Observations for 2021 May 23


Woke up at just around the time to head out to Grand at dawn, so I did.

As I approached Castle, it started erupting. About three minutes later, it starting having pauses, and after about 10-1/2 minutes, it didn't recover from a pause.

I saw Turban erupting while I was at Castle, so no need to hurry over. As it turned out I only had to wait 10 minutes for the steamy, fog-shrouded eruption. During the eruption, West Triplet's overflow strenghtened to the point where it started erupting, ending right after Grand did.

Considered going to Norris, but the conditions didn't look great, and the forecast didn't look there would be much improvement, and yesterday was enough of that type of driving for now, so decided against it. Turns out it was the right decision, as we would have encounter the rockfalls at Gibbon Falls. They eventually closed the road to traffic, at about the same time that the other two roads out of Norris got closed due to weather/road conditions. The roads did eventually open by the afternoon.

During a gap in the weather, went down to confirm that it appeared that Fan & Mortar didn't erupt overnight. Didn't stay long, as the gaps in the weather aren't very long.

Decided to go out to Grand by way of Geyser Hill, as the walk isn't much longer than that from the Lower Ham's parking lot. Little Squirt was active, and right next to the boardwalk we noticed a patch of ground that was steaming and bubbling. I've never noticed warm ground in this area before, it was all new to me.

Bubbling ground on Geyser Hill near Little Squirt Geyser

Once again, Grand cooperated and we only had to wait a single Turban eruption interval. The pool wasn't visible, but moments before Grand started, we could hear the boils and boops. I wasn't able to see any other details of the start because of all the steam. There was an attempt to stop at around eight minutes, then several more minutes of activity that at least wasn't Big Sawmill mode, but obvious there wasn't going to be a second burst. This time West Triplet didn't try to erupt.

On the walk back, the area of bubbling ground seemed a bit more active. One area, about 10cm across, had gravel being churned up and it even appeared like a vent was forming, or at least a rim in the ground.

When headed out for the next Grand, Little Squirt was no longer erupting, and the bubbling ground area was dry. It was possible to hear some sort of sizzling from some of the area.

The Sawmill Group had Spasmodic overflowing heavily although mostly quiet. Sawmill itself looked like it might actually be putting water into one of the shallow catch basins. After a Turban eruption, I came back that way and found Sawmill down to the high level I've seend the last few days.

The Grand eruption was steamy, but the weather broke just in time for the start of the second burst. West Triplet, once again, was in overflow while we were out there.