Month: June 2007

So to catch up on sleep, I decide to skip the overnight Grand. I figure a 13 hour double interval is more than enough time, and besides, in the morning, it gives me time to get a Lower Ham's breakfast before the inevitable three hour wait. So I'm sitting at the counter, and my order is about to arrive, and I hear that the monitor shows that Grand has an interval just a bit over 6 hours. Which means right now I'm pushing 7, which is just too long for comfort.

Fortunately, Grand cooperated and let me finish my breakfast and get out there. We had a less than eight minute first burst, but yet another long second burst, but this one was so weak that calling the activity "Big Sawmill" was to exaggerate. More like "Big Tardy".

The afternoon Grand also had a long second burst. It's starting to be a trend, and a good one. While they used to be considered bad, because all that power and activity could have been used in a third or fourth burst, these seem to be acting as an alternative to a single burst eruption.

Penta Steam Phase

14 Jun 2007

In the Sawmill Group a deep drain resulting in several Penta steam phase eruptions, one so wet it resembled a true, major eruption. This was accompanied by bursting from Oval up to 5 ft above the rim, and a clogged 6th Vent trying to join in on the fun.

Paul Strasser has pointed out that Mastiff function eruptions seem to be associated with Grotto marathons, while Giant only starts are during that time from the first pos-marathon Grotto until the next marathon. The four eruptions I've seen this trip do follow that pattern. (And like all geysers, there are known exceptions to the pattern.) But this is something to keep in mind while watching hot periods in the prime Giant window. If Mastiff is not surging in the post-marathon ones, or Mastiff is surging heavily between marathons, that might be a sign you aren't going to see an eruption. This bit of Guru Geyser Gazing is sure to be proved wrong in a few days. Then again, this is probably well known.

And nothing to do with geysers

That railing and concrete walkway in front of the Lodge may have been there for years, but it's new to me. I've found that navigating it on a bike can be a bit tricky when the crowds gather to see Old Faithful. The gravel is at least a half inch below the concrete, and it slopes downward, toward the building. I've come close to several spill thanks to inattentive tourons .

So today I had my first dive. All my own fault, No one anywhere in sight, not even a Nelson Muntz to laugh at my misfortune. I just mis-navigated the turn onto it from the cabin area and went off the edge and dropped to the side. Would have been fine, just a little scraped up, except that railing is solid, and got in the way of my chest. Which still hurts. I may have to sue Xanterra and the NPS for pain and mental anguish from this.

After the morning, you really expect there to be a lot here? Once daylight arrived, it was a dull day, useful to catch up on things like eating and sleeping and getting cleaned up.

Other Geyser Times

13 Jun 2007

• Grotto 15:07
• Rift 17:36ie

And nothing to do with geysers

The maintenance crews were out in the basin today, painting the old wooden benches from Grand to Grotto. We joked about how, despite the barriers and streamers and "Wet Paint" signs, there would be people coming up to touch it. On my way back from Grand, I noticed they'd also painted the railing between the Inn and Old Faithful along the bike trail. And sure enough, there were two older women at one, sampling the paint.

I guess I've been away from industrial tourism too long, because I just do not understand the infatuation with striking a stupid pose in front of a geyser or bison or some other piece of scenery. Used to be cameras just made photographers stupid, the new phone-cameras must make emit some sort of signal affecting the subjects, too.

I try to write up a day's posting at the end, even though it may not get posting until midday the next day. I also then not change it even if subsequent events make some of my speculations or information out of date.

So as I'm trudging over the bridge and up the slope to Sawmill, I decide to take my own guru geyser gazing advice from the previous posting. If Grand appears that it's in for a long, then go check on Giant and Grotto. Usually it seems I end up waiting for Grand for hours, then go down and check Grotto. If I go there now, I can head in right after the eruption and the three hour wait preceding it.

So I get to Grand, and Percolator is quiet, West Triplet is empty. Turban starts almost immediately. I know from past experience that I can do the round trip to Grotto in just about one Turban interval, so at worst, I get to see a Grand start from Economic or Chromatic. Besides, the steam down there looks odd. I've been fooled in the past by Grotto, so even though I think it's on, I can't be be sure. Plus I need to go down and see if Giant has erupted already, as if it has,it makes a difference in my plans for what to do for the next Grand. Off I go.

I cross the bridge at Oblong, and by then am sure that Grotto is erupting. But is it a new eruption, or a marathon? Gotta get closer. At this point I vaguely notice that the Giant platform seems awfully steamy, too, just as Giant takes off. (At 02:16) Now that's a cheap thrill and an instant wake-up call.

It turns out I was perhaps in the best position to see the start, with what little breeze was blowing toward the platform. I couldn't see anything out there until minutes later. The platform itself was soaked in a torrential rainfall, quite impressive considering how close the source, but even the main walkway was in the rain. So I can't claim to have really "seen" the start, only experienced it. I do know my outer jacket got soaked by the time I was done.

Grotto was erupting, but it quit about a half hour later. And the Variable Pool showed no drop in water level. So no marathon, just a short Grotto interval. Based on the times, it would appear the hot period started as I was still at Grand, and there was no Mastiff function, as the amount of steam and noise coming from Giant before the start wasn't great enough. (I wasn't that out of it to not notice that much commotion.)

Eventually the steam and wind started cooperating, so I could MagLite the watercolumn from various locations. It was okay, but nothing like daylight. But I must admit, just being there and hearing all the noise was worth the experience. (And the selfishness of knowing that no one else was out there made a difference, too.)

No nighttime in the Upper Basin is complete without its little bizarre moment, and this night had one. I can't claim to have been the only person to have seen Giant, only that I was the only person who cared. Because about 45 minutes into the eruption, I noticed a light that seemed to be well north of Grotto. Now I'd been illuminating Giant off and on all eruption, so expected that I'd attracted attention. But that was an odd place, as how did they get there? I could hear voices, so there must have been at least two people. The light moved on south, passed on by Grotto, and kept going up the trail. Now Giant was still putting out a lot of steam and noise, but the light never seemed to take notice of all the commotion but once. I was relieved, as the last thing I wanted to deal with at that time was a bunch of drunken insomniac Amfac louts.

I guess I should say that I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get my wish of seeing a start from Grand, as this would have been the perfect opportunity. Perhaps, but I'd much rather see it in daylight, and this way I didn't have to make a mad dash down basin. Maybe next time.

So what about the guru geyser gazing that got me down there? Grand erupted on the next Turban. I think I'm going to amend my formula to say that Percolator is not quite so important, as that was what made me decide in the first place. I did catch the very end of a West Triplet eruption on my way back, which was obviously triggered by Grand's eruption.

Think this afternoon I'll visit Geyser Hill for the first time and see if I can get Beehive up close.

Update 14:00

Giant Signs 13 Jun 2007

Went out in the morning and took some photos of the sign locations. Also, the walkway was still wet, especially back in the trees between Grotto and Giant, where it wasn't ice.

And I wonder if the illlumination of these past two eruptions appeared on the webcam, or are MagLites just not that bright?

So I waited for the post-marathon hot period. Much longer than I'd hoped or really intended, but it was a fairly pleasant wait. Because of the cloud cover, it never really got frigid like the wait last Thursday, but by the end, there were several short sprinkles that seemed to come from nowhere. The wind was not as cooperative either, coming from the usual southerly direction, obscuring the platform.

The hot period itself was ridiculously long. By about 10 minutes, Mastiff had dropped below overflow, and so the steam on the platform decreased making seeing possible again. That's when Giant started major surging, and Feather never shut off the whole time. The surging in Giant never reached the " filling the cone" stage, but for a while it seemed like one more little push would be all it would take to get the eruption started. Instead, I packed up and headed back in. Didn't even need to check on Grand, as I could see it's steam cloud quite clearly.

After an event of that size, I figured that I could sleep until the next Grand time and not worry (too much) about missing anything. And once it got light, the geyser groupies should be able to handle keeping an eye on things. As I expected, we got a series of almost hourly events, most of them weak, some only observed from a distance (Grand, where else?). The intervals then lengthened out as the afternoon progressed.

Also got, as the first post-marathon activity, a solo Grotto Fountain (if you don't count a couple of splashes from Grotto). The next Grotto eruption lasted for three hours. Then things got weird, at least for those of us who don't know Giant well. The whole platform began to look like it does during a marathon, with Bijou dead most of all. But the hot periods, weak though they were, continued. I got this funny feeling that tomorrow morning the signs will have been moved.

After today's long Grand interval, I've come to the conclusion that there is a pattern here. Either West Triplet or Grand is going to erupt between 6 and 7 hours after the previous eruption. If it's West Triplet, the next window is 8.5 to 10. If neither erupts, then the second window applies. You can tell that West Triplet is not going to erupt in the early window if Percolator is quiet. A West Triplet eruption before that window opens is the same as if it doesn't erupt, in that Grand will wait for the second window.
This bit of guru geyser gazing will be obsolete by the end of the week.

Round Spring 11 June 2007

In all the going back and forth for Giant on the bike trail, I noticed that Round Spring was down, and it was exposing some sort of animal bones.I'll leave it up to someone else to figure what kind of animal, and what part that is. Today the spring was back up and full. But, for me, a bigger question is how long, had the water stayed low and the bones exposed, would they stay there? I expect that they would find a magical ability to move out of the spring and into a waiting RV.

Other Geyser Times

12 June 2007

• Grotto Ftn. 07:00, 09:13, 19:55
• Grotto 09:24, 20:02
• Rift 17:39 d=10m39s
• Giant hot periods
  • 01:48 d=15m43s
  • 07:00 d≈5m
  • 08:03 d≈4m
  • 09:13 d≈6m
  • 10:06 weak, Bijou off 3m
  • 11:29 bathtub
  • 12:57 d=5m18s
  • 14:35 bathtub
  • 16:26 d=2m50s
  • 17:51 d≈4m30s
  • 21:09 d≈2m

Well, good news was that Grotto was still in eruption when I went out in the morning. The bad news was that the weather was finaly going to get ugly. As it turned out, it only got as far as unkempt, with a short sprinkle and, once again, too much wind. But it passed through before Grand erupted. A two burst eruption with the second lasting 2m12s. The evening (which should have been afternoon if not for the unnecessarily long interval) had an even longer second burst, at 2m30s. Well, I guess if that's what it takes to have a second burst, it's better than nothing.

Penta erupted again, barely. It started normally, but by the time Mary Beth and I could get moving in that direction to watch it, Sawmill started, causing an immediate shutdown in Penta.

And with Grotto active, that meant a free day to do other things. It finally quit after a duration of almost exactly a day, so middle of the night would be the time of the next major event.

PMG2 11 June 2007

Here's the view, not from my cabin, but from the walk between it and the indoor plumbing. This is only the second time I've seen an eruption,

Other Geyser Times

11 Jun 2007

• Rift 16:03

And nothing to do with geysers

Based on how much I've seen of geyser gazers who work for that company, I'm assuming "Xanterra" means, "never seen in the basin."

I've battled squirrels in every cabin in which I've stayed, and even had the occasional bison rub against a cabin or block the door, but today was the first time I had a marmot attempt to invade.

:Looks like there still might be something happening with Grand. I've seen another interval without Percolator, followed by a short West Triplet eruption. (This one lasted 5 minutes, and did overflow momentarily.) For the afternoon eruption, Percolator was again quiet, and for the first time during my visit, I got to see a D2 Turban delay.

Unrelated is that the nighttime eruption lasted 12m37s. At least that eruption has an excuse for having Vent and Turban take 20 minutes to restart.

But what I really don't understand is how the electronic monitor could come up with a time six minutes before the actual eruption time. There wasn't any sort of heavy overflow or other unusual activity, and you'd think that a sensor based on runoff temperature would run late. Which is why I never trust electronic times when they aren't backed up with an effort to confirm them by other means.

Grotto Rocks?

This evening, I noticed something at Grotto. There were a number of large rocks lying in the runoff and on the formations that I just don't remember seeing before. They look like they could have been spalled off of the rim of the formations above one of the openings, but I can't be sure. In any case, it's a strange place to see so many large rocks in such a tight group. Or, maybe, I'm just not as observant as I think I am.

During the afternoon I watched Giant have couple of hot periods and a bathtub spaced about an hour apart. Again, there was lots of heavy "depth charge" surging. At Grand it appeared that the hourly events continued. When I went in, Grotto had been active for 3h30m and Spa was showing signs of life. Hoping for a marathon.

Cutting the Firehose

by Grover Schrayer III

And finally, a little something from the past...

Other Geyser Times

10 Jun 2007

• Rift 04:02, 18:46ns
• Grotto Ftn. 07:09, 14:47
• Grotto 07:10, 14:51

"Stupid Geyser Groupie Tricks"

It was suggested that I might want to do a category on the things tourons do. Not really interested, as there's so much to choose from and its all so transient. But I think I will do this sub-category, which currently seems to star one person in particular. His latest stunt, earlier today, was to threaten some inadvertent cross-talk that "we have a direction finder and will use it to find you." Quite rich, considering the amount of noise he alone contributes.

Of course I spoke too soon and Grand had a 6-1/2 hr with West Triplet and Rift following. But the mid-day did fit the pattern. I didn't stick around to see if Rift started as I'd had enough of Mr. Look-At-Me-I'm-Standing-On-The-Bench-For-Two-Hours when he yelled out, over a minute after the end of the first burst, "the pool's refilling" when it obviously wasn't. (I realize now that I prefer tourons over geyser groupies.) The evening wasn't much better, because West Triplet and Rift erupted too early for Grand to join in, but at least Percolator never stopped. Oh, well. So much for speculating.

Penta Geyser 09 Jun 2007

Finally got to see both Uncertain and Penta up close, although didn't see the start of the latter, and it was getting dark.

Observed several Giant hot periods up close, all short and weak. But one interval was less than 50 minutes. I don't know exactly because I was returning to wait for it only to find it in progress.

Castle seems to be having a number of "split major" eruptions, where there's a significant pause (up to 15 minutes) during the water phase, and it's confusing all the geyser groupies and NPS types who've never encountered it before.

Other Geyser Times

Uncertain Geyser 09 Jun 2007

09 Jun 2007

• Grotto Ftn. 09:00ie, 12:46ie, 18:43ns
• Grotto 09:02, 12:46, 16:45
• Uncertain 11:32
• Rift 18:59 d=51m33s

Friday was a wasted day, and pretty much covered in an earlier posting, except for one thing.

In years past, Grand would often undergo an interval mode shift sometimes between late April and early June. Just this time of year, actually. These mode shifts would mean that intervals would suddenly increase or decrease by a sizable amount, and often accompanied by dormancy or reactivation of Rift and West Triplet. In the last few days, I've noticed that Grand has stopped having short eruptiion intervals, even when all the signs say it should and could. Also, with last night's eruption, I've now seen in the past few days several eruptions where West Triplet did not erupt with Grand, and Percolator was quiet, too. (Actually, last night West Triplet came up to about a foot below overflow, blipped for less than a minute, then dropped.) This may be a simple fluctuation in behavior, or signal a shift in activity.

Unfortunately, in all those mode shifts, the burst count never seemed to be affected, good or bad.And just having mentioned out-loud the possibility means things are going to revert.

And nothing to do with geysers

At the bottom of one of the boxes of Yellowstone stuff that sat in the closet the last few years was something that I'm going to have to list on eBay under "Paper Memorabilia & Ephemera"

Once daylight arrived, it became obvious how close we came to getting snow. All the ridges and slopes around the Upper Basin down to Observation Point were dusted white.

One thing I left out of the Giant report is that I'm almost certain there wasn't an Oblong the whole time I was there. In those conditions it's possible to miss it, but I'd like to think I wasn't that out of it. I did notice Riverside and Daisy,for example.

So after this morning, the rest of the day was boring. Went out to see Grand do it's West Triplet-delay/Big Sawmill thing a couple of times, but otherwise it was catch up day. The wind at the morning's Grand made me appreciate how nice 37° can be when it's dead calm. The evening's eruption was just as bad.

It may have been really stupid, but it was worth it.

So the evening Grand had to be a long interval in the cold and snow, one I should have bailed out on. But it finally did just about the time the sun set somewhere behind all the gray. With the exact time of Grotto shutting down not known, only the report of it off at 17:40, I was estimating that the window would be opening around 23:00, and I wanted to be there. So after Grand finally got around to its one burst eruption, I headed in and quickly dressed in just about anything I've got to keep me warm and dry.

It turns out I had plenty of time. Spent the next 4+ hours waiting for nothing to happen. At least it was calm and only occasional snow sprinkles to keep things damp. It was only towards the end, when it was time for the next Grand, that I considered bailing out. And even then, I've said I want to see a start from Grand.

The hot period finally started at 03:23. I'd call it "ns", because, magically, Feather was suddenly erupting to full height. In the dark, you realize that hot periods are really pretty quiet, and not all that steamy, either. But this time Mastiff almost immediately began surging in the 5 foot range. Over the course of the next few minutes, it would surge up and then die down, with each iteration a bit stronger than before. With the help of our strong lights (I think my MagLite's battery needs replacement), and the slight breeze from the north, it was easy to see what was going on on the platform most of the time.

By 03:31, Mastiff was in eruption, continuously throwing water higher than Giant's cone. This continued to build and quite suddenly it was noisily throwing water to about 50 feet. Visibility was finally deteriorating because were also getting some good strong action from Catfish. (And maybe Bijou, It was getting hard to see, and too much going on.) All the while, Giant was completely dead. At the time, it seemed like much, much longer, but just 2m30s later Giant finally surged a couple of times and then took off, and up.

Not much to say about the start of the eruption, other than shining our lights straight up we could see the entire water column. At the same time, Catfish went into a powerful steam phase, becoming the loudest performer on the platform for the next several minutes.

My digital kitchen thermometer said that the air temperature at that time was 37°, which was much warmer than I expected, since that was the temperature when I was out at Grand.

After about a half hour, I'd had enough. I'd been a long night, and besides, I wanted to see what a nighttime Giant steamcloud looked like from other parts of the basin. From Grand, there's no mistaking it for a measly Grotto or Oblong, and even at Crested Pool I thought I could hear Giant.

And this makes the third Thursday eruption in a row. I sense a guru geyser gazing pattern developing.

Getting out to Grand and seeing what appeared to be a still erupting Grotto was not what I was expecting. On the other hand, based on the weather forecasts, I was expecting rain or even snow, and instead the moon was visible. It was still erupting after the latest one-burst Big Sawmill eruption, when I last saw it at 05:00.

Seeing Grotto still erupting when time for the next Grand was both annoying and a relief. A relief because that storm was finally coming in, and it was wet, but not cold enough to snow. Annoying because when it does finally end, I know I'll be out in the snow phase of the storm.

Finally, at 17:40, there's a report that Grotto is off. But for how long? I last saw it at 13:00, so it could be as much as 4 hours, or as little as 1/2. Split the difference, and it appears I'll be headed there after Grand for a long night of nothing happening.

That also means that the duration was around 40-42 hours, giver or take a lot because no one saw the start or end.

Other Geyser Times

06 June 2007

• Rift 10:09ie d>46m10s, 22:32ie

It appears that Grotto went back into another marathon before midnight. From 02:30 to 04:30 the platform at Giant was chaotic and week, and there was no sign of any hot periods in the hours before I got there, either.

Shortly before midnight Castle had one of its interrupted majors. After about 6 minutes of water, it shut down for about 5 minutes before resuming activity.

Fan & Mortar, 13:00 05 Jun 2007

While I was semi-comatose from the night's activity, Scott Bryan saw a large steam-cloud down basin that turned out to be the first eruption of Fan & Mortar in nearly two years. He got down there in time to see the end of the water and noted that the splash zone extended well beyond the walkway.

As the day progressed, the weirdness continued. Dome became active. Little Squirt was also observed earlier in the day. Beehive had a one day interval, and I saw two indicators during the eruption. (No photo, unfortunately.) At least the afternoon Grand got in before the thunderstorms hit.

Grotto was in marathon all day, from when I first saw it at 00:00 to 22:00 when leaving the fourth Grand of the day (a whole 5 bursts).

Other Geyser Times

• Dome 11:33ns

Having Grotto shut off around 07:30 meant an afternoon of waiting for Giant Hot Periods in between showers. Only in the last observed one did Mastiff show any potential. As of 19:15, Grotto had yet to start, but Grotto Fountain appeared to be getting close.

Other Geyser Times

• Rift 23:46 d=57m13s
• Giant hot periods
  • 13:06 d=8m46s
  • 16:19 d=3m32s
  • 18:57 d=6m20s

And nothing to do with geysers

Cracker packet at 7200ft

The trees between Oblong and Giant perfectly block the view of Grotto and Giant from the whole distance from Grand to Oblong. It's too bad that someone didn't take the opportunity of the fires in 1988 to do, what's euphemistically called, "scenic vista enhancement".