Geyser Watch

Lots of little changes at West Thumb Geyser Basin on this last trip, but the one that surprised me most was Lakeside Spring. Normally with a small runoff channel, this spring now covers a much larger area. Also in this photo (two of them stitched together to get it all in) you can see how far up the lake got in this area with the heavy runoff.

Here’s how it looked in early June of this year. I had noticed it had steam rising from it which I didn’t recall seeing in past visits, but just made a note and took a photo. It’s hard to always go by increased steam as the air temperature has so much to do with it, but in this case it looks like it was a precursor to a change. The area to the ‘right’ of Lakeside Spring (as you’re facing it) also showed changes. I’ll work at getting photos and descriptions of that up soon.