The day was taken up by a trip to Shoshone Geyser Basin. Took lots of video and photos (at least for me) and will post a few photos here in a day or three, once I find some good ones.
Started out before dawn, and ended up arriving at the basin by 08:30. Finally figured out that the creek crossing needed to be done in something other than bare feet, and so had some sandals with me. Worked great, although the water was numbingly cold.
The areas around Little Giant was changed from two years ago. The crack with the pulsating formations had enlarged into a crater about 1x2 meters across, which was bursting water to about a meter whenever I was close enough to see it. Little Giant itself was dead calm , which is not how I ever remember seeing it.
Got to Minute Man just as it was starting to erupt. Wasn't sure what was going on, as Minute Man's Pool was full, and I saw three quick eruptions of Minute Man, then nothing for half an hour. The Pool also dropped below overflow during this time. Then I four more, then another gap. The third series, however, kept on going, and as it turned out, Minute Man was erupting the entire time I was in the basin.
By that time it was time to cross the creek, and while doing so, I did my usual deconstruction of the hot pot dam that the NPS seems to tolerate, or perhaps plans to use as part of excuse to close the area.
Velvet was quite active, and saw a number of eruptions as we spent several hours in the area in the hopes that Hydra might erupt for us. But no such luck there. There were some Knobby minors, and I managed to miss the Bead eruptions, although I did see the first when I was eating breakfast over by Minuteman.
Disappointed that Lion had been turned into a drain for the runoff from the "Old Lion" geyser that broke out nearby. Really liked the way Lion would eject the little horizontal spits of water.
Tried to go up to see Boiling Cauldron, and did manage to pay my respects to it and its runoff channel, but the deer flies were so thick that I didn't want to stay. They'd land all over me, half a dozen at a time whenever you moved to a new location, and you need to move around to appreciate the runoff sluiceway.
Skipped the call for a short Beehive interval, but did go out to see the fourth Grand of the day, right after sunset. Having two consecutive four-Grand days is something I can't remember experiencing before.