Of course Grand erupted as we were in the Lodge checking in. As it was, an eight Turban Interval delay before the One Burst Eruption meant we didn't miss much.
Instead decided to go take a look at Giant. Spent about 1-1/4 hour in the Bijou Cage. During that time there was only one time that Bijou was not jetting strongly. For about three minutes it was almost off, with an occasional splash every few seconds.
Shortly after we arrived, Mastiff has a voluminous surge out of the back/south vent. This reached a height of about 2 meters, and lasted about ten seconds. It looked like how I remember the start of a Mastiff eruption looks. Later in the wait there was a smaller surge, just before the Bijou pseudo-pause.
We could hear something gurgling among the Southwest Vents, and that was the only activity on the platform in front of Giant. Back in early June I observed Emerald overflowing periodically.
Giant was much more vigorous than June. There were many surges to the top of the bite, and a lot of what seemed to be vertical surges, at least at the beginning.
It was hard to tell, but I don't think there was runoff from South Purple Pool.
Grotto was erupting when we arrived, and still going as we left. Spa was also active when we arrived.
After this, caught a Daisy eruption. Nice and strong, and it lasted 3-1/2 minutes.
Boardwalk staging site.
On the way back, decided I wanted to look at the new Sawmill Group boardwalk. See what over two months of work looks like. But first I got to experience the typical NPS pride in their work sites. I also like the way the blocked access to the signboard. It will be nice when they replace the one in front of Rift with wood. Except at the current rate, they will be fortunate to replace the remainder of the loop before it snows.
At some point Air France moved my flight from Denver to Paris to a day earlier. So we adjusted our schedules accordingly. On the afternoon of 06 August, Suzanne met me at the airport in Madrid following her three week stay in France. We didn't adjust our car rental, which we picked up the afternoon of the next day. So we used the hotel shuttle to get to our accommodations for the next two nights. Went out to eat at a local restaurant, and then I finally got some sleep. The next day Suzanne joined Graham Meech in Madrid while I mostly slept.
In two previous trips to New Zealand, we had to replace vehicles due to problems. This time we didn't even get out of the car rental parking-lot with the original car. The tire low pressure light was on, and one of the tires was obviously leaking. So we got "upgraded" to a slightly larger hybrid with automatic transmission. (Manual transmissions are common in Spain. Until 2008, I used to drive a manual vehicle, but Suzanne never has.)
The eclipse was going to occur at just before 20:30, about 45 minutes before sunset. In the days leading up to the big event, if possible we would take a look at the sun at that time to get a feel for what angle to expect. The sun would be low in the sky, no more than 10 degrees above the horizon. The weather forecast for the three days centered on Wednesday, eclipse day, were for sunny skies for all of central Spain. (Wildfires to the west were another matter…) Because of the low altitude of the sun, clouds far to the west could've been an issue.
The next day we stayed in the mountains of Cantabria, then headed to Bilbao. On the way we were informed by the host of our eclipse viewing accommodations that he had to cancel the reservation because a previous tenant had damaged the place and it needed major repairs. This was after the free cancellation deadline. We figured that that meant we didn't need to worry about not having a place to stay, and so had already dropped our backup accommodations. Thus leaving us with no place to stay both the night before and the night after the eclipse.
By the next morning, the host contacted us and said had found us an alternative at a location that had a totality duration four seconds longer than the original. We don't know how he did it, as the best we could find was a listing for 2600 Euros. (There were places to stay the night before with availability at normal rates, including our Madrid hotel. Worst case, we figured we would spend Wednesday night in the car watching the Perseids.) We got a place to stay and that was all that mattered.
In Bilbao, we visited the Gaztelugatxe, a small islet with an ancient (but repeatedly rebuilt) chapel perched at the top, requiring a 80 meter climb up a rock staircase. The entrance on the mainland was at 200 meters, and the causeway was only 15 meters above the ocean. A lot of steep climbs and drops. (note: in Basque, the "tx" is pronounced like "ch".)
On Tuesday, the day before the eclipse, we explored some of our viewing options. From satellite images, we'd settled on trying to see the eclipse from north of Torresandino, a small town northwest of Arranda de Duero. In Spain, you don't seem to find homesteads and farmhouse out in the middle of nowhere. Everyone seems to live in the small villages instead. From the maps, the area seemed mostly flat, but crossed by gravel roads allowing access away from the public.
We turned onto the gravel road, and almost immediately noticed a small butte about a kilometer from there. We went beyond to check out more locations, and found several possible sites. As we wanted to get checked into our hotel and no longer worry about where we were staying, we left intending to return around sunset.
Got ourselves checked in, and visited our original host at his winery for a quick tasting. I was driving, but Suzanne partook of some samples from the barrel and bottles, and made arrangement to settle accounts. Then we returned to the Cañada Real Merinera near Torresandino to check out the viewing location. We found a suitable place to park, and walked up the hillside only to discover, in the middle of nowhere, a couple also walking up. They were from Torresandino, and with the language barrier, we weren't able to communicate much. But they said that the butte was "a wasteland", and accessible.
At the top was 360° of unobstructed viewing. At the time of the eclipse, the sun would be above much of the haze. We concluded that this was where we wanted to see the eclipse.
Driving back, the sun was a deep red as it dropped into the haze layer. I tried driving an alternate route to the hotel, one that avoided more of the A-1 autovia/expressway in case it was jammed solid.
On the big day, we took our time getting started. Finally left our hotel at 12:30, eight hours before totality. Once again, drove some back roads instead of direct route, just to get a feel for any alternate routes we might need. As it was, we took our time and spent four hours that the directions app said should take 45 minutes. We arrived at our desired location and settled in to wait about three hours before we needed to set up. It was hot, with a slight breeze, no humidity, and too many flies. Shortly after we arrived a car with a couple arrived, investigated the area, and settled in to wait as we were. Theirs was the only vehicle we saw during the wait.
When 19:00 arrived, we started to prepare to head up to the top of the butte. First contact was around 19:30, and I was able to get my camera setup to start taking some photos by then. I took a quick shot every five minutes, just to document what we were seeing.
The people from the car joined us. They were from the UK, and it was their first eclipse. Like us, they found this location by scouting the satellite maps and views. The top of the butte was full of thorny plants and some rocks, but there were plenty of spaces to move around. We spread a sheet for shadow bands, just in case, but didn't expect them with the sun so low. The sheet was suspended on top of the plants and a bit lumpy, so took a little effort to get it reasonably flat. (Also figured it would be a place to dump something during the eclipse.) During that time, cars appeared on the road, and a small group, including the couple we'd met the day before, joined us up on the ridge.
Fifteen minutes before totality, I turned on the camera to continuously record the view of the setting sun. and darkening skies. I also took a couple of panoramas of our observation location.
A couple of minutes before totality, I turned on the phone camera to record what I could. While I prefer to not see the event on a little screen, I had to keep glancing at it to recenter it. As the video shows, it worked out fairly well.
As the eclipse started, I could see the corona start to appear as the diamond ring effect took place. Then suddenly it got much darker. It was strange to see the sun so near the horizon. Because of the haze layer, the corona seemed more orangish red than the pearly white I'd seen in previous eclipses. There was a huge prominence on the left side, and the corona was distinctly flattened at the bottom.
I also tried to take a jerky panorama of our horizon, considering that was one of the features of the location that made us want to be there. The colors weren't as uniform as I'd expected them to be. I never thought to look for planets, although in my video I see Venus just on screen in one corner.
Solar Eclipse 2026 Aug 12 from Torresandino, Spain
Because of the shorter length, it was over too soon, even more than in the previous eclipses I've seen. We never saw shadow bands. The video show a plane passing over the sun within a minute of the end of totality.
For a short time, we watched the ending partial phase drop into the haze layer and turn red. By the time we left, the sun could not be seen through the #14 welder's filter we brought for looking at the sun. The group from Torresandino was still gathered on the top and appeared to be finishing the meal they'd started during the wait.
The drive back was uneventful. Not much traffic anywhere, including the autovia, so all the exploration of side roads wasn't needed. But still useful for seeing areas that don't normally get tourists. Got back with the end of twilight.
Today will be a rest day, with a less than two hour drive back to our hotel in Madrid, then an early start Friday before dawn for our flights home via London and Dallas.
Next year's eclipse will be different, as it'll be early in a cruise visiting Mediterranean islands.
A video combing my two recordings along with Suzanne's has been also posted.
Once again, geyser gazers are welcome to contact me to get a Promo Code which will allow downloading of the app for free. I'm also open to suggestions for features users would like to see added, or finding out about bugs that need to be fixed.
