geysers.org

Overnight we got at least an inch of wet slushly snow. By dawn, there were still light snow showers, and a strong wind from the northwest. The walkway wasn't as slippery as I expected, probably because it was slush instead of ice.

Uncertain was gurgling with occasional splashes, so I spent about twenty minutes watching it, but nothing much changed during that time. So went over to Grand. Rift's runoff channel was snow-free, indicating it probably erupted in the last few hours. Arrived just in time to catch the start of a Turban eruption. That was followed by an almost 30 minute long Turban Delay interval.

With the wind, most of the steam was being pushed to the south so that Grand's pool was easily visible. Three Turban eruption intervals later, Grand filled nicely. Turban started, and then it appeared Vent was overflowing. It took Grand nearly a minute to start erupting, after a series of boops. The wind was still making the One Burst Eruption visible.

2026-May-21 : 08:02:16 D3/T1C

 08:01:23	Turban	-0m53s
 08:01:39	Vent Ovfl	-0m37s
 08:02:10	Boop	-0m06s
 08:02:16	B1	--- d=09m29s
 08:04:30	Vent	2m14s
 08:11:45	P1	9m29s
Vent & Turban continue

				     	ΣD=09m29s
	* * * * *
 06:41:47			d=03m06s 	
 07:11:09	Int: 29m22s	d=04m20s  D0	
 07:28:27	Int: 17m18s	d=03m46s  D1	
 07:44:58	Int: 16m31s	d=03m28s  D2	
		     Turban: 16m25s

Following the eruption, stopped in at Sawmill and Uncertain again. Sawmill's pool level was high, and Uncertain was having strong splashes. Then Sawmill started, quickly overflowing as Uncertain's activity seemed to die down. At that point I decided to head back in to warm up and dry out.

With Grand having several short intervals since we arrived, decided I should not delay my arrival. The weather was dry, but windy. I had just passed West Triplet when Grand boiled up, starting the One Burst Eruption. As with this morning, the best view was at the north.

2026-May-21 : 14:16:19 G1Q

 14:16:19	B1	--- d=11m17s
 14:16:27	Turban	0m08s
 14:19:21	Vent	3m01s
 14:27:36	P1	11m17s
 14:28:29	V&T Quit	12m09s
 14:40:06	V&T Restart	23m47s

				     	ΣD=11m17s
	* * * * *
 14:26:39	West Triplet	d=26m13s

West Triplet started near the end of the Grand eruption. I waited to see if Rift might start, but West Triplet had a duration less than necessary to trigger Rift.

With all the recent shorter intervals for Grand, I decided it was better to be there early. It was just before sunset, with a clear sky and a cold wind coming from the north. I arrived to find Grand in a heavy overflow, most likely a Turban Delay interval. West Triplet had also just ended an eruption.

Four Turban eruption intervals later, there was a second Delay interval. At that point, it was dark and frost was starting to form on the boardwalks. I decided it was time to head back in.

2026-May-21 : 20:12:35

 20:22:42			d=04m51s 	
 20:40:01	Int: 17m19s	d=03m46s 	
 20:59:42	Int: 19m41s	d=03m55s 	
 21:20:06	Int: 20m34s	d=03m33s 	
 21:48:57	Int: 28m51s	d=04m25s  D0	

Woke up shortly before the alarm, and within a minute or two got the Beehive Indicator call. This time I only made it to the Firehole River bridge before I heard the roar of Beehive's eruption. Did get as far as Anemone (both vents were erupting). Also, Little Squirt was in eruption, and the alter ground near the boardwalk was steaming heavily.

Went back to the cabin to reconfigure, then headed out to Grand as it was almost 15 hours since the eruption we saw yesterday. Arrived to find Grand in overflow. Turns out that, based on the secret NPS time, I probably saw first overflow.

For the next couple of hours, it was a series of undistinguished Turban eruptions. Finally, West Triplet started to erupt, and eruption that lasted over an hour. During the middle of that eruption, I again saw slight steam coming from the location of East Triplet. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of heavy steaming, Rift began its eruption.

That eruption only lasted about 46 minutes. Two Turban eruption intervals later, Grand had its first good overflow, and we got a steamy but backlit One Burst Eruption.

2026-May-20 : 10:10:04 G1Q

 10:10:00	Boop	-0m03s
 10:10:04	B1	--- d=10m59s
 10:12:58	Vent	2m53s
 10:21:04	P1	10m59s
 10:22:09	V&T Quit	12m04s

				     	ΣD=10m59s
	* * * * *
 06:33:35			d=43s 	
 06:49:49	Int: 16m14s	d=03m45s 	
 07:11:29	Int: 21m40s	d=04m26s 	
 07:31:11	Int: 19m42s	d=03m56s 	
 07:52:20	Int: 21m09s	d=04m15s 	
 08:07:49	West Triplet d=01h04m 
 08:12:28	Int: 20m08s	d=04m29s 	
 08:31:56	Int: 19m28s	d=03m54s 	
 08:49:27	Rift d≈46m
 08:50:41	Int: 18m45s	d=04m18s 	
 09:09:13	Int: 18m32s	d=03m40s 
 09:12:22	end West Triplet	
 09:28:32	Int: 19m19s	d=02m59s 	
 09:46:36	Int: 18m04s	d=03m20s 	
		      Grand: 23m28s

When to return to Grand was an open quesiton. I didn't want to go too early, as these long waits in the cold and wind are tiresome, but didn't want to miss a short interval. Settled on getting out at around the 6-1/2 hour mark. So Grand erupts at just over six hours. I'd just finished something to eat and was getting properly configured.

Instead I went out to wait for Uncertain. Sawmill had a short, no overflow eruption while I was watching and waiting for West Triplet to quit, and see if Rift would start. It didn't. Then Sawmill starts another eruption about 45 minutes later, this time getting strong and overflowing.

By this time Uncertain had been splashing and gurgling nicely, so three minutes later, it also erupted.

At that point it was getting colder and windier, and it looked like the precipitation could start soon.

After last night, Grand erupted at dawn with a reasonable interval. The temperature was listed at 19. Rift erupted soon after, and had quit by the time I got out just before 09:00. The temperature was still a couple of degrees below freezing, and there were quite a few icy runoff channels around Grand.

I also noticed that it was nicely steamy. There was nothing coming from the hillside with the sputs like Sput D and Sputnik. But there was a slight whisp of steam coming from the location of East Triplet.

Afterwards I went to look around Geyser Hill, where there were still a lot more frozen runoff channels, even at 10:00. At around 11:40, I decided I wanted to get over to Grand, and left. I was at the bridge when the "water in the Indicator" call came out. So I reversed and watched the eruption. After a morning with a consistent wind direction, it shifted three minutes into the eruption so that the boardwalk got a soaking.

A quick reconfigure at the cabin, and it was out to Grand. Arrived to find Turban in what was probably a Delay Interval, based on the Turban eruption duration and the behavior during the following interval.

Six Turban eruptions later, late in a West Triplet eruption, we got our second Turban Delay eruption. Four more Turban eruptions and we got a third Delay. Grand finally erupted two more Turban intervals later, on an interval of sixteen minutes.

Grand started with a large boop, and there were two bursts. West Triplet followed the Grand eruption, and there was a report of Rift erupting with a 11 hour interval.

2026-May-19 : 16:30:02 D4/D2/G2Q

 16:29:58	Boop	-0m04s
 16:30:02	B1	--- d=10m57s
 16:32:54	Vent	2m52s
 16:39:11	P1	9m09s
 15:39:53	B2	0m42s
 15:40:59	P2	1m06s
 15:41:36	V&T Quit
				     	ΣD=10m15s

 	* * * * *
 12:30:30			d=04m43s 	
 12:48:21	Int: 17m51s	d=03m24s 	
 13:07:31	Int: 19m10s	d=03m46s 	
 13:25:18	Int: 17m47s	d=03m13s 	
 13:44:47	Int: 19m29s	d=03m11s 	
 14:03:23	Int: 18m36s	d=03m38s 	
 14:18:22	West Triplet
 14:34:42	Int: 31m19s	d=04m56s  D0	
 14:52:52	Int: 18m10s	d=02m49s  D1	
 15:08:47	Int: 15m55s	d=03m38s  D2	
 15:25:38	Int: 16m51s	d=03m11s  D3
 15:56:19	Int: 30m41s	d=4m22s	  D4/D0
 16:14:18	Int: 17m59s	d=3m23s   D4/D1
 		     Turban: 15m44s

Following Grand we only had to wait a few minutes to have an eruption of Uncertain, and then it was time to get out of the wind and cold.

I'd checked the road conditions before we left, and our route to Yellowstone appeared to be a bit wet, but otherwise open. That changed, because when we approached the last exit to Laramie, we encountered a line of trucks parked along I-80, because the highway to the west was closed. That was not good.

We fueled up and then I took a look at the road conditions map. Not only was I-80 closed, but so was US-30. There was, however, no indication that Wyoming-34 was closed. It branches off of US-30 about ten miles north of Laramie, and that's where the closure started. Decided to risk the ten mile drive, as the alternative was to head east to Cheyenne and then head north on I-25. If Wyo-34 was open, it would make the alternate route less painful.

It was open, but pretty slushy for much of the fifty miles. Then it was north on I-25, which was wet, but not slippery or slushy most of the way, so I was able to drive at the 80mph speed limit.

That got us to Casper, where the exit we'd intended to use to fuel up was blocked due to a collision. Fortunately, the closure was gone by the time we went back on the way to an alternate route. At that point, the conditions improved dramatically, and except for slush at the summit of Togwotee Pass, the road was clear.

So we checked in about two hours later than expected, and as we walked from the front desk of the Lodge to my truck parked by the cabins, we heard the "water in Beehive's Indicator" call. We had to go out to Geyser Hill without extra layers, and Geyser Hill was colder and windier than usual. But despite that, it was a nice welcome back.

Later we went out to Grand hoping for an eruption, but after two hours of non-descript Turban eruptions, we gave up. By then it was almost 22:00, and dark, and cold. The temperature was around 28, and windy.