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Yellowstone Radio 2021 -- Part 1

A new year means new ways for people to cause trouble and new strange behaviors and new foolishness.

  • First day in park, arrive at Norris at 07:00. Call for West Entrance to assist West PD. Woman at restaurant, drunk and disorderly. Not clear if call by owner's wife or if owner's wife causing the trouble. Call to stand down 20 min later.
  • EMS (Emergency Medical Services) pager callout— for two employees, aged 19 and 20, at Lodge HR office with bear spray in the eyes.
  • Grizzly in the old Old Faithful corrals and athletic fields area.
  • Call about car at Lone Star trailhead stuck in snowdrift. Needed tow truck to pull it out about 8 feet.
  • Medical call in late evening of 19 year old with severe head laceration received "from the ceiling". Bleeding was under control by time EMS arrived. Shortly after that a report of someone, wrapped in a blanket, was accosting people stopped waiting at the one lane overpass. They were searching for him when I decided it was a good time to go to sleep.
  • At Midway, person called in to report that they hit, and knocked down, the stop sign at the exit from the parking lot. Or, as the responder said, "destroying government property."
  • Report of 6 people from silver van with Calif plates out at Gentian Pool.
  • Multiple burglar alarms at OF water treatment reservoir being caused by a squirrel.
  • Maintenance saw rocks being collected along Firehole Canyon Dr. Car stopped on Fountain Flats. Driver consented to search. Car packed but labeled contraband found. Driver cited.
  • Right afterwards, car from OF pulled over for doing 66 in 35 zone. Cited with court appearance.
  • Seemed to take a lot of time to take care of a fire alarm at the Inn, despite report of sparking and a fire extinguisher being used.
  • One evening during the springtime bear closures of the Lower Basin, someone noticed that there seemed to be a lot of cars (Eleven) parked at the Fairy Falls trailhead. Patrols went in from there and Ojo Caliente. Only a family of five from Iowa were encountered and cited.
  • New type of traffic stoppage-- tree jam due to fallen tree.
  • Tesla on West Entrance road needing tow to West because it ran out of power just past Seven Mile Bridge.
  • At Fountain Paint Pots, drone pilot only got a warning. Then things got interesting. Car hit an elk. Elk survived, but was near the road. That attracted attention of not only cars passing by, but also a wolf. We heard about this just before entering Fountain Flats while returning from Norris. We made it through as trafic was already being moved along. About an hour later, the wolf was still trying to figure out how to get that meal when a grizzly bear joined in on the fun. Found out later that wolf was chasing elk, and this got caught on dashcam video. Elk later moved from road, where it had been "10 feet from fog line."
  • Rockfall at Gibbon Falls. Cleanup impeded because there's still debris coming down. Then weather closures for other two routes to Norris, cutting it off for rest of morning.
  • Next day rockfalls on West Entrance road. At least one car ran over some of the rocks and needed service
  • Power outage from at least Norris south lasting several hours causes the noisy Old Faithful generator to be used. This causes overheating and trips fire alarms in building.
  • Call from Fountain Paint Pots about two people off trail in Kaleidoscope Group. Way off trail-- "400 yards", "quarter mile". Possibly looking for "bathing ". Ranger headed that way asked for possible assistance from Geology if they had to go after them. Instead, people returned to FPP, where they were rewarded with a return visit to Yellowstone to meet with the magistrate later this summer.
  • "Fifty foot RV with 50 foot trailer" blocking lane in OF parking lot. Blocked in by other vehicles so couldn't move.
  • Late night report of dispatching a bison just off the road at Terrace Spring.
  • Report of "child of 13" riding skateboard on boardwalk at Midway.
  • Tour guide has medical emergency at FPP, stranding vehicle and two clients who need to get back to Jackson.
  • Maintenance must've started their holiday weekend early, because the next (Friday) afternoon, the bison carcass was still there. (We saw it going to and coming from Norris.) That's when driver of rental RV made inquiry to NPS person at Madison about removing the horns as keepsake. That attention finally got the bison moved. (Why not carve off some hamburger too?)
  • In OF employee trailer area, afternoon report of caged dog barking all day. Dog confiscated and relocated to ranger station.
  • Report of bear south of Daisy. (Not sure if “Daisy” the turnout, or “Daisy” the geyser.) Turned out to be coyote. Nevermind.
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Observations for 2021 May 30

Was a productive day. Got up early to go out on Geyser Hill. Wanted to catch a Lion initial eruption and did. Also did a video walking around the entire boardwalk loop. Bonus was catching a pretty poor eruption of Depression.

From there it was time to go to Grand. On the way out, stopped at Churn only to have it start to erupt. This is the first time in years where I saw Churn from there, and not from Bulger or Crested Pool or Grand. Have included a photo of the post-eruption pool level in order to compare it to the drop we witnessed a few weeks ago.

Churn Geyser pool after an eruption

Grand itself only made us wait a single Turban eruption interval. It was calm and warming, so the eruption was nicely backlit. And it ended at just over 7-1/2 minutes. A quick pause, and a second burst brought the eruption duration to 9m01s. And the pool never filled, as far as we could tell.

Stopped at Daisy to catch another short eruption, then off to Artemisia again. Caught a nice eruption with the wind mostly cooperating, and got an Atomizer minor eruption shortly after Artemisia ended.

Mid afternoon was time for another One Burst Grand eruption, where despite a duration of 10-1/2 minutes, Vent & Turban didn't quit.

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Observations for 2021 May 29

Didn't have to wait for the morning Grand eruption. Cold and steamy, but calm. The first burst lasted 9m11s, which is often enought for a One Burst eruption, but not this time. Instead we got a short pause and a short second burst before Vent & Turban reluctantly quit.

After that, I was able to go to Geyser Hill. There was another eruption of Little Squirt, and I wanted to see how the frying pans next to the boardwalk reacted. I didn't get over there until after Little Squirt had been finished, and it was mostly dry. But the frying pans were sizzling a bit, which is the activity I would have expected.

Visited Artemisia for the first time this year. Got to see an Atomizer minor eruption and a jerk on a bicycle. Went over to catch Daisy and got the call for the start of Beehive's Indicator. Made it as far as the trail junction in front of the Inn.

Midday, Grand had a series non-Delay Turban intervals that caused a long interval. This is the first wait of this time this visit. The eruption itself went into Big Sawmill mode fairly early around the 8-1/2 minute mark with a false pause. From there, it slopped around for over five minutes. There was another significant false pause just before 13 minute mark, and the total eruption duration was 13m07s. Vent & Turban quickly died down.

Since the Lower Basin opened up yesterday, decided it was a good time to see the obligatory, annual Great Fountain eruption. Arrived after overflow had started, so at least didn't have long to wait. The eruption itself was described as being "Great Flounder", and it was all my fault for my being there. I also had to wipe down the windows of my truck to get rid of another set of stains.

Stopped in at Fountain Paint Pots, where Fountain started right as we stopped. The wind was strong, so the steam and spray was being carried horizontally across the walkway and across Jet Geyser. Had to walk through it to get a view of the eruption, and it was very warm and humid, but no spray for my passage through.

Finally went out for a post-sunset Grand eruption. Instead got a Turban Interval Delay of over 33 minutes when Grand suddenly erupted. The pool didn't look great, but it was hard to tell with the lighting and steaminess. This was another long One Burst Eruption, with a false pause at around 11 minutes into an eruption that lasted 12-1/2 minutes. Vent & Turban were off within seconds of the end of the eruption.

The Sawmill Group showed no signs of any changes today. Sawmill was always well below overflow whenever I passed by.

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Observations for 2021 May 28

Another three hours at Norris to confirm that things really haven't changed, that any reports of improvements were temporary. The winds picked up as we left, and were excessive the rest of the day.

Back in the Upper Basin, on the way out to Grand, I noticed that Churn was just below overflow, like it appears after an eruption. The rest of the group was dropping. Several hours later, at a time when Spasmodic was below overflow, Churn was only overflowing out the left/west part of the rim, and just wet to the north. The One Burst Grand was chopped off by the wind.

Quick checks at Fan & Mortar, and hanging around Sawmill Group, along with Castle and Beehive eruptions filled in the rest of the day. Missed the Indicator radio call, so didn't get to Geyser Hill in time to see Beehive up close.

Went out for the evening Grand, and got a 35m two Turban eruption interval delay. The sun had set by eruption time, but the lighting was still good and the wind had died down to only be "breezy".