Observations for 29 June 2013
Northwest of Grand, I was surprised how dry the area was. Economic Geyser is well below overflow. I think the only feature in the are in overflow is East Economic. If this is an indication of ground water levels, it means things are pretty dry, at least in that area.
The wait for Grand was short and pleasant. With no wind, and the sun out, the two burst eruption was nicely backlit. The reflection of the sunlight made the water pouring out of Vent just before the eruption easily visible despite the steaminess coming from Grand.
Decided to kill some time down basin. Miscalculated, so missed a Daisy eruption, but then saw a Riverside without even trying. Still needing to kill more time, went over to the shade at Fan & Mortar, intending to leave when the shade disappeared. While there, I noticed that it looked like there was a trickle of water coming down the North Chain Lake runoff channel. Also some evidence that the overflow may have been stronger at some point. It also looked like Link wasn't having heavy overflows, although it was in overflow at the time.
Chain Lakes Group
In contrast, Bottomless Pit, which I remember as a black, ugly hole, is an opalescent blue, as it Middle Chain Lake. Clasp Geyser, the pool north of North Chain Lake is also a bright, clear blue. Most of the runoff you see from that group seems to come from it and the swamp between the Chain Lakes and hillside. (The swamp, of course, fed by Square Spring.
While waiting in the truck for the time to head back out to Grand, I got to experience my first thunderstorm of the season. The morning had been dead calm, which made for a nice Beehive, but it was also warm and humid enough that it didn't look all that tall. It was obvious that at some point we were going to get wet, because all the time the clouds were building.
Suddenly the the flat between the parking lot and Geyser Hill turned a misty sort of gray, and the downpour started. The wind picked up considerably, too, so much that I could leave the window on the other side open and not have any water come in.
A couple of more such showers followed, including one that had a bit of hail in it. Then it was time for Grand. I waited for a break, and it turned out the break was actually the end of that series. Grand was in the midst of a two-Turban delay, and conveniently erupted before the next shower came in. It, however, wasn't much, although I finally did give in and get out the raincoat.
After Grand, West Triplet tried and failed to erupt several times. One attempt even splashed (although I didn't see it myself), so technically, West Triplet erupted.
Later came the report that the Fountain eruption at 16:38 had lasted 38 minutes. This meant that there was a decent chance that Morning might try to erupt at the next opportunity. Which would be after midnight. Decisions, decisions. Of course, if I headed out to Grand at 21:00 for the next eruption, there was an excellent chance of it going before midnight. Which meant I could, if I wanted, go out there. I'd already be dressed for nighttime. The only real question is if the weather would cooperate. Because at 18:00, a series of thunderstorms started coming though, and the weather prediction sites didn't show a whole lot of improvement in the short term.
But things cleared up by sunset when it was time to go out to Grand. But Grand had one of those long intervals for no apparent reason, so the eruption waited until the last possible Turban opportunity before midnight. During that time, the sky, instead of clearing up, got more cloudy instead.