Observations for 17 July


Since I was coming in the South Entrance anyhow, and I had already been told the last Grand and Beehive times I decided that I should at least stop by and see if King Geyser was still active and at least make an attempt to see it. That was my first visit to West Thumb in years, and during the 45 minutes I was there all I saw was periodic boiling. Maybe I'll stop again on the way out.

Heading out to Grand I received a pleasant surprise. When I walked up on Tilt, it was pulsating with occasional bubbles coming up from both vents. It's been years since I've seen an eruption from the start. Since I had plenty of time, I waited there a bit, only to have the pulsations get heavier, with increased overflow, along with more bubbling. Finally, the western/right vent started to erupt. The total duration of the eruption was 3m24s, and there were occasional droplets well above my head. So from what I remember, this was a fairly typical and normal eruption.

At Grand, got a Vent overflow delay, with Grand erupting 4 Turban intervals later. The eruption itself came near the end of the West Triplet window, about two hours after the start of West Triplet. The eruption itself was an ordinary short one burst. (You can tell it was short because Vent and Turban didn't pause.)