Yellowstone: the introspective landscape- Part XIV

excerpts from my new book-

Chapter 6- continued...

Reincarnated Geyser!Yellowstone geology is living. It can change in days. An earthquake might create a new spring or make a geyser pop out of an old spring and dormant geysers spring back to life. Once such feature that was slipping into a dormant or extinct stage but now erupting once again was Rustic Geyser found in Heart Lake Geyser Basin. Learning of this, I planned to hike in and spend an overnighter or two camping near it and hoped to capture it at sunrise or sunset while in splendid eruption...

...In 1996, park geologist Bill Hutchinson was busy unclogging debris from Rustic’s underground plumbing. Many times, park visitors are the cause of damage to geysers and hotspring, but nature too can be the assailant like a runoff channel that flows into Rustic. Sadly, during the winter of 96-97, Bill and an associate died in an avalanche near here while on a backcountry ski trip. Later that spring, backpackers witnessed Rustic Geyser erupting for the first time in many years...

...Sadly he never saw it erupt after all his work. As I watched, Rustic erupt under dramatic sunset lit thunder clouds in the distance, I couldn’t help think that it was more then just Bill’s action of pumping out the debris that got Rustic to erupt as it did long ago, but perhaps Bill’s spirit behind the force of that eruption. Bill had reincarnated as the geyser guardian.

to be continued...