Observations for 2021 August 01


At dawn it was foggy. The Sawmill Group was high enough that Slurp was being drowned, with little noise and occasional droplets that were visible. Grand was at the twelve hour mark, and I expected a wait and an opportunity to do some reading. THe eruption was less than ten minutes later. Started with a boop in the fog that sounded like Turban, until we realized that it was not followed by more sounds. Grand finally erupted about 15 seconds later.

It was a good day to leave the Upper Basin, so did a loop through the Lower Basin. Got to Fountain and discovered I'd left the notebook pouch back in the truck. Did see a Jet before I headed back. Got back and as I passed Silex, Fountain started. Did see the second Morning's Thief eruption, and it turned out Jet was frequent during the whole eruption. And then quit when Fountain did.

When it was time for the next Grand eruption, came out to find Sawmill and Rift in eruption. The Sawmill Group was high, with Belgian full and Crystal overflowing into and drowning Slurp. The Turban eruption I saw was the start of a Delay interval. Unlike the other day, there was only a two Turban eruption wait. During this time, Rift continued to erupt, and Sput D joined it, erupting with Rift until it ended later. The Grand eruption was a nondescript short one burst. Rift ended sometime during Grand.

Before we could leave Grand, water in Beehive's Indicater was called. Got over in plenty of time for the eruption. I did not see the little sput at the base of Beehive's cone that I saw back in May, but the Close-to-Cone indicator could be seen to be active once the Indicator proper ended. This bubbling continued after Beehve ended. Sawmill was still erupting as we went back for the bikes, a duration of at least 2h20m.

Late afternoon Grand was a short wait of a couple of Turban eruption intervals. Sawmill was erupting again, but I was also seeing Tardy erupting during the wait. The Grand eruption had a long second burst, followed by an immediate quitting by Vent and Turban.

Deer on Grand hillside.

During the eruption, a deer appeared from the trees behind Rift. It seemed to completely ignore Grand erupting, and disappeared behind the water column from my vantage point, only to appear again behind Turban. The marmots on the hillside seemed to object to its being there, as they put up a bit of racket. The deer continued to graze on the hillside after we left the area.

With nothing much else going on, went out to Great Fountain, arriving with it well into overflow. Only waited a half hour for the eruption, that started with a large burst and flood of water. Not much else happened after that, although the third burst started with a nice explosion.