The first jet caught me by surprise, making me jump in my folding chair as it blasted through the pool. After that, my smile widened as Depression Geyser threw water up to ten feet, it was a strong eruption. Of course it had to be at night.
It's been 2 weeks in Yellowstone, and of course, when I'm not at work, I'm out in the basin. However, many of my shifts have me getting off at 7-9:30 pm, the gazing takes place early morning and in the evening. But it has made me realize that night time gazing is different from gazing during the day time, your senses increase in sensitivity, the smallest splash makes your head swivel looking for a source. You play everything by ear.
I almost enjoy night gazing more than I do day gazing because of how much more in depth it is. No distractions of crowds, or car horns, or radio transmissions. It boils (pun intended) completely down to your own observational skills and experience, there's no group of older gazers to tell you what to look for, your entering into a whole new playing field with the Geyser. It's just a chess game of time and observing patterns to figure out what it's going to do. And that's what Geyser Gazing is all about.
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| Watching the Sawmill Group under the stars Photo Courtsey of Will Boekel. |
Last summer, I was out in the Sawmill group right at twilight. Neither Sawmill or Penta were in eruption, but water was rising in each. I'd seen Penta a couple of times before, but always during the day with someone else who knew what to look for. I wasn't sure I remembered perfectly what Penta's pre-eruptive behavior was, but everything looked close enough to what I remembered to convince me to stay. The eruption started about 20 minutes after sundown, and I was the only person their for the entire eruption, which was pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteI also used to impress my friends (I worked for Xanterra) by predicting Plume by ear when we would go out at night. It's always too noisy to do that during the day (for me at least).
Ben, That's awesome that you got to see Penta! unfortunately I have missed it now at least a half dozen times, but someday I will see it. That sounds like a great experience.
DeletePlume unfortunately has been dormant since early January. All it does now is sit there and hiss at you as you go by. Maybe a Giantess eruption will fix it! :)