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Observations for 22 May


I haven't come into the park through the South Entrance in 20 years. For that matter, I haven't come in any entrance but the West during that time. So today was almost a new experience.

But getting there was lots of fun. It started snowing in Dubois, and there was several inches accumulated by the time I reached Togwotee Pass. Sometimes the wind would shake so much snow off of the trees that I couldn't see anything ahead of me. Fortunately, the road itself was bare, with only occasional patches of slush.

The snow showers continued all the way to Old Faithful, but it really didn't slow the traffic down.

There, once I'd checked into my cabin, I discovered that Grand was due in the next few hours. I got lucky in that once I put on the long underwear, the weather going out was nice. That quickly changed, and I was glad I and did the clothing change. Grand decided that it was a good time for a delay, So I got to also see the starts of West Triplet and Rift.

So after four more Turban eruptions in which it was obvious even through the steam and snow that Grand wasn't going to erupt, finally got a good vigorous Turban. One that went on for 2m14s before Grand finally joined in for a short one burst eruption. At that point, was time to head in and warm up.

Once again, the NPS has come up with a new way to be annoying. The bike racks at Castle are gone. I don't know about the ones down basin, as didn't get that far. Checking that out is on tomorrow's agenda.