Geyser Notes

Went out for the dawn eruption. From Sawmill I saw the start of a one burst eruption that lasted a little over 10 minutes. Did get to see West Triplet start. It was a beautiful morning, so instead of heading back in for more sleep, went down basin to look around. Daisy was right in the middle of an interval, and Grotto was supposedly recovering from a marathon eruption the day before. At Fan & Mortar, things looked pretty dull, too.

After some rest and breakfast at the Snowlodge buffet, headed back out to Grand. As the night before, it was a series of nondescript Turban intervals which finally ended when Turban had a short eruption duration. But this time the pool refilled nicely and quickly, and so Grand erupted on the next Turban opportunity. I also got to see my second (and probably last) two burst eruption of the trip.

After Grand, observed a water column much higher than the trees erupting to the right from Grotto. It was Grotto Fountain, post-marathon, and this had to be one of the more impressive eruptions I've seen in the last few years. It also seemed to maintain that height for quite a while and even after Grotto finally started.

Then it was off to Aurum, where the previous eruption had been about four hours earlier. When the wind was right, the nearby carcasses added a certain aroma to the wait. Spent better part of an hour waiting when heard the announcement that Beehive's Indicator was starting. Expected that our leaving the area would be enough to finally trigger an Aurum eruption, but never saw it during the Beehive wait.

At Beehive itself the wind cooperated enough that I was able to stand right at the end of the spray and not have to move. I could look up and see water droplets descending for a couple of seconds and then miss me by a few feet. Afterwards, it was back to Aurum, which obviously had not erupted while everyone was a Beehive.

I waited there for about 15 minutes until I heard an announcement that Penta was in eruption. Decided that even though I had invested quite a bit of time in Aurum, it was also obvious that it was not on the regular 4 to 5 hour interval that seemed to characterize many recent early seasons. Even though I didn't know when Penta had started, this might be my only chance to see it this year. So I left and then spent over half an hour enjoying Penta from several angles. It turned out to be one of those interminable eruptions, as I was told it was still going by other who abandoned Aurum after I'd already left Penta.

As the afternoon and evening progressed, the sky became increasingly cloudy and threatening. By the time to head back to Grand came around, there was a large thunderstorm off to the Northwest. The thunder from all the lightning was nearly continuous at times, but far enough away that it didn't appear too threatening. As we waited for Grand, we could see another such storm building behind it, but again not headed for us.

Turban followed the pattern it had shown during previous waits, so by the time it finally had the different eruption duration and fill behaviors, we had donned our rain gear and were ready for the worst. Fortunately, we didn't get wet. It wasn't until safely back in the Lodge cabin area that the sky opened up and it poured. Since I wasn't out in it, I didn't much care, although the huge puddles a bit later did make navigating to the bathroom a challenge.