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Observations for 2020 June 02


With Grand having an over eight hour interval overnight, there was nothing to do in the morning. So visited the Lower Basin again. A Fumarole was back to being a fumarole, and the Fountain Paint Pots had thickened up enough to make some nice mud cones. There was still a slightly bluish pool over some of the white mud area in the center.

Great Fountain overflowed sometime during the half hour we went to the Paint Pots, so there wasn't much of a wait. And the "Big Boil" lead directly into a decent eruption. I tarped my truck just in case, so there wasn't any target for a superburst.

Back in the Upper Basin we had a short wait for the next One Burst Grand Eruption. There was almost a delay, with a Turban eruption interval of 24m59s. But Grand erupted on the next Turban. During that eruption Castle started, and had another major. I haven't seen a minor this trip.

The Firehole River is still high, with water well over the step at the base of Sawmill's unused runoff channel.

The evening was pleasant, although a bit windy, and would have been a great sunset eruption of Grand. But instead we got Rift starting (with Belgian down about 1-2 cm) and a Turban Delay. Grand showed no desire to erupt until after the sun finally disappeared behind a thick cloudbank above the ridge. Then our D4 One Burst Grand eruption happened. Rift quit at about the same time as Grand, with a duration close to two hours.

During the Rift eruption Belgian had risen back to the rim, and at some point Slurp had also risen and was discharging water along with occasional spits. I'm pretty sure this was not Crystal Spring runoff, too.