After several relatively short intervals, with and without Rift erupting, decided that I should try to get out for the morning eruption as early as seemed reasonable. The day also looked like it would starting out just like yesterday. Except it went from one extreme to another. Grand had a delay overflow when I got out there, and then proceeded to delay close to four hours, finally erupting one hour into a Rift eruption. At least the weather was mostly dry. (We did get some droplets from a mystery cloud a couple of times.)
The evening wait was another long but eventful one. When I went out, there was a nice large gray cloud to the south. Looking at the weather maps, it appeared that it was a small cell, and the center of it was due south. So I figured that while we'd get some rain, we'd avoid the worst.
I was right about that. Most of the time it was sunny, even when raining, and there was often a nice full double rainbow.Only once did it get intense enough to be annoying.
Towards the end of the rain, suddenly there was yelping from coyotes up on the hillside behind Rift and toward solitary. The first I've heard this year. Unlike other times, this noise didn't stop, and after a bit it became apparent that they were moving down the hillside. Finally a pair appeared over in the Sawmill group, still yelping, and headed for the bridge. Which they crossed and passed on over toward the interchange. The noise continued for a good half hour. Never heard anything like that before.
The geyser activity during the wait was the usual, a Daisy and an Oblong, and the unusual, an eruption of Penta. Until the previous one I saw, this one did not last more that 45 minutes. All during the wait I never noticed any activity from Bulger, neither major or minor eruptions.
Grand itself just sort of sat there. Unlike in the morning, there were never any delays or failed attempts to erupt. West Triplet was empty the whole time, still not having recovered from the Rift eruption hours ealier. Finally when West Triplet started to show water, and once the sun had disappeared behind the ridge, was when Grand erupted.
It was another one burst, a long 12 minute one punctuated with a couple of false pauses at around the 10 and 11 minute marks. Right after the eruption, West Triplet started, and I noticed the moon rising. Time to go in.