Month: August 2020

Checked out Oblong, just in case, but it was full and overflowing. The Giant Platform was mostly dry, with a few puddles probably left over from the rains the other day, or some big Giant surges. Over at Daisy there was a normal eruption.

Grand had another one of its fifth hour Turban Interval delays, but this time instead of making us wait for an hour, it had a second delay and then erupted. It was another two burst eruption, and Grand's vent held up for about fifteen seconds before draining and and immediate quitting by Vent & Turban.

Wasted some time at Artemisia, then went on down the trail to see if anything was visible. While most of the interesting features are completely hidden, I did see a Cauliflower eruption that had about a meter boil at the beginning, then a few more boils before dropping back down.

The weather deteriorated for the late afternoon Grand wait. There was a consistent 15-20mph wind the whole time, and despite the sunny, clear sky, it felt cold. No delays, and the interval was less than six hours. There was a large boop from Grand a couple of seconds before the eruption started with a bubble bursting. There was a rainbow coming and going the whole time as the wind shifted the spray that was headed toward Rift. We also got a second burst, a long one so not chance for a third. The surprising thing was that despite the eruption lasting over 11-1/2 minutes, Vent & Turban didn't quit.

Once again, West Triplet showed no attempt at erupting, just heavy overflow after each Grand eruption. Now over four days since and eruption, and even longer for Rift. During this time it also seems like Belgian has been full most of the time, and not shown the fluctuations and drops seen earlier.

In the Lodge Cabin area, the NPS has the fire crews doing some tree thinning within ten yards or so of the cabins. Lots of smaller trees are being removed, and branches from some of the larger trees, too. No evidence they are going to clean up all the deadwood littering the area, though.

More Grand eruptions today. Came out at the 11 hour mark no knowing when the previous eruption had occurred. Was at Belgian when Turban started, and moments later saw what appeared to be a Grand Boop well over a meter high This was followed by another, maybe two meters high. Finally Grand started a One Burst Eruption.

Turns out the NPS had the electronic time (around 04:15), but never got around to publishing that information. Typical.

Later spent a hour at Fan & Mortar where I saw nothing but Garbage Mode, with the vents starting and stopping several times during that period.

The after ended the string of short intervals at Grand with a four Turban Interval delay. Once again this eruption was followed by overflow from West Triplet without an eruption. It's now been over three days since its last recorded eruption.

The night was warm, with a clear sky and a bright moon. Probably arrived just in time for a Turban Interval delay. This Turban duration was long, and the next interval didn't have overflow. The delay turned out to be beneficial, because before the next Turban eruption, Oblong erupted.

In the dark, it seemed like the Oblong eruption was short in both height and in duration, but could definitely see bursting and hear it. Several others went down for a closer look, and got there before the end. During the subsequent wait for Grand, it seemed at times like the steam picked up down there, but no followup eruption.

The One Burst Grand eruption was pretty standard for one lasting about eleven minutes. But during the eruption, I noticed Churn splashing, backlit by the moon with heavy steam. Was over by the time I got past the trees at Rift and Bulger, so I returned to Grand.

This time, West Triplet did not even overflow following the Grand eruption. It's now been well over three days since the last eruption of West Triplet was observed.

Went out in a foggy Upper Basin with the expectation of waitiing a few hours for Grand. Turned out it was less than one, although that was a two Turban Interval delay. The eruption itself was my third consecutive two burst eruption, which is something I haven't experienced in quite a while. The second burst had a distinct false pause about a minute in, but instead restarted and lasted for another minute. During the eruption West Triplet overflowed, but I don't know if it actually erupted.

In the afternoon we finally got back to having One Burst Grand eruptions. I think this was probably a four Turban Interval delay, but can't be sure. The first Turban eruption I saw lasted over six minutes, which is a good sign of a delay, and the next interval had no overflow.

It was an all Grand day, it turned out. Went out after dark for the moonlight One Burst Grand eruption. This one was short, less than ten minutes and Vent & Turban seemed to quit at the end for well over a minute, then came back without a pause in Vent.

After came in last night, the thunder and lightening started. There was more in the early morning hours, which meant there wasn't much incentive to get out despite Giantess still being active. This rain did have the nice effect of getting rid of most of the smoke in the air, although there was still a hint when I first got out and about.

Thanks to an electronic time, knew that we were actually well into the interval as we headed out for the One Burst Grand eruption. I noticed that Sawmill was perhaps even higher than noted earlier this visit. The catch basins may have been just rainwater, but hard to tell. At Grand only waited for one Turban interval. After the eruption, West Triplet was overflowing heavily for a while, showing no attempt at erupting.

On Geyser Hill, waited through a rain show to finally get some daylight activity from Giantess. At over a day, it was still bursting nicely. Infant was still boiling heavily up to a meter, and it smelled almost exactly like Emerald Pool at Norris.

Walked around to check out Plume. The only difference was that the water level was actually visible in the two front/lower vents, and the deep sputtering was visible and sounded a lot wetter.

For the afternoon Grand, there wasn't any attempt at a Turban Delay. We also had a relatively short first burst and a quick second. After this eruption, West Triplet didn't try to overflow.

The early nighttime eruption also had two bursts. Caught us by surprise, as the interval was under 5-1/2 hours. But it had two bursts, and again, West Triplet overflowed after the Grand eruption with no attempt at erupting on its own

After last night's fiasco, headed back to Norris when we found no report of any eruption. This time not only was it dark, but foggy as we pulled into the parking lot. The fog got worse out in the basin, such that as the sun rose, it was difficult to see from the platform what was going on with the vents. We did know that there was some sort of push around 07:07 that got us excited, as if it was starting to erupt.
But nothing.

And that was the way it went for the rest of the day. There would be what appeared to be the start of the push from the North Vent, only for the South Vent to take over.

Around 11:00 we got a radio call informing the gathering that Giantess had started erupting a couple of hours earlier. There was general disappointment with this, but no one left to head back south the the Upper Basin.

At around 17:15, I went down to Cistern to take a look at what it was doing. It wasn't overflowing much, even though the boiling over the vent was fairly heavy. The day had been so disappointing that I was considering leaving to got and see some of the activity of Giantess. As I rounded the last hairpin turn and got within sight of the platform, New Crater started another push that actually got the inhabitations shouting. I started video recording, and made my way back to my chair as this push died. I left the camera running, fortunately, as a second push started a few seconds later, and this one led to the actual eruption at 17:36.

I rushed back to get a height measurement. I got 65% of 130 meters, or 84.5meters (277ft). This matched the impression of those who saw the start from a distance, that it wasn't one of the taller eruptions.

The wind direction was perfect. Most of the parking lot was spared being drenched, and we never were in danger of getting wet. If the wind had been a bit more to the north, we probably would have had a dirtier eruption, and perhaps even a choke. As it was, North only showed a hint of brown for a while.

Stayed for about 90 minutes, until the clouds and wind shift encouraged us to leave. Got back to the Upper Basin with it not quite dark, and headed over to Geyser Hill. The parking lot was mostly dry when we left, although the exit end loop was damp along the edges.

Did the loop around the hill before heading over to the benches near Vault. At Plume, it looked like there was quite an area that had gotten wet, but Plume itself sounded unchanged from what I'd seen earlier. Over between Depression and Heart I thought I caught a whiff of low tide. I expected more, considering there had been quite a bit of time for grass to grow in the various runoff channels.

Caught a couple of Giantess active periods, and an eruption of Vault. Most interesting was the activity of Infant. It was well above the rim, and the muddy looking water was boiling and erupting up to a meter high almost continuously. It also had a sweet smell a lot like Emerald, not the putrid smell I normally associate with it.

On the drive to Norris in the dark, had a bison encounter. It was standing in the southbound lane in Fountain Flats just across from the Thud Group. It didn't move until was right next to it, despite flashing lights and honking horn. Other than that, the drive was uneventful.

When we arrived there was someone on the Upper Platform, prone and in a sleeping bag. I rudely woke him up and he quietly disappeared.

Uneventful also describes the day at Norris. There was a datalogger report of something big happening around 03:00 and New Crater/Steamboat was in some sort of recovery mode the rest of the day. Most of the activity consisted of strong North Vent activity which shut down when South Vent joined in. Only late in the day did it start showing real signs of life, with the biggest attempt right as everyone was headed out ahead of darkness and a windy storm and a stream of incoming drunken louts. Even then, despite the mass of water from South, the North Vent would die instead of getting stronger.

Which brings us to the big event of the day. During the drive back to Old Faithful, it is always fun being cut off from any information about what is happening at Norris for almost an hour. So the first thing anyone does, with a certain amount of dread, is check to see what happened at Norris during that time. I've been fortunate in that until tonight, I've not had to see a posting saying I've missed an eruption.

Except tonight's posting had a time that made no sense. It only about an hour old. I double checked my logbook, and supposedly the eruption started just as I'd left the platform. It always takes at least fifteen minutes to uncover the truck and head out, so there was no way this report was accurate. I flagged it immediately.

Needless to say, quite a few people saw this report and got upset by it. The report was not appreciated and caused a bit of anger at the sloppiness that got it posted in the first place. People who report this information need to remember that those of us actually here in Yellowstone rely on GeyserTimes for accurate information, and it is the duty of those making reports to insure they are accurate before making them. There is nothing to be gained by attempting to be "First!" if that information is flat out wrong, as it was here. It's not a game.

In the morning I expect to check GeyserTimes and see if I need to head back to Norris, or if I can sleep in. I want to be sure I can trust that info, and not have to independently confirm it at a time when I am barely awake.

As mentioned earlier, it was stormy on the drive back, with occasional showers. Unfortunately, it appears that there really wasn't enough rain to have an effect on the fire, and the wind was probably not helpful.

Arrived at Norris at dawn, not really expecting much until the afternoon. Turned out to be late afternoon, with over a period of 20 minutes there being three significant attempts at erupting starting around 16:27. There was a second, even better period starting just about the time to leave, with three more attempts in a period of six minutes starting at 20:13. Then nothing as it got dark.

It was hard to tell the smoke from the clouds during the day, although by evening there was some patchy blueness to it. Back at Old Faithful, the smoke could be seen as fogginess and was definitely a smell in the air.

The fires didn't dominate the day. The general smokiness wasn't changed much, but this morning there was a definite smell of burn wood in the air that disappeared as the day progressed. It wasn't until about noon that the plume of smoke from down south became obvious. By evening it would have been clearing if not for the local fire.

The morning Grand was a Turban Interval delay, and it was on the third Turban eruption that we finally got the One Burst Grand eruption. That burst lasted just over 9-1/2 minutes, then Grand held water over the vent for nearly a minute before draining. With that, Vent & Turban also quit.

The afternoon saw another Turban delay, this one for five intervals. Grand finally erupted as West Triplet quit. Fortunately, we got a second burst this time. With a first burst lasting less than eight minutes, we definitely expected one. That burst was fairly short, and Grand showed no attempt to have a third, even though the duration was still under ten minutes. Again, Vent & Turban quickly quit once the eruption was over.

One interesting non-thermal item of the day were the otters just below the Sawmill bridge. They were seen first just after the morning Grand eruption. They got out of the river, only to disappear into one of those dead holes just upstream on the west side. The grass looks beat down between that hole and the river, like they've done that before. They weren't seen the rest of the day,

Went out early for Grand based on a double interval. Didn't find out until later that the first interval was particularly long, and we'd arrived not much after first overflow. No delays, but the One Burst Eruption had an interval of about 6-1/2 hours.

The mid-day Grand was similar. A Delay Turban was followed by three Turban intervals before we finally got the One Burst Eruption. This one also lasted just under ten minutes.

After Grand, decided to go to Artemisia to kill some time. Walked up, dropped my pack and started to get out the water bottle when I felt the first thumps. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty strong, and shifting, so there wasn't any place to stand where one didn't get the full force of the steamy fog. And it was hot.

Returning from there, glanced at Fan & Mortar, and they looked dead. By the time we got to Castle, there was a radio call about splashing in the Main Vent. Went back, and there was some huge splashes, as wide as the vent and well above the highest part of the rim. Unlike yesterday, Bottom Vent didn't dominate, but even so, the Fan vents started out nice but by the time Angle Vent started, it was obvious that there wasn't much of a chance for an eruption.

After the Fan & Mortar event, noticed that there was a large smoke plume to the south among the general haze. Turns out there's a small fire near Lone Star. The NPS closed the trail and evacuated the campsites by helicopter. We had intended to go out that way tomorrow, looks like that is off.

Went out for a Grand in the dark, and had the place to myself. Interval was just under six hours, and no signs of any sort of delay. Best of all, Grand quit at just over eight minutes, and followed up with a nice illuminated second burst. Total duration was only 9-1/2 minutes, so could've had a third if it had tried.

Another smoky day, but not quite as bad as yesterday morning. By evening most of the smoke seemed to be thickest to the south, down in the Tetons and Jackson.

Went out on a double interval for the One Burst Grand eruption, and got a full Turban Delay interval. So that was probably the shorter of the two intervals.

Checked out Daisy, which had another short duration of around 3m15s. Over at the Sawmill Group, saw Crystal in overflow, along with Belgian actually up to and over the rim. I still can't see any correlation between the water levels there and the activity elsewhere.

The mid-day One Burst Grand had to have a five Turban delay, again showing the bimodality in the intervals. The call that Beehive's Indicator was erupting came after about three intervals. So many left for the sure thing. Fortunately for them, Grand held off so that we had a total of five intervals in the Delay.

Later in the afternoon, Fan & Mortar had a nice attempt at erupting. There were some Main Vent surges that filled the vent area. Lower Mortar had a high water level too. But Mortar's Bottom Vent was dominating, and it lasted a long time. I don't like seeing that, and it always seems that Fan's response to strong Bottom Vent is weaker than desired. That was the case here, where the excitement evaporated at the activity died out as Angle Vent started.

So went over to Grand for the evening activity. There it seemed like I missed a Delay, based on the long Turban duration and the lack of overflow before the next Turban eruption. West Triplet started at the same time as Turban, and that led to a true Delay. West Triplet's duration was short, so it was a surprise that almost immediately Rift started. And then the One Burst Grand eruption started. I had been prepared for a long wait, with an eruption in the dark, so this was a nice relief to see it just after sunset.

Woke up to an orange sky, and not needing to go to Norris. Seems that fires in California are having an effect here. Another example of how California has to inflict itself on the rest of the country.

Having a Beehive eruption before noon was a bit of a surprise. Was a nice eruption because it was dead calm. The winds picked up minutes after the end, and lasted all day.

I don't know if the mid-day Grand had a Delay, as the Turban activity didn't match what I would expect. West Triplet was erupting with everything erupting behind it when I arrived. It was five Turban eruptions later that Sput D had a small erupion, followed by the One Burst Grand eruption.

Later caught a Daisy eruption in the wind, a two hour interval. That was followed by watching Spa for about 45 minutes. It had multiple large bursts. Nothing high, but lots of wide, sustained activity.

The evening One Burst Grand didn't require much of a wait. Rift was erupting as I arrived, and was still erupting when I left. This time Grand did have the Turban Delay. About 2-1/2 minutes before the eruption booping started, with the pool full but calm. It wasn't until there was a big boop that the waves started and Grand then quickly followed. Because of the smoke and lighting, it was a gray eruption on a smoky background.

When the NPS says they are going to open an area at a given time, they mean it, even if the press release implies that they might open early. So we arrived into the Norris Basinat 10:00 instead of the usual dawn. Waiting for the lot to open was mildly entertaining, watching how people behaved to suddenly finding they needed to make a decision on what to do instead. As for the closure, it didn't matter, as New Crater/Steamboat didn't do much for most of the day.

Late, as the thunderstorms were starting, we did get the first strong minor that I've seen this summer. That was followed at about one hour intervals with other strong surges, but no actual attempt at erupting.

In my decades of coming here, I've seen a lot of geyser gazers who have disappeared or drifted away over those years. I do wish that Dave Leeking was one of them.

A while back I wrote up some advice and hints and observations for newer gazers. Here's something new to add, based on what I observed yesterday-- Don't go around telling vistiors you just met about the wonders to be found in areas closed by the NPS. Especially then don't go and give them detailed instructions on how to get into those areas and how to get around the NPS closure signs.

It was exactly twelve hours since the last Grand eruption, and I had just passed Crested Pool when the One Burst Grand eruption started. Must've gone on the Turban delay.

Afterwards, noticed that it was getting close to the time for Daisy. Kept looking back as walked to get the bike, but no eruption. Had just left the bikerack when l heard the radio call.

Did get up there for the next eruption, which had an interval of less than two hours, but a duration of 3m11s, which is really short as I remember.

The next wait for Grand didn't have an official Turban Delay, but it acted like one. The first interval seen was about 24 minutes long, and then Grand proceeded to have Turban intervals with all the usual delay characteristics-- short Turban duration, short intervals, and little to no overflow from Grand. This time, though, Turban started the eruption, and there was a nice second burst. It was a long pause, so the crowd had plenty of time to get out of position for their selfie-photos of the second burst.

West Triplet started at the same time as the Turban eruption prior to Grand's eruption, and continued on even after Grand was finished. This meant the duration was up to 1/2 hour, and as expected, Rift started shortly after. West Triplet was still going when I left, for a duration in excess of 45 minutes.

Got the call for Beehive's Indicator, and despite the wind knocking it down, it was a nice long one, nearly five minutes. The crowd was small, despite the Naturalist telling people about it. Seems most people were more interested in getting over to Old Faithful, which erupted shortly after Beehive.

Went out for the dawn Grand eruption when it just became light enough to not need a light to take notes. I didn't see a Turban delay, but then next four Turban intervals looked like there had been one, with some eruptions with no overflow, and short intervals between Turban eruptions.

When Grand did start, it was nicely lit by the sunlight well above the ridge. And we got a second burst, which made it even better.

The other day I noticed that the old stairway up from the Sawmill Group Bridge is being covered by formations deposited by South Scalloped.

I arrived back at Grand just in time to see Rift starting, and West Triplet ending. This was the folllowed by a 36 minute Turban interval for another Delay. Rift proceeded to erupt for almost exactly two hours, ending near the start of the four Turban interval delayed One Burst Grand eruption. This one had a short Vent & Turban pause. Belgian Pool also was full at the start of Rift, and full after Grand ended.

In the evening we got another Turban delay. It would have been a nice Grand eruption, with the sun low on the horizon. But had to wait two more Turban intervals for a One Burst Grand eruption right after the sun finally disappeared.

Down by Fan & Mortar saw an osprey gliding upstream. It perched on on the top of e of the trees beside Link's runoff channel for a while, then suddenly launched itself toward the river. Unfortunately, it came up empty. It then cirlcled around a bit, and we thought it might return to the tree, but it headed upstream. About five minutes later, it reappeared low over the river, headed downstream with a small catch.

Up at Daisy, nothing much different. The duration of the eruption was short, although the intervals were just over two hours. Lots of Side Boiler activity in Splendid, and I left just as the activity switched to Main Vent.

The One Burst Grand eruption managed to have both a Turban delay and erupt almost outside the NPS prediction window. Just two minutes in. The delay was around 5h10m and had several small boops, so I wasn't surprised when it immediately dropped.

At Beehive, the wind was directly toward the walkway the whole time the Indicator was erupting. Just as Beehive started, the wind shifted to spray the walkway and platform on the other side of the river, and stayed that way for the duration of the eruption.

Went to Three Sisters Spring to watch Mugwump for a few hours. It was erupting about every twenty minutes. Most eruptions were minors, where there's one big burst and some other boiling, and the whole eruption lasts less than ten seconds. Did see a couple of major eruptions, with multiple big bursts, and a lot more overflow that lasts for a bit under 1/2 minute. The last one we saw was the best of the day, with a flood of water coming done.

Myriad #1 also had a couple of small but heavy boils during that time.

At Grand the Turban interval went long. Grand's pool was full, and over about 45 seconds, there were six to seven small boops. There were never really any waves, despite what Grand was doing. Then the pool dropped and stayed that way until Turban started about six minutes later. I was making notes when I looked up to see the pool back to full, with waves. No boops this time, but instead got a quick start with a nice bursting bubble. The rest of the eruption was a pretty typical One Burst Grand, although it lasted almost twelve minutes. At first it looked like Vent & Turban were going to continue, then suddenly Turban got a lot stronger for about fifteen seconds, and then abruptly quit. So much for any afterplay and an afterburst.

Finally, it was time to wait for a sunset Castle eruption. The rainbows were just starting to be visible at the top of the water column from our vantage point.