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Observations for 10 July 2018


The morning had several bits of weirdness while waiting for the dawn Grand eruption. First there was the coyote that wandered past west of the boardwalk at Grand heading for Churn. Then a bit later it was a woman and two young boys visible from Grand on the other bank of the Firehole River. They were investigating one of the warm seeps next to the river, before they headed back to the trail. Mama and her cubs.

Almost immediately there were tourists reporting a real grizzly bear and cub next to the trail just north of Lion. Fortunately, they were not seen again. Do wish they would go elsewhere.

Spent more time down at Giant during the morning, and was rewarded with a long series of Bijou slowdowns every 15 minutes. In the afternoon, it was a long Grotto eruption with more slowdowns

Today had the potential for being a Five Grand Day. It started out nicely with a two burst eruption only 23 minutes after midnight. But the chance slipped away when the second eruption of the day had a two-Turban delay. The third had the type of interval needed. Despite a long delay, Grand erupted on the next Turban for an interval just under six hours.

So we didn't get 5 Grand eruptions, but the eruptions we did get were a nice representation of the good conditions for viewing Grand. The dark nighttime eruption, the dawn eruption, the warm middle of the day eruption, and finally the sunset eruption.