Geyser Notes

It seemed like a good idea to come out to Grand at the six hour mark. So far this weekend, except for the single long interval of over nine hours, I’d yet to have to wait more than one Turban eruption interval, and in most cases, I didn’t see Turban erupt at all. The night was more overcast than had been expected, so not quite as cold as expected, either. But it was also just a bit breezy, which compensated for that. On the walk out, the coyotes were set off by someone over by Liberty Pool.

West Triplet was in eruption when arrived, and followed shortly by Rift. The Turban activity was strange. Unlike the previous long wait, this time all the Turban durations were short, less than four minutes. The intervals were also short, between 16 and 18 minutes. Every other eruption of Turban was preceded by Grand overflow, while the others had none. So it appeared that this was a variation on the waits where Turban alternates between long and short eruption duration.

The hope was that Grand could go with Rift, but that didn’t happen. Rift ended and the pattern continued. At one point, the power in the Old Faithful area went out, and so we got to experience real darkness out at Grand, at least until the emergency generators kicked in. It was also around that time that we heard an elk bugleing somewhere in the direction of Daisy.

After waiting two hours, finally decided after one of the heavy overflow Turban eruptions that had had enough, and time to go in. The reasoning was that it was going to be at least two more intervals, forty minutes, before Grand would erupt. Needed to get some sleep. That it sprinkled a bit as walked away reinforced that this was the right decision to make.

Turns out the decision was even better. The electronic monitor showed that Grand erupted about eighty minutes after we’d left. In other words, it had two cycles before it erupted on an interval close to 9-1/2 hours long.

So was able to leisurely pack up for the return trip home, and then go out to Grand one last time. The day was sunny, but cold and windy. It was comfortable sitting in the sun, but as soon as a cloud (and there were many) covered the sun, you could feel the coolness. But Grand did revert to short intervals, and with the sun out, the eruption was quite nice. It was the only eruption I saw during the weekend that was in sunlight, and not in the dark, or in the rain, or while I was in the cabin.

Also of interest is that Beehive did not erupt overnight. It wasn’t seen the night before, so it wasn’t known how long the interval was at that point, but definitely well over 24 hours.