Traveling north at 06:00, we'd just passed Fountain Paint Pots and were about to start across Fountain Flats when I noticed a truck-camper stopped in the road at the Thud Group. Next I noticed there was a bison standing right next to the road. I thought it odd that someone would be stopping for a lone bison at that time of day, considering that they'd probably seen many bison the day before.
As we approached, it continued on its way. Next to the bison, maybe 20 feet away, was another shape that I initially thought was a calf. But it was the wrong color, and the wrong shape. It was a wolf, intently staring at the bison. I too stopped for a minute, then we continued on our way. In the passenger side mirror I saw a calf next to the bison, and realized what was going on. The wolf was looking for an opportunity to get today's meal, and the bison wasn't going to let that happen. (Or the wolf was waiting for a distraction)
Arrived at Norris at 07:10, and twelve minutes later New Crater/Steamboat had a small minor eruption better than anything we saw yesterday. It had the look and feel that it could be the start of an eruption, but then it started to die down. There was little to no activity after than for quite a while.
Over the next few hours, there were a few smaller such minor eruptions, but each were isolated, and not part of a series that looked like something could be building. For the last few hours of our stay, things were about as quiet as yesterday. After a stay of six hours, we left.
Back at the Upper Geyser Basin, went out to Grand at the six hour mark. Saw a Turban eruption, and unlike yesterday, were all the Turban eruptions were well under four minutes long, this one lasted over four.
The follow up did not look good, at the twenty minute mark the steamy Grand Pool looked full, but it also started to look like we were going to have a Turban Delay interval. But fortunately Grand had an explosive start at 23m16s.
This burst ended just as abruptly a bit over 7-1/2 minutes later. We were either going to get more bursts, or witness perhaps the shorted eruption recorded. It was a quick, twenty second pause, and then Grand restarted. This burst lasted just over the 1m15s that qualifies as a Long burst. For the last 30 seconds or so, Grand was in Big Sawmill mode. This was a bit disappointing, as now the eruption was long enough that it could be over. Instead, the forty second pause resulted in a third burst. This one too qualified as a Long, lasting 2m22s. By the time it ended, the duration for Grand's eruption was well over 12 minutes. As expected, there was no attempt at a fourth, and Vent and Turban quickly shut down.
2024-May-26:16:02:15 G3*#Q 16:02:15 B1 --- d=07m37s 16:02:52 Turban 0m37s 16:05:52 Vent 3m37s 16:09:52 P1 7m37s d=20s 16:10:13 B2 7m57s d=01m17s 16:11:30 P2 9m14s d=40s 16:12:10 B3 9m55s d=02m22s 16:14:32 P3 12m17s 16:14:57 V&T Quit 12m42s ΣB=11m16s ΣD=12m17s * * * * * 15:38:59 d=04m05s Grand: 23m16s
Around sunset, went out to Geyser Hill to check on Beehive. The interval was well over 17 hours, so it might erupt any time, including a No Indicator start, which seem more common on longer intervals (I'll leave it to someone else to confirm or refute this observation.) But an hour later it still hadn't erupted, so I headed back in.