when I first saw it and by the day I left it had mostly cleared.  It talking to the rangers they said it had several cloudy events so far this winter.  Little Cub was active.  Lion had one or two series (seen at least) each day, with most of the series between two and three eruptions.  Aurum appears to be erupting every 3.5 to 6 hours and it can look like it is just about to erupt for an hour or longer.  Once I saw it boil and surge to about four feet high, then wait another 45 minutes to erupt.  Doublet Pool is still thumping.  Also, between Beach Geyser and UNNG-GHG-7 a little to the northeast is a new hole that was erupting.  It was a time when Beach Geyser was also erupting and GHG-7 was rocking but not quite splashing.  The new vent had a small splashy eruption to about six inches to a foot high.  I had to go back to Beehive to grab my pack and camera and by the time I returned the new vent and Beach Geyser had stopped.  Sponge is erupting frequently to about six inches to a foot high.  Nothing from Plate or Slot or UNNG GHG-13.  The only thing erupting in that are was Model Geyser.  
    Giantess did not even boil for me but Andrea did see it having occasional boils a week later.  I found Infant Geyser to be almost overflowing and clearer than usual.  A week later Andrea found the snow melted off on the Boardwalk closest to Infant but the water level was about the same.  It was hard to tell from the pictures she sent if the water was cloudier or not.  It does appear Vault Geyser dropped down about 2-3 inches between when I looked at it and a week later when Andrea was looking at the area.   I don't know what to make of this.  
    In the Sawmill group I saw mostly Spasmodic and Sawmill erupting.  There were a few deep drains but I could not stay around to catch Uncertain Geyser.  I did catch a series of eruptions from Churn and one steam phase eruption from Penta.  Penta was also seen once on the webcam and from the washed snow in the run off channel it had an overnight eruptions also.  I caught a few Bulger minors.  I only caught a couple of Grand eruptions and they were all one burst.  Grand appears to be having intervals of 6-8 hours and it usually goes in the early part of the window.  I did see one of the vents of the Sputniks start up and erupt for about a minute or so.  West Triplet and Rift were active but I did not catch Percolator.  Topsoil Spring was about a centimeter below overflow each time I looked at it.  
    On down valley East Economic Geyser seems to have cooled down again but it does have a small steady overflow.  Most of this are is cool and inactive.  Beauty Pool had all the overflow.  
    I caught a couple of eruptions of Oblong.  One with no thumps that I could hear and one with only a few week thumps.  I found the Giant area very quiet one day with a long period with no Bijou, but I think this was because of a Grotto Marathon the day before.  The signs were all in place and a couple were buried by snow.  
    Grotto Geyser was active most days.  I did talk to some visitors who gave a great description of a Rocket Major.  Riverside is dependable and doing almost all long intervals.  At Link, Link geyser was below overflow and only gave off the weakest of steam even on 18 degree days.  The southern most and northern most pools in the chain lakes have all the energy.  
    When I first saw Fan and Mortar on the 15th it was clear it had erupted sometime.  There was a visitor's report of an eruption on 12-30-15 and there was very little snow in the park between then and when I was in the park so the snow markings could have been from that eruptions or it could have had another before I arrived.   Morning Glory is all green in the throat, not a touch of blue.  
    Daisy has been having longer intervals of over three hours.  I watched it one day, I arrived to find just one of the shoulder vents weakly bubbling so I went down to Black Sand Pool,  I came back about 50 minutes later to find all the vents bubbling and the main vent occasionally surging.  So I thought it would erupt in the next five to ten minutes.   Nope, it erupted 35 minutes later.  The wind conditions at the time were 6-10 miles per hour out of the west.  Bank Geyser was active and I saw one eruption from Pyramid Geyser. 
    Two of the vents to the west of Punchbowl Spring were splashing about a foot high.  I am unsure if they were also active about 35 minutes later when I walked back.  Black Sand Pool was still thumping but I did not see any significant boiling on the pool.  From the last two year I have note that the amount of thumping and boiling can change from hour to hour but I only made one visit this time so I have no idea if it is still that variable.  
    I think Castle had two minors during my visit but it is mostly doing major eruptions.   I saw Gizmo once and found Tilt's Baby empty once.  White Geyser is active.  
    O, yes, Old Faithful was active and faithful.  I did not see Split Cone erupt but the rangers tell me it has been active.  I tried to make a snowman for the webcam but it was too cold for the snow to pack.  
    There were a few coyotes in the upper basin and a small herd of Bison.  There were reports of Bobcat sighting near the seven mile bridge, even one report of three Bobcats seen.  There was also several reports of a small Black Bear cub out wandering in the seven mile bridge area over several days, then it disappeared.  Sorry, I have no reports from the Black Sand Basin, Biscuit Basin, Midway, or Fountain areas.   It looks like Graham may have some data on these areas.  
  
With some luck I may be back once more before winter season is over.  
Stephen Eide 
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