Observations for 2022 August 14


Decided today was a good day to visit some backcountry geysers.

After yesterday's storms, it was damp, cool, gray and foggy. Left from Fountain Paint Pots parking lot at 09:00, and arrived at Great Fountain by 09:20. The pool was high, but yet at overflow. So went back to Pink Cone, where we spent 45 minutes eating breakfast and seeing nothing happen. Returned from there back to Great Fountain.

We found it had just started to overflow. There was steam coming from the pool outside the crater, but no overflow off the inner terrace. As we waited, the fog finally cleared, revealing blue sky, but there was also no wind, which made it hard to determine which place might be the best place to see the eruption start. Also during the wait, saw five eruptions of White Dome.

After at least 72 minutes of overflow, Great Fountain went from big boil directly into erupting. It wasn't a great start, and the second burst wasn't all that good, either. But the third burst started with several surges that put water over the edges of the terraces.

It was after the first burst that the only other people we saw passed by. A couple of people more interested in bicycling, as they didn't stick around for the eruption after a couple of minutes.

We left after the third burst to go to White Dome. After having frequent eruptions during the wait, it was over a half hour later and no sign of an eruption. During that time, Great Fountain had its fourth and fifth burst, and both of them had surges that looked nicely large from our vantage point.

During the wait at White Dome, we did see an eruption of what might be WDG-1. But it only lasted two minutes.

After finally giving up on White Dome, we then saw Pink Cone in eruption. Not sure how long it had been erupting, but an hour later it was still having strong resurgences every time it looked like it was ending.

Late in the eruption we saw an eruption of Bead, and just before leaving, Narcissus and then Pink erupted.

Got back to the Upper Basin to find that Beehive hadn't erupted as expected. So pleasant surprise to hear the radio call about the Indicator. It was a short Indicator, and arrived just as Beehive started.

Later it was time to go to Grand. Got there on what looked to be a Turban Delay Interval, and the lack of overflow from Grand before the next Turban eruption tended to confirm that. If Grand had erupted on the second or third Turban eruptions after the Delay, we'd have been able to come back inside before the rains started. As it was, we got wet, and had to wait until the eighth Turban eruption before Grand finally had the One Burst Eruption. This took place just after the sun disappeared behind the ridge, so between the steam from the humidity and the lack of sunlight, it wasn't particularly good looking eruption.

And then, as we were leaving, Oblong had an eruption.