Observations for 28 July 2014
After last night’s disappointment, and because of the lack of sleep from the long interval in the morning, made the decision to skip the next Grand eruption and get some sleep. Even if I had gone out to Grand, based on when it erupted and my usual behavior, I would not have seen the Fan & Mortar eruption that occurred an hour later.
Woke up in the morning to a different sky. While the previous days had been cold, dry and sunny, this morning was just cool, because it was overcast. The overcast did clear after a while, but later in the day built into clouds which occasionally would emit water droplets.
When finally did get up and about, it was to go over to Geyser Hill. It was over 19 hours since the previous Beehive eruption, and there was nothing better to do. As it turned out, Beehive wasn’t much interested in erupting either. Finally gave up and returned to the cabin to get some things done. The eruption finally took place on a 22 hour interval, but with nice conditions that allowed most of the walkway to remain dry.
By the time I had returned to the cabin from Beehive, it was time to head to Grand. The wait started out hot and humid with a bit of a breeze. By the time the nearly ten hour interval was over, it was cooler and overcast. During the wait we were treated to several short Turban durations, in which Grand never really looked good. Each of those cases It finally erupted on Turban after such an eruption, which does not normally fit the pattern of alternating short and long (and good and bad) eruptions. At least the eruption had two bursts.
After that, there wasn’t much to do, and the weather discouraged any playing around or little side trips. The threatened rain never appeared, but we did get some heavy wind gusts accompanied by sprinkles.
By the evening, the weather the chance of precipitation was certain, but it was warm and there was little to no wind. I got out to Grand in time for an eruption of West Triplet, which lead into an eruption of Rift. A Rift interval of just over 9-1/2 hours. Not what I wanted to see. Fortunately, it was a short eruption of Rift, only about 40 minutes. Shortly after Rift had quit, Turban had a short, vigorous eruption. This time, unlike some recent waits, Grand had a one burst eruption two Turban intervals later.
During the wait for Grand, did get to witness a bit of a miracle. The broken bench was replaced. But as always with the NPS, it seems, when you want to compliment them, there’s always a disclaimer. This time, while they may have replace the bench and removed the orange cones in a timely manner, they didn’t do a good job of cleaning up. That evening there were still piles of rust and plastic shavings under the bench next to the supports.