Month: September 2021

Decided that I needed an early morning Grand eruption, so headed out just as it was light enough to not need the headlight. Wasn't foggy like the previous dawn eruption I went out to see, but the walkways were slippery with frost. Waited for three Turban eruption intervals and got a short One Burst Eruption where Vent & Turban didn't quit.

Heard a report of possible Oblong eruption, so went out early to check it out. Shortly after noon I was able to see the empty crater. Also, in the background, I noticed that Solstice was in eruption, the first I've seen it this year. From the Bijou cage, I could see that there were wide runoff channels coming down from it, so it had been erupting for a while. On the way back, on the extreme northernmost part of Oblong's crater I noticed a small jet of water just above the rim.

The Giant Platform seemed to be in a marathon recovery mode, as Bijou was almost off. Every dozen seconds or so a few droplets could be seen coming from it, while the platform itself is as dry as I've seen it. No runoff from Mastiff, no damp spots in the catch basins, and little steam.

Back at Grand, I'd seen a Turban eruption as I tied up my bike. So I was surprised when I saw Turban start about 32 minutes later. Seemed like a Turban Delay Interval. The duration on Turban was well over five minutes, and the next Turban eruption had no overflow from Grand, which tends to confirm my suspicions. But then we got another delay, this one also well over thirty minutes. As the overflow started to look really good, we got a boop out of Grand, followed by over a minute of nothing happening. Then the waves built backup, and then we got a nicely explosive start to a One Burst Grand eruption. The duration was ten minutes and Vent & Turban quit.

Afterwards, went to check out Geyser Hill. Little Squirt had just started, and I wanted to observe the frying pans I'd seen back in May. It was obviously too warm and too soon for there to be any activity. About an hour later, it looked like there might be some steam coming from the main area, but that could have been just wishful thinking. Also on Geyser Hill, caught a weak Depression eruption that mostly had heavy upwelling and strong overflow until it suddenly dropped about 40cm.

Before sunset, the Sawmill Group was in a deep drain. As I was walking up the hill, Sawmill had a "Big Tardy" eruption with a duration of around 25 seconds.

Over at the Grand Group, Sput D was periodic. After about a half hour, that lead to West Triplet erupting, but not followed by Rift. Once the pool of Grand looked good, it took its time while the waves on the pool slowly got stronger. The sun had already set, but there was still enough glow in the sky to nicely illuminate the burst, which quit at 8m10s. It was steamy, and hard to tell at first, but we did get a nice, tall second burst. At around the 45 second mark, Grand didn't go into "Big Sawmill" mode. It went into "Big Tardy" mode. For about 15 seconds the height of the jets were 10 to 12 meters, at most. Then it finally quit, and for the next minute, it appeared there was water in the pool as the jetting from Vent got stronger and stronger. Finally, after about 90 seconds, the pool appeared empty, and Vent quickly died down and ceased entirely.

With no reports on Grand and it being at almost eight hours, made a quick trip out to check on it. Was one of the foggier days for this trip, and I could tell Sawmill was erupting from the runoff, but I couldn't see it. Wasn't until I got to Rift that I found a quiet, empty crater at Grand. So probably erupted as much as two hours earlier.

Was coming out for the next Grand eruption, but first I got to see a less than four minute long Castle minor eruption. No Turban Delay, but did have to wait through several Turban eruption intervals before Grand started. The first burst lasted almost nine minutes, and the pause between the bursts was short. Unlike a number of the recent two burst eruptions, the behavior in Grand's pool was leaving no doubt of a second.

Did a check on East Sentinel, which is unchanged. Still having 19 minute cycles, although the first heavy overflow I saw was not followed by any activity from the South Rim. From there, spent about 45 minutes at Fan & Mortar, and decided that it was in garbage mode and since it was so soon after the previous eruption, I was wasting my time there.

Found that I can get from the cabin to Fan & Mortar in about seven minutes. Only came close to hitting one person who "had their head up their app". (Old Faithful was in eruption. A whole line of people lined up along the fence along the Inn, except one geezer who had to stand in the middle of the trail to get his selfie, and immediately look at himself in the little screen.) Got there with little time to spare. Didn't drop my pack or get out the raincoat, as by this time Upper Mortar was already having large minor eruptions about a minute apart. After the second minor that I saw, Angle vent looked strange, as if it was in a steamphase, while there was no activity from Gold and only moderate from High. After the third huge minor, when all of Mortar was quiet, suddenly Fan's East Vent kicked in, and then all the vents joined in.

This was the third Fan & Mortar eruption in a row that seemed to come with little warning. The prior activity of Fan did not have the intensity of the previous eruptions, since this time Mortar was dominating. But in each case, there was something about the activity that said that this was not a normal event cycle, and that people needed to be informed.

Following that excitement, went out for a sunset Grand eruption. In the Sawmill Group, the water levels were high enough that Slurp was quiet. Belgian and Crystal were way down, about 6cm.

I believe I saw the Delay eruption when I arrived, as it was a long eruption, and the next Turban interval matched the usual behavior -- no overflow. Also, Turban initiated the eruption, which seems to mostly happen only after a Turban Eruption Delay.

That One Burst Grand eruption was also right at sunset, so the water column of Grand was nicely tinted (and not from smoke) as the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. During the wait, West Triplet also had a short, less than seven minute long eruption, which shut down the other sputs for a bit, but they were back to erupting after the Grand eruption.

Wasn't planning to head out in the morning, but just as breakfast was ready to eat, got the call about Beehive's Indicator. Had plenty of time to get out to see the Beehive eruption which was in dead calm conditions. I didn't see the Base Vent do anything during the eruption.

After that, did head out for Grand, a ten minute One Burst Eruption followed by West Triplet erupting.

With nothing much else going on, went out to Lone Star. Arrived at the end of the first minor eruption. Twelve minutes later, another eruption started. About a minute in, the size and power seemed to increase dramatically, and water could be seen coming from the small vents on the left size. Then, after only two and a third minutes, it all quit. It was 26 minutes before the major eruption started, which was an interval of about 3h15m between the major eruptions.

Back at Grand, arrived with Percolator in eruption. This is moderately unusual, and indicative of West Triplet starting soon. But West Triplet didn't start until an hour-and-a-quarter later. During this time there were just a series of non-descript Turban eruptions.

Grand started shortly after West Triplet. The One Burst Eruption lastest 10-1/4 minutes, and there was water in Grand's vent for about twenty seconds before it drained. Then right after the end, Rift started steaming, so we stayed around to watch the water start down the runoff and go under the walkway.

Over at the Sawmill Group, there was a deep drain in progress. Tardy was having a series of single bursts, two or three per minutes, followed by a longer eruption lasting about a minute with a similar pause before the start of the next series of single bursts.

Did get to see Tilt start while waiting for Castle. Castle waited until the sun had set before erupting. We had left maybe a couple of minutes earlier.

Went out to see the midnight One Burst Grand Eruption, which lasted about eleven minutes. As expected, Belgian and Crystal had risen to near normal height, in response to Rift, and were starting to drop again.

If we had gone up to Norris, we would have probably been exiting the Gibbon Canyon when New Crater/Steamboat erupted. I had just arrived at Fan & Mortar, and it was a relief to get the message from Suzanne, knowing we didn't need to worry about Norris for the rest of the trip.

It had rained overnight, and was still mostly overcast. Cool and damp, as it didn't have a chance to get cold overnight.

As it was, I was on the phone with her when suddenly Upper Mortar had a nice rumble. The High and Gold Fan vents were looking good when the call started, and now, moments later, they looked great. I hung up and actually got on the radio to issue a "heads up" call.

The activity looked a lot like the previous eruption, but Angle was not active, and Bottom vent had been splashing when I arrived. Even if it was early in a cycle, people needed to be informed. Over the next ten minutes, the vents only waned a couple of times, then immediately came back strong. Finally, Angle joined in, and by then High was as high as last eruption's preliminary activity. When the Frying Pan finally started, there was little doubt that something was going to happen.

Upper Mortar never really surged until, suddenly, East Vent took off like last time. Unlike last time, the other vents quickly joined in. Unfortunately, the wind, which had been blowing the steam toward the river, shifted and was now toward the benches. So Mortar was clearly visible, but Fan was lost in a mass of steam.

After the eruption, a quick check at East Sentinel showed no real change, other than the one overflow I saw was not followed by any boiling from the South Rim.

The morning Grand was the second observed two burst eruption in a row. It started three Turban intervals after a Turban Delay Interval. There was a definite false pause about 1/2 minute before the end of the first burst, and the whole eruption lasted just over ten minutes.

Later in the day, came out to a Sawmill Group that had relatively high water. Slurp was completely quiet. Penta was splashing slightly, and Belgian and Crystal were both down about 5cm. West Triplet, Percolator and Sput D were also in eruption as I arrived.

The first Turban eruption I saw had an unusual explosive start. Suddenly a thin jet of water was propelled about three meters above the rim, followed by several seconds of quiet before the usual boiling surges began.

Another fifteen minutes after that, Rift started. At that point Grand was full, but stalled out for the next fifteen minutes, giving us another Turban Delay Interval. Fortunately, Grand had its third consecutive observed two burst eruption just two Turban eruption intervals later. At first it was hard to see the pool as Grand paused, then the steam parted with the pool full of churning water. As with this morning, the second burst was short.

Following that, spent some time in a Sawmill Group that still had high water. It had been higher earlier, as the runoff from Spasmodic was still wet. Watched Penta splash around for a while.

Finally, from the bike rack, watch a Bulger major eruption, but no indication of any activity out of Bulger's Hole.

Went out to illuminate a nighttime Grand. It was a One Burst Eruption after Delay that cause the eruption to be two Turban eruption intervals later, and the eruption lasted less than 9-1/4 minutes.

Got out at dawn to find Fan & Mortar didn't erupt overnight. But over the next few hours, I ended up going back and forth between there and Castle because it insisted on looking good enough. Watched Turban and Sawmill start from the bike racks, just in case needed to run back north. When I did head over to Grand, I saw the One Burst Eruption start from Sawmill (and would have recorded it if I had hit the right buttons).

Also did a spot check of East Sentinel, and it looked unchanged.

A windy day, so went up to Daisy at a four-and-a-half hour double interval, and still needed to wait a half-hour. Otherwise everything there seemed normal, with Daisy lasting 3-1/2 minutes.

Mid-day wait for Grand had West Triplet start before Grand. We did get a second burst, one lasting over two minutes

After that, part of afternoon was spent at East Sentinel, where it still looked unchanged from the last few days.

Fan & Mortar didn't do anything after the morning's events until it was time to head to Grand, when it had a weak event. I watched a couple of Turban eruptions from the bikerack again, just in case it picked up, but it didn't.

Over at Grand, both Percolator and Sput D were active. West Triplet was not near overflow. This has been a sign of Rift in the past. After about an hour, West Triplet finally did start, but it was a short duration eruption and Rift stayed quiet.

Grand itself was getting into that weird mode where it had a Turban eruption interval of less than 16 minutes, and where the overflow starts much earlier than usual. Fortunately, there had been no delay, so the interval for the One Burst Grand eruption was about 7-1/4 hours. It was a twelve minute long duration, which helped drain the batteries of several lights.

Spent three more hours at Norris, confirming that nothing much has changed with New Crater/Steamboat. Just as we were about to leave, of course there was a nice minor. We waited another ten, just in case there was a followup, but nothing happened.

We took our time in the parking lot, putting things away and getting organized. I had just backed out of the parking space and was weaving my way among the people waiting for others to leave when we heard a radio call for another good minor. Made the executive decision that there was no way we were circling around and parking and heading back out. Was the right decision, in that after a couple more nice events over the next hour, nothing much happened.

On the way back from doing laundry and grocery restocking in West Yellowstone, decided to stop in at Great Fountain. It appears it started just after we'd passed that spot on the road where it and White Dome are visible, and by the time we arrived at the parking area. Miraculously, there was a parking spot right across from the walkway. So watched the rest of the first series, and the next two. The second was poor, while the third was adequate.

But the most pathetic thing about that eruption that several hours later, I noticed that no one had reported anything about the eruption, so I had to add in our arrival time to GeyserTimes.

A bit later on, went down to check on East Sentinel, which hasn't changed in activity since the major activity earlier in the week. Still cycling every 19 to 20 minutes with all the activity along the North Rim.

Returning from there, I noticed that the Frying Pan was steaming at Fan & Mortar, and there was the appearance of the end of a normal cycle. So I headed off to Grand.

Walked up on another deep drain the the Sawmill Group, with even Slurp quiet. Saw Old Tardy start, and saw Percolator and Sput D erupting. Then Sawmill started.

Twenty minutes after I had passed by Fan & Mortar, Suzanne was doing the same when she saw splashing in the Main Vent. Even though it was a little over two days in the interval, I left Grand because I know Fan & Mortar can have intervals that short, and it's been doing strange things this year. Turns out the Main Vent splashing went on for a long time, and during that time Lower Mortar was showing the first "fuzz ball" activity in several intervals. The Frying Pans and East Vent were also steaming slightly. Bottom Mortar had a series of eruptions, but when the Fan vents started, they didn't look encouraging, and by the time the Frying Pan started, it was obvious that there was not going to be an eruption.

With Fan & Mortar out of the way, it was a day to waste at Norris.

Arrived at dawn, and left twelve hours later. There had been delayed, days old reports (which no one had seen until yesterday) which said that New Crater/Steamboat was looking good. That wasn't what we saw. Infrequently there would be a short, strong minor with lots of water coming out of South Vent, but in only one case was there a follow-up within ten minutes. The "bounces" and "vertical" from North Vent happened a lot, and seem to be of no consequence. Toward the end of the wait, these minor eruptions were happening about a half-hour apart, which resulted in our staying an extra hour. Just in case.

Once again, got up while still dark to check on Fan & Mortar, and once again, they hadn't erupted. So sat myself down to watch and listen to Angle Vent chug away for an hour, until it was time move over to Grand.

It was another double interval, so may have gotten there early. But the second Turban eruption was a Delay Interval. The only good thing about it was that it meant that the eruption would be under less steamy and brighter conditions.

It only took two Turban eruption intervals before the start of another One Burst Grand Eruption. And the conditions were excellent, as even the smoke hadn't settled in yet.

After reconfiguring and having some breakfast, went back out to Fan & Mortar. Still nothing much happening. The big entertainment was about a dozen duck appeared down river, and made their way to where the North Chain runoff channel used to be. There they landed and then settled down to sleep. They were leaving as I was leaving, about 1-1/2 hours later.

Went over to Grand for another eruption, and probably arrived at the end of a Turban Delay Interval. This eruption had a long duration, and the next Turban eruption had no overflow from Grand. Grand finally erupted on what was probably the fourth Turban interval, and the streak of One Burst Eruptions continued.

From there, we considered going back to the cabin, but instead decided to return to Fan & Mortar and kill some time there. Tara Cross was the only other person there. We killed some time as an uninteresting cycle progressed out at Fan. But about twenty minutes into the activity, Fan's High vent suddenly seemed to pick up. So much so that we decided that everyone else spread around the basin (from Artemisia to Grotto to Geyser Hill and the Lodge) needed a "heads up" alert, just in case this resulted in an eruption.

A few minutes later we saw a splash from Main Vent. This is the first time I can remember anything like this happening, which also meant that I had no idea what could happen next.

We saw another splash as the activity from High Vent became strong and continuous. Gold Vent was also pouring out water and itself nearly continuous. High was acting and looking a lot like Vent Geyser as it starts. I started taking video, as the activity continued on for about three minutes. By this time High was erupting to about six or seven meters high.

Then the water in East Vent welled up and it was erupting to at least ten, if not fifteen meters high. This activity lasted (according to my video recording) about 22 seconds, when first Lower Mortar, then Main Vent, and finally Upper welled up and out and into full eruption. This activity started about nine minutes after the first radio alert.

The wind could have been a little better, as the walkway from the middle of the bridge to Spiteful got soaked. I got soaked, and the initial surges from Main are still quite warm.

At some point Spiteful stopped, and became calm. At one point after Fan & Mortar had ended, it had a brief eruption from the back vents, with the rightmost vent throwing water horizontally a couple of meters to the left beyond the rim.

Later in the day, I went out for the early night eruption of Grand, only to walk up on Sawmill starting as I passed Scalloped. Then as I got up to Sawmill, I saw the start of a Penta steam phase. The group was in a deep drain. There was a lot of noise from the Main Vent, and the bottom Right Vent was occasionally spraying water onto the walkway. This activity lasted about four minutes.

The last Grand of the day was another One Burst Eruption. Again, based on Turban durations and intervals and Grand's lack of overflow, I guess that it was a Two Turban Interval Delay. Also, the eruption only lasted a bit over nine minutes, and even with the bright light, I saw no indication of a second burst.

Got up while still dark to check on Fan & Mortar. They hadn't erupted, and in the brief time I was there, all I saw was splashing from Angle Vent. So it was off to Grand.

It was light enough that the flashlight was no longer needed, and warm enough that the walkways were not frosted and slippery. It was another One Burst Grand eruption but it also closed a short double interval.

Watched East Sentinel for a bit, long enough to see a cycle of about 20 minutes between heavy overflows. Then spent three hours at Fan & Mortar. At first it was garbage mode, but everything got quiet for about eight minutes before Fans vents turned on. Later there was a hit of steam from the frying pans, and what seemed like heavy steam from Upper Mortar, but nothing much came from that. Then it was back to garbage mode, with Angle having minor blips every minute or two, and the other vents coming on strong for a minute, then quitting for a few minutes.

The midday Grand eruption had a Turban Delay with a small Grand boop followed by about five minutes of the pool slowly dropping. It was three more Turban eruptions before Grand started, and unlike many Delay starts this year, it was initiated by Grand.

The rest of the afternoon was devoted to killing time down basin. Toward sunset, it was time for Grand again. This time there was not only no Turban Delay, but the One Burst Eruption started with the sun still barely above the horizon.

Visited East Sentinal early in the morning for about 40 minutes. The North Rim vent cycled every 15 to 20 minutes, briefly having a heavy overflow and some surging, then dropping back down for the next cycle.

Over at Grand, the walkways were icy, especially in the shaded areas (or where shaded by people sitting on the benches). I think Rift may have erupted a few hours earlier, as both Crystal and Belgian were high, and Slurp was in a wet eruption.

While waiting, I saw Bulger start, the first activity in days. A bunch of us quickly went over there and got to see Bulger's Hole fill and erupt. It still does its spitting and pausing. It also made noises as it drained.

Grand itself was another One Burst Eruption, starting at the end of a Tuban Interval Delay. A ten minute duration resulted in Vent & Turban quitting.

Then spent a couple of hours back at East Sentinel, where it still didn't do anything, just more cycling as seen earlier.

Grand then had a long interval for no good reason. It finally erupted on a 32 minute Tuban Interval Delay, where the pool seemed to be dropping at Turban started. It then came up and started flooding the area. A nine minute duration was enough for the pool to briefly refill before dropping for good. At least Vent and Turban continued.