Geyser Notes

After yesterday’s showers, I’d expected the night to be a bit warmer, but there were enough patches of clear sky that it had cooled down enough that fog was starting to develop. Having Rift and West Triplet to pump moisture into the local air wasn’t helping, either.

It appears that for now, Rift activity needs to be factored into Grand’s. Rift’s intervals have gotten much shorter, and in every case I can remember, it has resulted in about a two hour delay before Grand even tries to erupt. This night was no exception. as we arrived to find it in eruption. It was about two hours from the end of Rift until Grand erupted, including a couple of short-long cycles in Turban intervals at the end.

Following the one burst eruption, Castle started its own eruption. Then we were headed back to the cabin when surprised to hear Penta erupting. Based on the width and appearance of the runoff channel, the eruption had started well before Grand. But in the foggy night, we just hadn’t heard it.

While heading out for the next eruption of Grand, were surpassed to see that Artemisia was erupting. The interval was almost exactly 24 hours. If one were superstitious, that person would heard out there tomorrow morning shortly before the same time.

West Triplet started shortly after arrival, and the expected steam from Rift began to appear. The steam increased as West Triplet quit. But instead of a full eruption, Rift only sputtered for about 6 minutes. It didn’t even put out enough water to reach the walkway. But it did seem to have the same effect as a normal length eruption.

Took advantage of the fact that there was little to do, and that Oblong hadn’t been seen all morning to wait down there. First wait there in years. Rewarded with a nice big eruption, but it also reminded me why I’m not big on either it or Fountain. Those big, crashing surf like swells are nice, but in small doses.

But on the way back, we got to see Rift in eruption, for about a 3-1/2 hours interval.

In the evening, got a nice one burst eruption of Grand, with West Triplet starting right after. Didn’t stick around to see if it resulted in a fourth Rift eruption of the day.

Then, to finish the day, well after sunset, got the call that Beehive’s Indicator was in eruption. Mis-interpreted it as being the start, so was in the trees between the cabin and the bridge when the eruption began about 6 minutes later. Got over to a place where it could be seen, and was quite nice. It was rapidly getting dark, but there was no wind and the water column was rising straight up.