Geyser Notes

The full moon had a slight yellowish cast as I went out at midnight. Probably from fires in Montana, but it was still bright out. Got a West Triplet start during the first Turban interval I was there, and Rift followed on right on schedule. That's when things got fun.

I was listening for the end of a Turban eruption, which can be a bit tricky when you've got all the noisemakers active-- Percolator, West Triplet, Rift and even Sawmill off in the distance. So I was surprised to hear a roaring off to the north. It didn't sound like Oblong, and sure enough, there was a steam plume to the right of the Giant complex-- Fan & Mortar were finally erupting. So I made my one radio report of the trip, and even got a response from someone.

Watched (and listened) to the activity down there for a while, then watched the steam build up at Grand before and after the next Turban start. Finally got a beautiful moonlit eruption of Grand, whose only drawback was that it was a one burst that lasted over eleven minutes. There weren't any moonbows like the previous night's eruption because the moon was too high in the sky.

In the morning I was practically alone at Grand for an 08:03 eruption because the mass was out at Fountain waiting for, as it turned out, Fountain. A thin layer of ice had formed on the walkways and benches, making the former slippery and the latter wet after you sat down.

This was a two burst eruption nicely backlit by the morning sun after a short wait in which West Triplet also started.

In the afternoon the interesting activity wasn't at the Grand Group. Upon arriving, Oblong erupted. It was noted by several that the bursts as seen from Grand seemed impressively large, but otherwise it was a normal eruption. Then, forty minutes later, I looked up from the book I was reading and saw the steam there building, and then a surge of water. After a couple of decades, Oblong was having empty crater eruptions again. If I hadn't seen the earlier eruption, or known about it, I would not have thought this one was any different from any other Oblong. The height and duration and behavior, as far as I could tell, was no different from any other Oblong I've seen from there.

Then we got an eruption of Penta. When I'd gone out to Grand an hour earlier, the group looked good but not great with regards to Penta. So was a bit surprised as I thought the Sawmill Group would be draining by then. Others who had been watching said that the group drop had stalled out, and it appears that that gave Penta the time or the opportunity to build up the energy to erupt. The eruption itself lasted about an hour, which is a bit shorter than the others I've seen this year.

Grand itself decided that midday was a good time for a nearly nine hour interval, and to reward everyone who waited with a single burst eruption.

Later,while killing time in my cabin, I heard over the radio that Beehive was erupting.I walked over to in front of the Lodge to catch a few minutes of the activity. This was the second Beehive in as many days.

So in a less than 24 hours period, not quite coinciding with yesterday, there were four Grand eruptions, two Morning eruptions (one with Fountain), a Beehive eruption and a Fan & Mortar eruption. For this year, that's a great day, although for most people, the only thing they saw of it was the first Morning eruption.