Got up before dawn and headed out to Grand at the 7-1/2 mark. Arrived there and the pool was full. Castle had a major eruption that started around that same time.
The wait for Grand was nearly 2-1/2 hours, a series of unremarkable Turban eruptions, although during that time we did get to see an eruption of Oblong. The One Burst Grand eruption was long, nearly 12-1/2 minutes long.
2026-Aug-26 : 08:19:05 T1Q 08:18:29 Turban -0m36s 08:18:48 Vent Ovfl -0m17s 08:18:55 Boop -0m10s 08:19:05 B1 --- d=12m41s 08:21:27 Vent 2m22s 08:31:47 P1 12m41s 08:32:31 V&T Quit 13m25s ΣD=12m41s * * * * * 05:53:05 d=03m44s 06:11:23 Int: 18m18s d=03m46s 06:30:53 Int: 19m30s d=03m53s 06:50:12 Int: 19m19s d=03m33s 07:07:53 Int: 17m41s d=03m17s 07:25:15 Int: 17m22s d=03m12s 07:30:18 West Triplet d=36m03s 07:43:06 Int: 17m51s d=03m00s 07:58:16 Int: 15m10s d=03m10s Turban: 20m13s
While waiting, we had two bison appear down by Beauty Pool and slowly head our way. One went in back of Turban and Grand in the steam, while the other headed directly for the benches. As expected, it just passed by, and both disappeared up the hillside behind Rift. (I wanted to post a picture, but it was so close that the camera only captured its top half.)
Had originally intended to head down the Giant after Grand, but the wait was so long we decided to head in and reconfigure first. Then it was down to the Bijou Cage.
In the two hour wait, at first there were a couple of small Mastiff far vent surges, then nothing happened for over an hour. We finally got a large surge, followed by water in Mastiff, but Bijou didn't even slow down much. When Mastiff refilled, Catfish and the B-C vent erupted for a few seconds, the Bijou began roaring for about 1/2 minute.
After lunch in the cabin, returned to the Cage for an hour, where I got to see the Oblong eruption, the fourth in two days.
From there, it was back to the Grand Group, where Turban had a long series of eruptions. West Triplet started about 45 minutes after arrival, the another 45 minutes later, Rift started. That eruption lasted about 40 minutes, and then we had the One Burst Eruption on the next opportunity.
2026-Aug-26 : 16:49:17 T1C 16:49:03 Vent Ovfl -0m14s 16:49:09 Boop -0m08s 16:49:15 Turban -0m02s 16:49:17 B1 --- d=09m52s 16:52:10 Vent 2m52s 16:59:10 P1 9m52s Vent & Turban continue ΣD=09m52s * * * * * 14:43:06 d=04m10s 15:02:18 Int: 19m12s d=03m58s 15:13:36ns West Triplet d=01h05m 15:20:56 Int: 18m38s d=03m45s 15:38:32 Int: 17m36s d=03m47s 15:56:38 Int: 18m05s d=03m35s 15:58:54 Rift 16:15:52 Int: 19m14s d=04m08s 16:33:13 Int: 17m20s d=02m49s Turban: 16m01s
The day before the full moon, so it was bright out, along with partly cloudy. Walked up to West Triplet in eruption, and had just enough time to settle in when Turban had one of its explosive starts, followed by Grand.
A strong breeze kicked up, pushing the steam out so that there really wasn't a good place on any part of the boardwalk to see the One Burst Grand for much of the time. And having the moon disappear behind a cloud didn't help. But was nice that we had no wait.
2026-Aug-26 : 23:30:16 T1C 23:30:02 Turban -0m14s 23:30:16 B1 --- d=09m21s 23:33:17 Vent 3m01s 23:39:37 P1 9m21s Vent & Turban continue ΣD=09m21s * * * * * 23:25:25ie West Triplet