Waiting for Giant
During the height of the summer season, the wait for an eruption of Giant can attract quite a crowd, one that slops out of the Monkey Cage and all the way back to the main walkway. For some people, like me, that's a sign that it's time to find alternate places to wait.
The key to picking a place is to make sure you won't miss anything. WIth the radios, this has become a lot easier, as one no longer needs to be in a clear line of sight with Giant's platform. But a lot of people don't want to rely on the reports of others, so they tend to stick to places in easy reach: Oblong and Grotto. Grotto may not have a clear line of sight, but it does have shade, and on a hot day, that matters.
But some locations are just too remote and too long a walk to be a good place to stay. And that place is called Geyser Hill. Grand is about my limit for fast walking distance, and it does have the advantage that, while the vents on the platform are obscured by trees that survived the 1988 fires (bad planning there), you can see Mastiff, so not wholly dependent on someone with a radio to find out when to move in.
Bicycles can also play a part. They shorten distances, especially when there's someone with a radio at Giant. Fan & Mortar have their adherents, because with a bike, they are almost as close as Grotto. The same could be said for Riverside, but without the beeping lights, Riverside just isn't that entertaining. Castle works, too, and from there you do have views of just about everything else of interest in the basin.
I've found that either walkway at Daisy works pretty well, but neither is perfect. The southern side has a good view of Giant, but the place to sit are limited by the lack of boardwalks. The north side has plenty of places to sit, but no good view. Even so, I've always preferred the north because of the proximity to Splendid (and, like Grotto, the afternoon shade, too.)
With the bikes and radios, one can range even farther afield. Anyone who really wants to see Beehive eruptions as their preferred Giant waiting activity must have both, and be willing to settle for the view from the other side of the Firehole. But once that hot period starts, getting down to Giant is easy. You can even wait well into the hot period before moving, just to make sure it's not a false alarm. I know from experience. In 2001, after weeks of what seemed like Giant's platform was preforming a little script with events all happening at the same time, we finally got a hot period that was different. I was in the cab of my old Datsun at the time, but when Dave Leeking, who was the only person down basin that evening, started to report deviations from the script, I realized it was time to move. (And who wants to to have to admit that they ignored Leeking the one time it mattered?). I was able to round the bend and pass the last stand of trees just as Giant began its eruption. Not only that, but I later learned that a group of people sitting on the Ham's Store porch, when they saw me take off, realized that maybe it was time to move, and so arrived much sooner than otherwise.
Then finally, one can always wait back in your room in the Inn or cabin in the Lodge. Last year I was already up and about when the call came in that the expected post-Grotto Marathon hot period had started. it took me a few minutes to finish my preparation, so I was only in front of the Lodge when the eruption started. But on subsequent occasions, I found that by having everything ready to go. I could be down by Castle by the time the call announcing the end of the hot period came on.
Of course, it's been a while since one could wait this close.
