Observations for 03 August 2018
Updated: 2018 Aug 08: Uploaded video at Giant Eruption 2018 Aug 03.
After another hot period around midnight, at dawn it was again time to head back out to the Bijou Cage. There were frequent pauses lasting about a minute every 12 to 15 minutes until about a half hour after Grotto started. Then we got another moderately strong hot period, but once again, there wasn't much surging after the restart. Shortly after, we had another Rocket major eruption.
About seven hours later we had a similiar buildup, but this time the hot period consisted of just Feather and Feather's Satellite. At three minutes in duration, this was one step above the solo Feather hot periods. But it seemed to be a good sign, because the past few days we'd have gotten one of the medium strength hot periods at this point.
A few hours later, shortly before time to head back out, it was really disappointing to hear on the radio that Fan & Mortar were in eruption. Annoying because was lounging around the cabin waiting to head out to Giant. Didn't want to go too early, as was going with full nighttime gear, which would be bulky, heavy and warm.
Again came out to an eruption of Rocket followed by a series of short, half-minute long pauses every 12 to 15 minutes or so. After two hours of this, and six hours after the previous hot period, we finally got a longer pause.
This hot period started out slow, but as it built, it just seemed stronger than all the others had been seeing the past week. Mastiff's surging was taller and wider. There wasn't a restart, and when Giant started surging, the water level seemed higher.
The wind, so annoying during the day, was now perfect. It moved all the steam out of view, yet didn't seem to limit the height of Giant's water column. I wasn't able to measure the height, but it seemed much higher than the previous, day-time eruption I saw a week ago.
The use of two high-power flashlights made the eruption easily visible. And because it was at night, it was easy to move around and enjoy the eruption both close up and well back on the walkway. The light reflected from the water column was illuminating the ground as far back as the bike trail. It also attracted a family who saw the light show and joined the six of us on the platform for that latter half of the eruption.
Grotto finally started erupting right after Giant ended.
This morning I saw something new and different. An RV that had parked in the red "no parking" zone by the Lodge, and in front of a hydrant, was being ticketed.