Geyser Notes

Today was mostly spent recovering from yesterday.

Some of that was out at Grand, where it continued its string of long intervals. At least we got another two burst eruption out of our wait.

I was headed out to the evening Grand eruption, dressed for a wait that could be after midnight. As I approached Tilt, the call for Beehive's Indicator came over the radio, and since it was only at the 7 hour mark, I decided that would be a good place to catch the next Turban eruption and see Beehive erupt.

As it turned out a minute or so later, I saw Turban start, followed after another minute by Grand. So I slowly walked over to watch the last half of a single burst eruption. By the time I got back to Sawmill, Beehive started, so that geyser I watched as I walked back over the bridge. At least after that I could look forward to a 5 hours of sleep before the next walk.

Posted by HKoenig at 04:19 AM | Permalink

Spent the day on a trip to the Shoshone Geyser Basin. Haven't been there in ten years, so good to be back. Was with a small party of gazers, who left at various times in the morning, with various levels of experience there.

I met the other in my party, Suzanne Strasser, at the Lower Ham's store, where we got to witness the dawn eruption of Beehive at 05:08. A nice little sendoff. From there it was drive the bikes to the trailhead at Kepler Falls and bike in to Lone Star Geyser. Thanks to a rainstorm the previous night, there were still lots of puddle along the way, but only a couple which spanned the width of the trail. From a visit by some others the previous day, I knew that the odds of seeing a eruption was low, so we didn't hang around, but headed right out at 05:50.

The trail is not in the best of shape. We encountered seven downed trees, one quagmire and two missing bridges. One, which is the final bridge across the head of Shoshone Creek, disappeared years ago. Now missing is the bridge prior to that, about 100 yards apart. So on the way in, we got to take off our shoes and socks twice in quick succession and that water is cold.

It was also earlier that I've usually gone back there in the past (usually mid- to late-August, so there was a lot more greenery down next to the trail. So despite dry creek crossings, my pantlegs were still wet almost to the knee. The wildflowers were much better than I remember, and Suzanne even found strawberries along the way (About the size of a small peanut, but tasty.)

We finally entered the basin shortly before 09:00, with our first stop a quick jaunt over to see Double and Little Giant. Both were sloshing about quite a bit, but what quickly caught our attention was the feature to the west of Little Giant. I do not remember what it looked like before, but today it was long, fairly narrow collapse in the sinter. And that sinter was visibly bouncing. As water came up from underneath, it pushed at the slabs in the vent, moving them only a fraction of an inch or so. In a couple of cases it appeared that the slab was still attached, as no hinge crack could be seen, while the overhang danced up and down. This is apparently new activity, not seen by any of our party before, and I sorry to say I don't expect to see it should I ever visit again.

So from that it was south along the creek to Soap Kettle and Triple Bulger. Soap Kettle still shows no signs of any discharge, although it was sloshing around in its bowl. The back blowout vent of Triple Bulger old splash to a foot or so.

Shield and Gourd were both active, while Minute Man was still about an hour or so away from its next cycle. #11 seemed inactive, as the cone, other than a trickle matching the incoming Shield runoff, was dry. A good place to have breakfast.

When I first looked at Five Crater, it was active as I've always seen it, with an eruption of sorts consisting of water slapping the the top of the perforated shelf containing the vents, causing water to squirt through. By that time the other party was arriving, so we waited for them to catch up to us, and then we joined them as they looked those features. This time Five Crater was actually erupting, with water being forced by steam through the vents.

Next was to visit the Orion Group, where nothing much was erupting. Union Geyser even has a small, foot high tree growing on the platform beside the southern vent.

A few of us waded across the creek, while others decided to risk the fallen trees a bit farther south. While they were catching up to us, I took the time to deconstruct some hot-potter engineering, scattering rocks and setting some wood downstream.

Next up we walked through the trees and approached the Western Group. First we enchanted the sluiceway from Boiling Cauldron, which seemed longer and more extensive than I remembered. It is in turned fed by the ornately lined runoff channel from Boiling Cauldron, and includes a number of small spits.

Boiling Cauldron itself seemed unchanged, just as noisy and colorful as always. Nearby is Cream Spring, where are visible the bones of a bison that went down the steep sides and into the spring.

Following that we spent most of the rest of our time in the North Group, watching and waiting for the numerous geysers there. It was also time for lunch, and to continue Shoshone lunchtime traditions.

As we entered the group, we saw an eruption of Lion Geyser. I'd earlier seen it erupt from the other side of the creek, so we had a double (or single?) eruption interval just under two hours. The interval turned out to be double, and we saw it right on time. It still sends out that little squirtgun droplet over twenty feet from the vent.

Velvet Geyser was also active. I didn't take any timing notes, but the eruptions came quite regularly every 10 to 11 minutes or so. We did see one minor eruption, which a few minutes later was followed by one of the larger eruptions we saw, one that several times pushed water out to top of the levee of gravel it has built around itself.

We had lunch in the insufficient and moving shade near Hydra Geyser. While the water levels were high, we didn't see any activity. Across the creek, Minute Man was having a series, but I didn't want to wade across the creek any more, so watched it from there.

Bead Geyser was also active, and we saw two eruptions about 2 hours apart. Nearby Knobby geyser seemed inactive, only putting out a trickle of water.

Terracette Spring is located next to Bead, and show that there is a connection between the two. An eruption of Bead drains Terracette completely, only to have it fill back up within a few minutes.

Frill Spring did not erupt for us, but it sure did try. We watched it for a good 20 minutes have splashing a good 1/2 meter high which on occasion seemed to sudden surge up to a meter, and in about any other geyser, would have signaled the push that starts the eruption. But it would die down, only to try a few minutes later.

By that then, it was time to leave. It would be a while for Bead, or the next Minute Man series, Hydra wasn't promising, and Frill would be a while also. So waded across the creek below Minute Man and headed back. We did stop at the collapse near Little Giant, where everything was quiet. In some ways the collapse was just as impressive still as moving. The temptation to touch had to be resisted, as it looked like it could just all fall apart if we'd done that, and it's better to let the geyser do that.

The bugs hadn't been bad in the basin, but as we got higher approaching the pass, they got worse. Mosquitoes buzzed everywhere, but the repellants seemed to be doing their job. I did discover that mosquitoes can drill through a couple of layers of clothes when the clothes are stretched tight. Several times I felt a tingle on my shoulder, looked over and made sure another one died.

Posted by HKoenig at 04:07 AM | Permalink

Nothing to report today, as went to Shoshone Geyser Basin. Will post pictures in a separate report once I figure out which ones I to post here.

Posted by HKoenig at 08:37 AM | Permalink

Came out this morning and saw something new for the year: a 36 minute long Turban interval, which ended with a 7 minute long eruption. Unlike the other day, that was the only unusually long duration during the rest of Grand's interval. But four Turban eruptions after that we got another delay, this time when Vent overflowed. And that took three more Turban eruptions, so we ended up with what could have been a short interval being over 10 hours.

The eruption itself was quite nice, as the steaminess of the chilly morning was long gone. After the second burst, Grand did try for a third burst, with a short fill of the crater, but then it drained and almost immediately Vent and Turban quit.

One nice thing (the only good thing) about these recent long intervals is that they've not been one burst eruptions.

Funny how just as Beehive was getting out of its habit of erupting at the same times every day, Giantess erupts and it pushes right back into the same behavior. But these mid-afternoon Beehive eruptions are nice because we are guaranteed the opportunity of a predictable daylight eruption.

While walking up for the afternoon Beehive eruption, I saw my first up close Plume Geyser eruption of the trip. What caught my attention was that there really wasn't a gap between the second and third (of five) bursts. Between the others there was a distinct pause when water wasn't even visible in the vents, but between those two, Plume continued to surge up to about 1 to 2 meters before taking starting another burst. I don't know if this has been the normal behavior, or is a Giantess eruption effect

It was clouding up by the time I went out to Grand, but mostly sunny, but that didn't last. At one point I realized that the hot sun that had been beating down on me had been replaced by a steady breeze and thickening overcast. As the interval progressed, that overcast turned to rain. At least the rain stopped for the Grand eruption, by which time most folks had abandoned their stay. The eruption continued the trend of two bursts. This time Grand had to really fight for the second. By the time it began, Vent was blasting away and Turban was thrashing madly. And almost immediately, the rains began again, but fortunately, I made it back to the cabin before the heavy stuff hit.

Today, I was sitting on the Snowlodge while posting the previous day's observations, (gotta go where the wifi is…). Down below I noticed our dog owners sitting at one of the tables with umbrellas with their two hounds. A little later, I heard someone down there ask, "Are you with the Disney group?" A lodge manager was walking up to them. The head of the family said, "no", and the manager said, "those sandwiches are for them," and confiscated some items off their table, and walked away. Some people just seem to generate trouble wherever they go.

Posted by HKoenig at 04:27 AM | Permalink

This day started out with my going from geyser to geyser at dawn. First, I got out to Grand just in time to see a two burst eruption, the first with overcast, but that cleared just before the second burst started. During that eruption, Beehive's Indicator was announced,but I failed to hear it. I did hear a second announcement after it had been erupting for 10 minutes, but assumed it had just started. So while I thought I had time to maybe even get over the Geyser Hill, Beehive ended up starting as I was riding down past the trees below Castle. I did have time to go down to the overlook, and while walking out there was rewarded with a moonbow in the eruption spray, a sight I wouldn't have seen if I had been at the overlook at the start.

Just as I had arrived back at my bike an announcement of the start of an event at Fan & Mortar was made. I knew I would hate myself if I didn't go down and it did erupt, so north on the bike I went. It was a typical event, and when Fan's vents came back on, it quickly became apparent that the water levels weren't high enough. So back in for a nap I went.

There was a second event a few hours later, but it pretty much followed the same path as the earlier event. The only good thing that could be said about these two events is that they were far enough from the Grand eruptions that I didn't have to worry about interference. The midday Grand was a long interval, but did result in a nice two burst eruption.

The final event of the day started with a call of some sort of pause. The reporter wasn't quite sure if Gold had splashed, but in any event, the River vent was off and Main vent was splashing. Mortar's Bottom vent only splashed a bit during that pause, and then the vents reactivated. (Another opinion is that this was just a short, very poor cycle.) Only to have all the vents shut down again, and this time Bottom began an eruption to accompany vigorous Main vent activity.

This continued for quite a while, and when Fan's vents finally reactivated, they didn't take any time getting started, but almost immediately started erupting vigorously and continuously. This activity slowly, almost excruciatingly, built to the point where Fan's High vent was going to 15 feet, with the Gold vent not much smaller. The Angle vent seemed to be alternating between water and steam. Finally, we started to see steaming from Mortar's Frying Pan and the little vent on the back of Lower Mortar's "back armrest." The conditions were ideal, as most of the breeze was away from us, and the sun still high enough to provide perfect backlighting.

When the eruption finally began, it was one of the tallest and most powerful that I can remember. Most eruptions are dominated by one or the other geyser, but in this case both were huge. I wouldn't be surprised if someone had measured Upper Mortar's column at 70 feet. Fan's first surges went a good 10 yards beyond the walkway toward the Pit of Eternal Stench. The activity of the Mortar vents seemed to last a lot longer than it had in the previous eruption, and this time I remember actually seeing Fan's East vent during much of the first active phase.

The breeze did push some of the eruption into the walkway, and with the low sun, it was easy to get a huge, full circle rainbow. Outside the drizzle zone, a 240° double rainbow was obvious when standing north of Spiteful Geyser. Some of the activity of Fan in the subsequent phases was impressive too.

After than, it was time for another Grand eruption, and once again it was a long wait. There was overcast (some of it might have been smoke from Idaho fires), but it broke enough to illuminate the post-midnight two burst Grand eruption.

Posted by HKoenig at 12:03 PM | Permalink

Even after all these years of watching Grand, it is still capable of doing something new or different. This morning was one of those times.

As Grand's pool refills, and until about the time of first overflow, it is not unusual for Turban eruptions to have long durations, up to 9 or 10 minutes. But after that, anything over 6 minutes is unusual. This morning, several hours after the first overflow, I saw an eruption that lasted 7m21s. The next lasted 6m43s, and three of the next seven Turban eruptions were over 6 minutes long. The only short eruption came with a short Vent overflow, leading to a 5 Turban delay. So nothing really spectacular, but it does show that the system might be changing in other ways. Only keeping an eye on it these next few days and weeks will tell.

The evening eruption was back to more typical behavior, the only similarity was that both intervals were over 10 hours. The eruption itself took place in a dead calm after we'd had a moderately strong breeze all afternoon. As such, there was a beautiful base surge of steam rolling across the platform as the eruption started. It's been a long time since I'd experienced one of these, and forgotten that it also means that the bench areas around the runoff channels have a good chance of getting rained on. Which is exactly what happened. Not much, but enough to scatter the crowd to farther ends of the benches.

Mid afternoon Beehive finally erupted, its longest interval in quite a while thanks to Giantess' eruption.

That was also the time that the circus came to town. The head clown was here to see Old Faithful and visit the Inn, but also went down with his entourage to the overlook across from Beehive and watched the eruption. And unlike a visit when the RIngmaster showed up a few months ago, security wasn't tight and there was no change in access.

Today also had a couple of events down at Fan & Mortar, but nothing came of either one.

The night had an adventure of a different sort. When I got back to my cabin, there were a couple of dogs tied to a truck which were barking. Not only that, but it looked like they had food dishes, too. (Maybe just water). In any case, I realized it was a situation that needed complaining,and so I went to the front desk. They were busy, with only one clerk because there was a medical emergency; a 66 year old woman had fell and hit her head. I finally got to make my complaint and went back to the cabin. The barking continued, and so I called the rangers to make another complaint. The cabin next to the dogs was all lit up, with the windows wide open. I thought the medical might explain the seemingly abandoned cabin, but that turned out to be wrong. Coming back from the restroom just before midnight I heard a family of three walking over from the Inn. I waited at my cabin, and sure enough, it was them.. I will complain even more if they are still here tomorrow.

Posted by HKoenig at 08:58 AM | Permalink

This morning Grand erupted just as the sunshine was starting to clear the hillside. So the tops of the water jets were in the sun, at least when there was enough breeze to push the steam away.

During the eruption I also noticed a lot of steam downbasin in the vicinity of Giant. Was just a trick of the cold morning, because a later check showed no evidence of anything, and Grotto wasn't even erupting.

For the day's second Grand eruption, it took advantage of erupting before West Triplet instead of waiting for the next window after an eruption. And it was a nice, straightforward start with only 21 seconds from Vent overflow to Grand start.

The Sawmill Group continues to have some interesting activity. Before the Grand eruption I got to see an eruption of Uncertain Geyser from the start. After Grand, I noticed that Oval Spring was having a mid-level pool eruption while Sawmill Geyser was active. There were a couple of half-meter high boils before it dropped.I waited for a possible second attempt, but Sawmill quit and the water level immediately began to drop.

I had just finished getting dressed for an evening of waiting for a Grand-by-moonlight eruption when I heard the call that Beehive's Indicator had begun. Perfect timing, as I was able to go over and see the eruption, then head out to Grand. Beehive started just as the sun dropped behind some clouds that were moving in from behind the ridge.

Those clouds thickened as the evening progressed until we reached the point where the moon disappeared. But I'd checked the infrared satellite map, and it showed that the clouds were probably nothing more that the remnant of thunderstorms out of Idaho, and they'd clear soon. In the meantime, Penta had a steamphase eruption, which got the attention of some of the folks waiting for Grand.

A few minutes later, I remarked that that Penta eruption sure was loud, but the eruption was over. That's when the call came over the radios; Giantess was in eruption. That cleared the benches out. I decided to stay put because I wanted my moonlight Grand, and this might be my only chance. So I got to easily hear Giantess' steamphase roar from Grand.

Grand rewarded my patience shortly after midnight with one of the taller eruptions I've seen. The dead calm and relative coolness of the night air may have contributed to that. But Vent also seemed to reach a height I've rarely seen. (I say relative coolness as it was still warm enough that after Grand I was still being attacked by mosquitoes.)

Have noticed another way in which the new Visitor Cathedral is an eyesore. As the picture shows, the windows in that cupola standout in relation to all the other buildings and landscape in the vicinity. Wonder what the people who vehemently object to a simple cell tower have to say about this.

As this second picture shows, that building is huge. It makes the Inn look small, and I find that to be obnoxious, and I suspect that may have been the intention. Those silvery waves on the roof draw attention to that size, too.

Posted by HKoenig at 11:17 AM | Permalink

From Castle I could see that Rift was erupting, but there didn't seem to be any steam from Turban and Grand. But as I made the turn at Sawmill, I could see that Turban was erupting, and it might even sound like Vent was starting. So for a moment there was this panic that I was about to experience the previous night all over. But it turned out it was just a normal Turban eruption, and the pool was still full.

So while waiting for Rift to quit, did get to see Daisy and Oblong off in the distance, and a Castle start. I didn't go over for Castle, but watched it from Sawmill, which was also erupting. The moonlight gave a nice glow to the edges of the steamcloud, which was vertical at first, then sheered off to the north. Castle had several attempts at stopping, but eventually it did go into a steam phase. Not sure if there had been a minor before I came out, as the interval was nearly 17 hours without one.

Unlike previous nights, this time Grand erupted before the moon set. It was nice and low, giving us some nice moonbows. At the start of the second burst, there was even a hint of color, a touch of red and yellow.

That second burst ended just 9 minutes into the eruption, so anticipation of a third burst was high. Except nothing happened. Vent and Turban never changed their behavior, and after 8 minutes, there was no sign of afterplay. Since the pause between the bursts was 49 seconds, that means there was barely 8 minutes of water in this eruption.

Some of the geyser groupies need to understand the prohibition against sleeping in the basin. You really can't claim to be "waiting for the geyser" while lying down next to West Triplet, with a pillow, when all of the geysers in the area have already finished their eruptions.

The Beehive eruption in the morning showed one of those things that can be so frustrating about being around here. I woke up at about 08:00. I'd turned off the radio because I knew it would wake me up, and sleep was more important. So when I woke up and turned it on, the first thing I'm greeted with is a series of warbles and tones and assorted noise. I made the right decision there. So I make a quick trick to the restrooms, leaving the radio behind. After I return, I start putting away all the stuff, like blankets, long underwear and jackets that had seen use last night. Suddenly there's a call, asking how long Beehive's Indicator has been erupting. Fortunately, it's only been a few minutes, but I had no idea. And based on this past week's experience, not one of those people on Geyser Hill would make a further announcement. The only thing that didn't surprise me is that during that time I didn't hear one "switch to 5" announcement.

Anyhow, the Beehive eruption was quite nice, with full double rainbows and only the occasional spray hitting the walkway. It's also nice that Beehive is finally looking like it's going to shift out of the mode it's been for the past week and erupt at other times of the day. I tired to take a video with my new phone's video recorder, but discovered that I still need to learn how it works, as all I took were still photos at the start and end. Oh, well, try again later.

Later in the day Grand had a fairly normal one burst eruption. At least this time it was long enough that we didn't feel cheated out of a burst.

With nothing much to do after Grand, and it being over 5 hours since the last Oblong eruption, decided to head down there and see it up close. It started as I passed Chromatic, so decide that was a good place to see it, since had never been at that spot before.

Then went on over to check out Splendid and Daisy again. Wanted to see what Splendid was doing before and after Daisy. Before it was just a quiet, full pool. The runoff channel to the north was a bit wet, but it seemed that it was drying faster than new water was coming down. The area between Splendid and Comet appeared dry.

After Daisy, during the refill both Splendid's Main Vent and the Side Boiler were active. Usually boiling would start in Main and then shift to the Side Boiler, which could then boil well over a meter high at times. Later on the Side Boiler would initiate its own activity, which could be even higher. By about 20 minutes after Daisy, the area between Splendid and Comet was wet, but it didn't seem like there would be enough to wet the flat, orange area north of Splendid which seemed even drier than before

Beehive still hadn't erupted by the time it was time to go out to Grand. When I got out to the Sawmill Group I discovered that the water levels were high, and Tardy was erupting. Penta looked promising, but not encouraging. The bottom vents were well below overflow, but periodically the top vent would rise up and spit like it was going to start erupting. I also saw a couple of Oval Spring's palpitating eruptions, one that actually included some boiling. All that continued for almost an hour, and then shortly after Beehive, Sawmill finally found the means to start erupting.

At Grand the coyote made an appearance, this time skirting northward along the base of the slope until it got down to the boardwalk. Then the moon rose and the sun set, and we had a Vent overflow delay. This was one of the rare times when the consensus was that the delay was desired. The lighting then was poor, and would only improve as the moon rose and the sky darkened. As it was, we got the eruption three Turban eruptions later. It was a strange start, in that the interval was less than 17 minutes, and the preceding Turban duration was only about three-and-a-half minutes. Usually Grand would have gone on the next Turban. But as it was, the lighting was nice, and more than we could have expected.

Also today was an eruption of North Goggles Geyser over by Lion Geyser. I didn't see it, but a number of people did from various vantage points. The consensus is that it lasted at least three minutes and reached as much as 6 meters high. So it would qualify on the smaller end of a major eruption.

Squirrels are nothing more than rats that live in trees and don't shave their tails. Chasing the vermin out of a cabin with an open door is normal, and I've had to do it several times already. The other day I went into my cabin for a nap and forgot to close the back door during that time. This morning I discovered that one of the [expletives deleted] had somehow found its way inside the truck, found the only large plastic box back there whose lid I hadn't closed securely, and then got down into the bottom of that box in a crack between a second, smaller box and the side and gnawed its way into a couple of peanut M&Ms packages at the bottom.Seems like an awful lot of work for very little reward.

Posted by HKoenig at 07:51 AM | Permalink

Unlike yesterday, today things beyond the dull happened.

I had set the alarm for midnight for the middle of the night eruption. After getting three hours sleep, I got out to Castle by 00:15, at which point I realized that the steam from the Grand area didn't quite look right, and I knew that look. By the time I got to Churn, I was certain that what I was seeing was post-eruption Turban and Vent. That was the sound of Vent I was hearing. I got close enough to light up an empty crater and returned to my cabin to get some more sleep.

Not knowing the previous Grand time, i just assumed midnight and so decided I should get up at 06:00. So I was slowly getting everything organized, like putting away the clothes and jackets and blankets I had carried out six hours earlier, when the call came that F&M were having an "event." Which was excellent timing. I could go down there until the even ended and then go to Grand. The odds of two less than 7 hour intervals made that an easy decision.

So I got down for the later portion of an hour long eruption of Bottom Vent. Once Bottom finally turned off, and Fan's vent started back on, it became apparent that the water levels were high enough. And they stayed high even when the activity in the vents paused. From my vantage point north of Spiteful, eventually we got a steady but low eruption of both High and Gold. Nothing all that unusual, the kind of activity that could easy turn into steam.

At that point Upper Mortar suddenly started to splash heavily, and Mortar's frying pan began to steam heavily. Another surge from Mortar and it was erupting to at least 10 meters/30 feet. That activity seemed to last for 15 to 20 seconds (I didn't take times) and then quit. So at least we got to see an Upper Mortar minor. Then moments later water appeared jetting from Fan's Main and East vents and the eruption was on.

The conditions were perfect, as the photos show. It's perhaps the first eruption of F&M that I've seen that not only didn't you need an umbrella or raincoat, but except for the initial surges from Main vent, you couldn't get wet even if you wanted to. Neither did you have to constantly shift positions due to the shifting winds. The sun was high enough to give a full semi-circle rainbow, and what little breeze there might have been always blew the steam away from us.

After a few minutes the Mortar vents turned to steam, and the majority of the activity in Fan seemed to be concentrated in the Angle and Main vents. The East vent was quiet for the remained of the first burst. The second burst saw the re-emergence of the East Vent, which joined the Main vent in a couple of nice sized surges as big as any in the first burst.

So following that, it was time to head to Grand, which was nice enough to have not yet erupted. Only waited for two Turban eruptions when we got Turban start and Vent overflow on a short Turban interval. Turban sounded nice at first, then seemed to quiet down, so we prepared ourselves for some sort of delay. But then Turban's activity picked back up, and Grand's pool began to rise. As with F&M, the lighting and breeze for this was perfect, making it easy to watch what was happening. It took two minutes before Grand finally joined in.

The end of the second burst came only about 10 minutes into the eruption, which meant we had a chance for a third. The pool filled and sloshed, but eventually drained. If the vigorous Turban and Vent activity had continued, we would've had to watch for an afterburst, but that activity died out.

In the afternoon, once again I had Beehive erupt while I was at Grand. Getting to be a normal occurrence every afternoon. As the West Triplet window was closing, Grand had the first heavy, "delay overflow" since I've been here. Was typical of this sort of behavior: Grand's pool filled early, and looked good, with even some small waves, until about 20 minutes at which point it slowly began to drop. One difference was that the Turban duration was long, when often in these cases it's a short duration.

Perhaps because of this long duration, we didn't get the usual short Turban interval with no overflow, but something that looked more like the second interval after a delay. The period from the start of Turban to the start of Grand was a bit long, almost a minute. The pause between bursts was also a bit long, a minute, so not surprised that Turban and Vent quit without any attempt at a third burst.

Posted by HKoenig at 08:55 AM | Permalink

Nothing much to report. One of those dull days where Grand had a couple of one burst eruptions and Beehive erupted during one of those Grand waits. So spent a lot of the day on computer work and even catching up on some sleep.

Posted by HKoenig at 10:00 AM | Permalink

If Grand is going to have one burst eruptions, at least the middle of the night eruption showed how to do it. It lasted 12m09s, and other than one slight pause around the 10 minute mark, never had any of those slowdowns that make you think it might be stopping. This after it took Grand 1m44s from the start of Turban to finally get going.

The morning itself started out with a few clouds which about an hour later pretty much covered the entire sky. And it only got worse as the wait for Grand got longer. Fortunately, it never actually rained, although putting on the rain gear helped cut down the wind. Once again Rift had erupted earlier, and Grand showed no inclination to get into any sort of pattern which would give an indication of how long it would be. A West Triplet eruption even came and went.

The eruption, when it did come, was another nondescript one burst whose sole interesting feature was that it took a minute from the start of Turban (and Vent overflow) until Grand joined in.

The nasty sky persisted, but the sun finally started breaking through the clouds just before the afternoon eruption of Beehive. Since I've been here, that was my first good, close up view of Beehive. All of the other eruptions seem to always be during the wait for Grand or in the middle of the night.

The wildlife were out for the evening Grand. First, it was a coyote wandering southward on the rocks. Then a little later a deer appeared at the base of the slope to the north of Turban. It took its time grazing there, then moseyed up the hillside.

Grand itself once again delayed itself until two hours had elapsed since the last West Triplet. On the third Turban following what appeared to be a Turban eruption with Vent visible, there was never any overflow audible. Turban started out slow, but within 30 seconds had built to that heavy bursting stage that says that an eruption is imminent. But it took two and a half minutes before Grand finally started.

But what made the eruption special is that when Grand quit at 8m44s, that ended the eruption. It was possibly the shortest one burst eruption I've seen. (I'd have to check my records to be sure, and they aren't here.)

Posted by HKoenig at 08:40 AM | Permalink

I tried to get some sleep before going out to Grand at midnight, but my neighbors seemed to have brought with them boulders which they insisted on rolling around. Then, once it seemed that I was finally sleeping, they had some sort of medical emergency, which strangely enough, resulted in them being quieter than they had been before. But the rumbling of the ambulance engine wasn't going to let me get back to sleep, so I decided to head out to Grand a half hour before I'd intended.

Which wasn't so bad, as the moon was still up and low, which made for some nice lighting, with long shadows and even a moonbow in the steam over Crested Pool. Sawmill's eruption was nicely backlit, too. Grand itself behaved the same way the night before, erupting on the first Turban eruption after the moon had set. Fortunately, the soon the moon will be up the entire night, and I'll finally be able to see the eruption instead of just hearing it.

In the morning, there was a slight amount of frost on the boardwalks still in the shadows. Grand continued the shorter intervals, and again I only waited for one Turban interval. Unlike yesterday morning, there was a slight breeze which made the activity visible, even without backlighting. It was quite nice seeing several successive spikes appear out of the steam cloud of the second burst.

The hopes of a four Grand day ended with the 9h43m interval leading up to the day's third eruption. Rift had erupted early in the afternoon, but Grand just got into the mode where each interval was a little shorter, and you just have to wait until you get a really short one (less than 17 minutes) before you even have a chance of an eruption.

But the eruption itself was a bit different. Only one burst, but Grand did refill and at least look like it was making an attempt at a second burst. Then, when the vent drained, Turban and Vent acted like they were going to quit. But for about a minute there were a series of small blips not much bigger than the ones you get at the end of a solo Turban eruption. Then quite suddenly Turban was fill and splashing as vigorously as it can. I hoped this might signal an afterburst, but it was nearly nine minutes before Grand started splashing.

Posted by HKoenig at 07:23 AM | Permalink

So this morning started with the news that no one went out to Fan & Mortar until it had been daylight for several hours. And then proceeded to walk up on the eruption. That took care of my intention to spend any free time down there today.

But I still figured that I would be able to eat breakfast at Grand. I had just dropped the pack after having dried off a section of bench, and was facing away when I hear Turban start. Followed immediately by the sound of Grand starting. It was calm, so it was a steam two burst eruption. The steam was so thick that the sun wasn't visible when trying for a backlit view.

The afternoon Grand eruption was nothing unusual and nothing special. A dull, typical one burst eruption.

Also today Castle had two minors which resulted in an interval between major eruptions that was almost exactly what the interval would have been if the first minor eruption had been a major eruption.

Posted by HKoenig at 08:38 AM | Permalink

I decided I'd rather try for a good night's sleep than try to get up for Grand. But I still woke up around 04:00, which would've been fairly early in the window. I still decided I'd rather try to snooze some more, so I was able to confirm what I'd half-expected: I should've gone out because I'd have seen the 05:16 eruption.

With Beehive erupting shortly thereafter, there wasn't much going on. So I spent the morning down basin just seeing things. Caught a couple of Daisy eruptions, and even a Riverside.

It's been awhile since I paid attention to Link minors, but the one I saw today struck me as having larger boils than I remember. It built up to one at least a meter tall and then the boiling (but not the overflow) seemed to completely stop. The overflow continued, but for the next ten minutes I didn't seen anything like that big boil.

Giant may have shown slight signs of progress back in May, but today it looked about as bad as I remember it back in the 1980s. All that was missing is the grass growing on the platform.

I also noticed that Daisy's runoff channels seems to have shifted. No longer does it appear water flows from an eruption into the pools around Splendid. The runoff to the southwest is much wider, and has invaded an area of trees next to the trail. One advantage to not having Daisy runoff at Splendid is that should Splendid ever start showing signs of life, that will be reflected in large pools around it and even the rejuvenation of its runoff channels.

Made the mistake of going out to Grand too soon. Hearing a report of West Triplet at about the 5.5 hour mark in Grand's interval, I thought that it might have a chance to go on the next West Triplet eruption and have a short interval. As it turned out, it did go on the next West Triplet opportunity, except that was a three hour West Triplet interval, and Rift had already started.

The eruption itself was a nice change from the usual one burst. After the end of the second burst, several times Turban looked like it had quit, only to become active again. Then the activity really picked up, and that meant that an afterburst needed to be considered. As it was, there hadn't been any play by 10 minutes. Didn't want to stay any longer because of incoming black clouds.

Beehive's Indicator started during Grand, and today we had a Beehive interval shorter than the coincident Grand interval. Which gives some idea of the frequency (or lack thereof) of the two geysers.

The middle of the night Grand was a bit hard to see, since the moon had just disappeared behind the ridge since the previous Turban start. But it was a relatively short interval (8h30m) and I did get to see the Castle minor eruption and an Oblong while waiting.

Posted by HKoenig at 05:55 AM | Permalink

Since I was coming in the South Entrance anyhow, and I had already been told the last Grand and Beehive times I decided that I should at least stop by and see if King Geyser was still active and at least make an attempt to see it. That was my first visit to West Thumb in years, and during the 45 minutes I was there all I saw was periodic boiling. Maybe I'll stop again on the way out.

Heading out to Grand I received a pleasant surprise. When I walked up on Tilt, it was pulsating with occasional bubbles coming up from both vents. It's been years since I've seen an eruption from the start. Since I had plenty of time, I waited there a bit, only to have the pulsations get heavier, with increased overflow, along with more bubbling. Finally, the western/right vent started to erupt. The total duration of the eruption was 3m24s, and there were occasional droplets well above my head. So from what I remember, this was a fairly typical and normal eruption.

At Grand, got a Vent overflow delay, with Grand erupting 4 Turban intervals later. The eruption itself came near the end of the West Triplet window, about two hours after the start of West Triplet. The eruption itself was an ordinary short one burst. (You can tell it was short because Vent and Turban didn't pause.)

Posted by HKoenig at 06:26 AM | Permalink