As expected, it was several hours until Grand erupted last night, well after midnight. When in the morning I saw the eruption time, I decided that I could get out for the early morning eruption.
Castle had a minor eruption as I tied down the bike. It was cold, with frost on the bridge and on the boardwalk past Rift. Only had about an hour to wait for the One Burst Eruption. Of interest was that the Turban eruption durations were well over four minutes, in contrast to yesterday's durations.
From there, decided it was not too late to head for the Lower Basin. Before getting to Fountain Paint Pots, stopped by Midway despite (or because) it not being the best time to view. Amusing to see that the runoff down from Excelsior was inundating a corner of the walkway with hot water. As we left, an NPS crew was starting to try to divert the flow under the walkway.
Got to the Fountain Paint Pots parking lot just as the lines were starting to form, but with a bit of waiting, got a parking spot. Went on out to the overlook, and didn't have long to wait before we got a Morning's Thief eruption. That was quickly followed by Fountain, and several more Thief eruptions. The wind was just enough to blow the Fountain steam over the walkway, but the view of the Thief eruptions were good. Fountain lasted almost 30 minutes, in contrast to some of the shorter eruptions of the past few days.
Was just about to head for Grand when the call for Beehive's Indicator went out. Went over to Geyser Hill to see that eruption, and didn't miss anything at Grand.
An eruption of West Triplet came and went, and I was expecting to now wait for the next time West Triplet was ready for Grand to erupt. Instead, we got a One Burst Eruption of Grand about three Turban eruption intervals (an hour) later. After a series of nondescript fills, suddenly Grand was overflowing heavily.
Following that, went to Artemisia, where nothing happened for several hours. A quick check of East Sentinel showed no change there.
Thought we were headed out to Grand a bit early, but that wasn't the case. Ten minutes after we arrived, following several minutes of good, heavy overflow, Turban started with some weak splashes. but ten seconds later, the One Burst Eruption of Grand started. Nice to not have to wait in the cold and dark for several hours. Around the nine minute mark, Grand even had a false pause of sorts, but otherwise it was just another 10-1/2 minute eruption.