Observations for 15 July 2018


Got out to Giant at 03:15. Grotto was in eruption, and there had been some long Bijou pauses, but no Feather activity. The weak hot period the previous evening may have had an effect, in that the interval here between Giant eruption attempts was almost 22 hours, putting it after dawn. This hot period was even stronger that the one the previous day. This time feature never quit, so there wasn't a really a restart. Cave Vent and a lot of the other sputs were stronger than before, too. But once again, while the surging in Giant was nice, it didn't result in an eruption.

The hot period came at the right time, too. Had come out dressed for the cold and dark, but by then it was clear and rapidly getting warmer. Stripped down as much as possible, but still a bit overdressed for the occasion. The back going back to the cabin was stuffed full of all the nighttime gear, including flashlights. Also, hadn't brought any food, so was really getting hungry.

After another one burst Grand eruption, and lunch, went back to the Bijou Cage. Was thinking that there might be an interesting followup to the hot period. And there was. Wanted to get there for the start of Grotto, but it was already in eruption. But about an hour and a half after I arrived, there was a weak, Feather-only hot period that lasted 1m22s. By that time Grotto had been in eruption about 1h40m, so I went over to see if I could catch the end.

While sitting there, suddenly there was a puff of steam from behind the trees to the north. Not Riverside, but it was Spa. Got down there in time to see that the water was just starting to head down the runoff channel, so what we saw was probably the first burst. Watched the activity there for about an hour. Finally there was a Rocket major eruption, and Grotto shut down. The duration was nearly three hours.

The last activity of the day was supposed to be Grand. It had a short 7m20s first burst, but of course followed that up with a long second burst. Of interest was that Vent and Turban didn't even quit after that. So time to get some sleep.

Wanted to get out in the dark well before dawn to try and catch the next hot period. Didn't work out that way. Instead had just fallen asleep when hear the call that Feather had just started. There wasn't any call about Mastiff being full, so that meant little time to get down basin. I had arranged my gear just in case there was such a call, so was able to quickly get ready and head out. Hearing that Feather was restarted as I passed by the Inn got me moving just a little faster. Got down to the curve by Oblong when I heard that Feather had quit again. So I didn't see anything, but was able to learn that it was possible for me to get from the cabin to a point where I could see the start. (And I learned that I was really overdressed for such concentrated exertion.