Geyser Notes

The night time Grand turned into an exercise in frustration as it also turned into the dawn Grand. When you get an eruption of West Triplet resulting in Rift and not Grand at the 10 hour mark, you know it's going to get even longer. There was also considerable frost on the walkway, indicating that this night was even colder than the previous. And it all lead up to another one burst eruption. As I was walking away, I did notice that not only was Bulger having a major eruption, but that there was a patch of steam rising above the Hole. So went back from Sawmill and by dawn-light, watched the eruption.

One thing I didn't see was Beehive. I probably missed it in all the noise and steam coming from West Triplet and Rift and even Sawmill. I know that I did hear Old Faithful at least once during the night. Also knew for certain that Fan & Mortar hadn't erupted during my wait. So unless it went before midnight, it would be the center of attraction for the rest of the day.

Around noontime I figured the best place to wait for Fan & Mortar was at Grand. Even though a bit early, could actually see something, and maybe Grand would cooperate for once. As it turned out, got out to Grand in time to see West Triplet in eruption. About the same time, the call from Jim Scheirer that an event was possibly starting (splashing in Main Vent) went out. I figured I could wait for the Turban eruption after West Triplet ended, as that would be the end of the early window. Then I could head down to F&M, and if there wasn't an eruption, probably miss only a single Turban eruption at a time when it Grand wasn't going to erupt anyhow.

As it was, this wasn't one of those usual events that piddle around and make you wonder why you are down there. There was a River pause that lasted less than 20 minutes, little Bottom Vent activity and when vents restarted, they didn't have that "is it good enough" look. During that time, I'd left, gotten my bike and stopped along the trail at a spot where Turban and Grand are easily visible. Once I got that Turban time, I went on down the trail.

I arrived to extremely good looking activity from Fan. Best I'd seen this trip. I barely had time to get ready, getting on my rain gear, when the eruption started. I wanted to try making a video, but I'd ran out of time, and the wind was making things too wet for me to want to expose my phone to it. The wind was fairly steadily blowing toward the bridge, so north of Spiteful was fairly safe.

Afterwards it was back to Grand, where only had to wait one Turban interval before a nice two burst eruption. So unlike the last few days, there wasn't an interminable wait in a huge crowd.

Later in the afternoon got over to Geyser Hill for Beehive, and from there could see that Castle was in late-to-heavy steam. The wind was still fairly strong, and in the same direction, but it didn't vary so if you got wet, it was because you wanted to get wet.

The next Grand eruption was going to be after sunset, especially when I got out there and saw Rift erupting. It simply became a matter of waiting the next few hours out. The one burst eruption was nicely lit by a rising gibbous moon, helped by having the breeze blow the steam to the northwest.