<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.3157" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Hello!</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I left work at 3:30 PM on
Friday, 28th, and was at Old Faithful by 2015. The Visitor Center Log Book
had 4 eruption times listed on the left page plus the predictables.
Unfortunately they had missed Jim's call that Grotto ended. I didn't know
that there had been an 18 hour marathon that ended just before 2 PM. I
decided to wait until daylight and hope. I crawled into bed 45 minutes
before Giant erupted. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> It rained for a while
Friday night. I headed out to the basin just before daylight. I
watched Old Faithful at 0640 and Plume at 0651. Someone biked down basin
and radioed that the signs at Giant had rolled (as I was biking toward
Castle). I knew it had been about 8 days since the last Fan & Mortar
so I went down there. Main started splashing within 2 minutes of my
arriving at 0723. After 3 River Vent pauses with plenty of white stuff
including one 3 foot splash, I was getting pretty hopeful. Jim joined me
as River finally came on, but Gold and Hi showed no interest and took 16
minutes to finally come on. The boardwalk was still wet from the overnight
rain and ?. We were joined by Dave (sorry, I don't know his last name) who
told us how after finishing work (washing dishes) he had headed out into the
basin in his work gear only to arrive just as Mastiff was starting to erupt at
~2340 and then in a breezy, moon lit night Giant soared skyward at ~2345.
He said it didn't appear to be a particularly tall eruption, but the moon lit it
all and he could watch the eruption from the cage. Late into Giant's
eruption, he had headed down to F & M and the board walk near the bridge was
damp, while the boardwalk in front of Spiteful and toward Morning Glory Pool was
dripping wet. He thought he might have missed an eruption of F &
M. Apparently there had been one or more "nice" event cycles on
Friday. Unfortunately no one had replaced the marker, so..... An
Interpretive Ranger came down that morning and she replaced the marker, so it is
marked now. So I marked Giant and F & M off of my choice list and
headed toward Grand. Jim told me that Grand had pulled a short interval ~
6 hours, so I pedalled up toward Daisy's sign. I was waiting
for Riverside, which had started Over Flow at ~0730. There was a
radio call that Grand had pulled a short interval, so they were moving the
window up. They radioed to predict Grand for 9:30 AM. Grand
erupted at 0911 (a T2C) and was very pretty viewed from afar.
Riverside erupted at 0935. I called a Plume at 1018 and left for the Lower
Geyser Basin. (I had noted a Fountain time of 1357 ie from Friday's
Log Book.) I drove by Great Fountain which was still down 6 or more
inches and headed to Fountain. After studying how damp the area was and
taking into consideration the lack of sun, the cloud cover, and the cold breeze,
I felt I would have about an hour wait. I noticed Spasm trying to fill
starting at 1159. It would splash and then drain. There was a
weak Jet at 1218. Spasm was trying again when I heard the splash and
turned around to see Fountain start erupting at 1233 with a duration of 30
minutes. Even with the wind it had some very high spikes during the
last half of the eruption. After enjoying Fountain I checked on Great
Fountain and found that the water had dropped. As I waited with a
large visitor group, the water slowly returned. I figured that
Great Fountain would probably reach over flow within the next 30 minutes, so I
headed back to the Upper Geyser Basin and radioed the update. I had
radioed to find out about Beehive (unfortunately the last one in the Log Book
was for the 27th - not the 28th). I watched the hill from the Inn
Parking lot enjoying the break from the chilly breeze. I checked Great
Fountain again at 1530 and the pool had crashed again. I returned to my
parking lot view of the basin. I radioed another Great Fountain
update. The sky was partly cloudy, but I finally identified
Riverside's steam cloud at 1621 as Sara radioed Riverside at 1620. I
enjoyed a crisp looking Aurum at 1630, and Grand popped up at 1637ns (I
believe it was a T2C). Sara radioed Grotto Fountain at 1645 ie. I
saw Grotto's steam cloud at 1702 although it probably started before that.
I headed back to the Lower Basin hoping I hadn't watched for Beehive too
long. Artemisia was in eruption at 1720. I rounded the corner at
1727 and knew I was late for Great Fountain due to the huge steam cloud
that dominated the area. The people I had left saw the start and said
another person who had seen many eruptions, said the start was at 1725.
The couple said there was a huge burst (~140' to 150') that had wowed the
crowd. Fountain was in eruption at 1750 as I headed back to Old
Faithful. The snow was getting a little thicker and I had decided to
head home. I radioed the Great Fountain and Fountain times after I heard
someone radio Castle at 1814 ie. There was light snow
falling on Craig and Sylvan Pass and some rain in between. The bison
are taking over the Fishing Bridge area. I arrived home at 12:15
AM. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I'm running out of
weekends. I hope to see some more gazers in next weekend. The
seasonal Interpretive Rangers finished this weekend, so they are running a small
group from now on. If at all possible, stop by the Visitor Center and
hand them a list of geysers and times that you have seen for the day, etc. so
they can check to see if the calls were heard and made it into the Lob Book
or if the calls were missed and they need the times. Thanks! Well,
its back to a week of preschool, lesson plans, open house tours for parents, and
only 5 days until I can return to Yellowstone. Go Giant and Fan &
Mortar!!!! Kitt Barger </FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>