Spent 10 hours at Norris. It's early, but worth checking out since it has had a couple of short intervals. The prognosis was "good but not great". It wouldn't surprise me if it went during the night, or took the better part of a week.
At around 15:00, we could smell smoke, and by the time we left two hours later, it was almost overpowering.
Shortly after arriving, we learned that Giant had had a nice strong hot period in the morning. We arrived back in time to head down at around the 11 hour mark. Didn't have long to wait before a moderately strong one occurred. There was plenty of Mastiff overflow during the 8min eruption of Feather, and a quick restart (1m09s pause) that lasted 4m19s and had about 15 seconds of what looked like Giant surging from a high water level. Like New Crater/Steamboat, I could see Giant erupting tomorrow or next week.
After that, got sucked into waiting at Fan & Mortar. Not sure if we saw a Gold Pause, or two very weak cycles. Sometimes I wonder if we are all watching the wrong things, and that a lot of "event cycles" are just weak cycles that have Main Vent acting up. Sometimes hard to tell the difference.
Looks like we are settling in to having regular Giant hot periods. Saw a strong bathtub in the morning, then mid-day it was a medium strength hot period with a weak restart and not much Giant surging.
I did go up to Daisy to see an eruption upclose, and to see what Splendid is doing. The answer is not well. Daisy was 3m26s, which would be short back when Splendid was active. Splendid itself did nothing prior to Daisy's eruption. Afterwards, there was some weak Side-Boiler action to maybe 25cm for a few minutes before the boiling shifted to the Main Vent area. There are two small areas of orange near Splendid where the runoff channels used to start.
Right now, if you didn't know that Splendid was a large geyser, you'd just assume it's a fairly quiet hot spring with a few sputs along the northwestern edge.
Another day like the last couple, but this one did start getting different.
Giant started showing signs of life. I saw a couple of 6 minute pauses/bathtubs, and there was a short Feather-only hot period observed. Not sure what it means.
Also got an entertaining One Burst Grand in the middle of the day. The first Turban interval was well over 30 minutes, and for some reason, all those gathered around got all excited by a call of waves on the radio. I sure didn't see any. That resulted in a long, 7m duration Turban eruption and a thoroughly drained Grand. But the water level slowly rose over the next twenty minutes, despite there not being much overflow.
When Turban started, Grand wasn't abnormally low, and as the eruption progressed, so did Grand's water level. But no one seemed to notice or care, as the socializing continued. After a minute, Vent started overflowing, and still no one noticed. Finally, as water started pouring off in waves, the assembled group quieted down and concentrated on the geyser. Grand erupted 1m45s after Turban started.
Also wasted some time at Fan & Mortar again. There never was any real attempt at an eruption.
I also went out for the nighttime Grand. With the regular 6 hour intervals, it's nice knowing that I'll have to only wait a Turban interval or so.
News in the morning that New Crater/Steamboat had erupted shortly before midnight was a bit of a relief. After days of trying to get out to Giant for every hot period, and succeeding most of the time, a day off was nice.
So I saw a couple of Grand eruptions, both in good conditions, and one actually had a second burst. I also went up to watch Daisy, and during the wait, Splendid was a calm hot spring. After Daisy I saw a bit of Side Boiler activity followed by some surges in the Main Vent, but nothing even close to what it looked like when active.
Otherwise the rest of the day was wasted at Fan & Mortar, which is typical for those sputs.
Got out to Bijou Cage about 3h45m after the midnight hot period. Turned the corner and noted that Riverside was in eruption, which I hadn't noticed while tying the bike at Grotto. Dropped the pack and was fishing for my notebook when I realized that the noise on the platform didn't seem right, too noisy, and one of them sounded like Feather. Got the spotlight out of the pack to discover that Feather was not only in eruption, but Giant was surging. It was a restart. But after a couple of strong Giant surges, things died down.
Just as the alarm went off, Mike Keller started to announce a fill in Mastiff. This turned out to be a strong bathtub with Southwest Vents, but it was still just 2-1/2 hours since the last activity. This gave us the chance to take some time in getting ready to head out.
Arrived at the Cage just before 07:00. Grotto was active, but nothing much else was going on. Rocket finally erupted about an hour and a quarter later. There was a series of pauses lasting from 45s to 1m20s until we finally got a long, 3 min. pause at 10:30. I used that as the opportunity to make a quick run to the cabin to remove some clothing layers and get ready for a longer wait. As I arrived at the cabin, I heard that Grotto had started another eruption.
That eruption of Grotto was short, with Rocket just 26 minutes later. The series of Bijou pauses continued for several hours more, with another Grotto eruption with an interval of about 3-3/4 hours, one that had no Rocket eruption at the end.
Finally, 13-1/2 hours after the previous hot period, we finally got a long pause and Feather. The water rising in Mastiff took its time, about three minutes, to make itself visible. It was another two minutes before Feather started. Then things started happening. Mastiff overflow was strong, and kept getting stronger. The surging was as high as any of the good hot periods. After about 5 minutes, the surging turned into an actual Mastiff eruption.
Over the next couple of minutes Mastiff kept getting higher, with some bursts at least three times the height of Giant's 10 foot high cone. At that point, Giant, whose water level had been high for quite a while, joined in and within two minutes we had the first Mastiff function eruption since late April.
At the platform, I had set up a camera on a tripod to record the hot period, while near the end I started recording the hot period with my phone. As the eruption started, the water was thrown our way, soaking the north end of the cage where I was. The water was still warm, and I quickly shoved both cameras into pockets to protect them. (Videos will be posted when I get back home).
Then I rushed, as much as I could, to get to the 60 meter baseline marker. The boardwalks were crowded with people, but I was there within the first few minutes of the eruption. The best height measurement I got was 74% of 60 meters, which works out to about 150 feet.
The eruption didn't look that short, it looked huge. But I also know that the angle to the top of the spikes was less that 45°. I reviewed my procedures, and confirmed that the baseline I was using appeared to be the 60 meter one (unless the baseline got moved by a repair). The only thing I can conclude is that Giant must've put up some massive spikes at the beginning, but quickly settles down to something not as high. (Much like what Grand does.) Or all those heights of 200+ feet were not based on measurements, but were optimistic estimates.
I do know that years ago I measured a height, well into an eruption, at 72 meters from that point. That eruption was definitely more than 45°. Not sure to make of all this.
The weather conditions were almost perfect. There was a bit of wind, but after the intial surge, the cage didn't get wet again, and the wind pushed the steam away to the north. It was late afternoon, so there was a full double rainbow seen from my vantage point in the cage.
Signs Final Locations
Two signs, the Giant sign and the "Danger" sign rolled from their locations down in front of the cage platform.
The next hot period was just under 6 hours after the previous. It had a restart, but that pause was long, the restart was short, and there wasn't much going on besides Feather. It was perhaps the weakest of this series over the past few days.
Since Grand and Giant were not in sync, waited less than a Turban interval for a One Burst Grand eruption, then headed back to the cage.
Almost immediately, there was a long Bijou Pause. Even though 4m22s long, Mastiff never had water. This seemed a good sign, that there might finally be a longer interval. Which is what happened. Three hours later, we finally got the hotperiod, with an interval of 8-1/2 hours. The surging in Giant was great, but not enough to result in an eruption.
After that, had another opportunity for a One Burst Grand eruption. Which is what it did.
At sunset we had yet another hot period with an interval of 5-1/2 hours. It wasn't as weak as the early morning, but was pretty obvious that it wasn't going to result in an eruption. It took a long time (2m34s) for Feather to restart, and when it did, it was the only vent erupting and it lasted only 3 minutes.
Based on this, I figured that I next needed to be out in the cage after midnight. So it was quite a surprise to be awakened well before the time my alarm was set by Tara reporting a hot period in progress. One with an interval of a little over 4 hours. Started the mad dash to get dressed and ready enough to head out. Didn't get very far when she announced that things were winding down. Was a relief, but now I wasn't sure when to head back out. Decided that I should be there in time for another four hour interval.
As I commented yesterday, the sameness of the hot periods continued. Went out in the dark and at a little over 7 hours got another in what would be a series of increasingly disappointing hot periods.
They were coming more frequently, with the one before midnight having an interval of about 5-3/4 hours. The surging in Mastiff seemed similar, but it was when Feather quit that things worsened most. Giant was showing less surging each time, and the pause before the restart was getting longer and then the restart itself was getting shorter. Not sure what it all means, but it's becoming disappointing.
The weather was much improved. Which the first hot period in the morning was in the freezing dark, for the daylight ones it was bright and sunny and almost hot. Except when there were clouds, and then the cool air temperature became obvious. The wait for the one before midnight was actually more pleasant because there was a layer of clouds obscuring the rising half moon.
Because my priority has been to wait for Giant, I've not seen many One Burst Grand eruptions this trip. And lately the intervals between the two have been about the same. So the nice thing about the day was that they were so out of phase that I finally got to see a couple. One of them was even a two burst eruption.
After last night, I decided that six hours was the magic interval. The temperature was well below freezing (the weather site said 29°F, but because it was a dry night, there wasn't much frost. I arrived at the cage at 04:30, and I timed it pretty well. At 05:04 there was a fairly strong hot period, with feather restarting, but again, not much surging in Giant. It was just starting to get light, but I could still go back in and get a couple more hours sleep.
Four hours seemed a good bet for the next opportunity, so was out there well in advance. Bijou was having short pauses about a minute long every 20 minutes or so. Nothing changed when Grotto started, but within seconds of the start of Rocket, Bijou paused and within a minute water was visible in Mastiff. This was another one of those weaker hot periods, where we got Feather's Satellite, but no overflow or surging in Mastiff.
The hot period was quite strong, until it was time for Giant to start surging. Despite what appeared to be a high water level, it never seemed to try to start erupting. It was amusing after the hot period was over because there were several vertical surges that were probably higher than anything during the hot period.
After the hot period, about 70 minutes later, activity from the Southwest vents was observed. Don't know if this was unusual, or normal. No one really hangs around Giant for several hours after a hot period, so this might be normal. In any case, I waited around a bit, and about an hour later there was a normal 1m39s Bijou pause. About the same time interval after that was a report of water in Mastiff. So not sure what was going on there.
Did get a real strong hotperiod about when expected, at 23:04 for a little under 7 hour interval. It looked like the last few hot periods, and we are starting to get a sameness to all of them. The most telling part is how Giant just does not seem to do any strong surging, and what surges it does have are later, after a lot of wasted effort.
The last couple of nights I've heard an owl off in the trees across the river from the cabins. I've heard another one over north of Castle on occasion, too.
This day started overcast, foggy, cold, and damp. But it was still more pleasant than the previous day.
Got to the cage in time for another Southwest Vents Bathtub. But I never did see the water level in Mastiff, I only inferred it from the fact that I couldn't hear Bijou and the vents were erupting. It was that foggy.
Then, like the previous day, it was a four hour wait for the hot period. This one was even weaker than before. Feather really tried hard to not restart, but eventually it did. During that Giant made a few half-hearted attempts at surging, but never anything to get excited about.
By that time, the day had warmed up to would be nice in October. Later in the afternoon there was time to catch a One Burst Grand, from where I saw a long Bijou pause. So it wasn't surprising that when I was in the cage an hour later, there was a minor, Feather-only hot period.
I had to figure out when to head out during the night. I decided that the second Grotto eruption would be the best time, and set my alarm for 01:00 in order to be out there in plenty of time. So had just turned out the lights in the cabin when we heard Tara start announcing a hot period. Lost that bet, but kinda glad since I would've been sitting in the cold and dark for several hours when nothing would be happening.
The hot period, despite the sort interval, turned out to be pretty strong. We got there just as the surging in Giant started. Unfortunately, the surging wasn't very strong. On the way back, Castle was in eruption, to did stick around to enjoy the moonlight illumination until the steam phase started.
The day was cold and miserable, with occasional clearing up so that it was only unpleasant.
About a half hour after arriving in the cage there was a Mastiff bathtub with Southwest vent activity. After the usual hour long activity, Bijou started having short (45s-1m20s) pauses every 12 to 14 minutes or so. This continued for the next four hours, with a single longer pause (2m08s) about halfways through.
We finally got our strong hot period, probably the first since the previous day, at 13:18. This wasn't as strong as the previous, and featured a restart that didn't have much in the way of Giant surging. Never thought that it would result in an eruption.
The rest of the day was devoted to indoor activities knowing that there wouldn't be any geyser-related interruptions, like preparing a decent meal. Didn't try for the evening Grand eruption because it was pouring rain about then.
Day started out poorly with rain and a call that Fan & Mortar were erupting.
The rain quit within an hour, but that meant the wind was picking up. And ended up being worse that the last few days. At times, on the bike trail, it was like going uphill even when it was actually downhill.
Got out to Giant just as a Feather-only hot period started. So it looked like there was no reason to be out in the basin for several hours. A good time to fix breakfast and get some other defered tasks done. I planned to get back in about 5 hours or so, based on previous hot period intervals.
As it turned out, that was a bit optimistic. Someone saw another weak hot period about 3-1/2 hours later. (And not only never made a radio announcement, but logged it in a way as to obscure that fact.)
So instead of heading back to the platform, went to Grand instead. RIght after sitting down in the usual area, I saw a badger approaching the boardwalk from the west. It got nearer, then suddenly changed direction and headed south, toward Bulger. Eventually it crossed the boardwalks near Bulger, where there weren't people, and headed off into the trees behind Rift. That was the first badger I've ever seen there.
Also while waiting for Grand, someone lost a dollar bill to the wind and it ended up in the runoff channel. It went unclaimed when it was finally rescued during the eruption.
The One Burst Grand eruption lasted 13m14s, following false pause at around the 11 minute mark. Afterwards, I finally got to see Old Tardy in eruption. It looks like it's trying to make a new runoff east of the walkway, killing some grass. Probably the buildup from the slime due to Crystal being in near constant overflow allows this.
Back at Giant where we spend three hours in the wind, with Bijou stopping from 45 to 65 seconds every 11 to 13 minutes. It really did seem like it was waiting for the next Grotto eruption.
Finally about 6 hours after the previous Grotto, we got a pause that lasted longer. Almost immediately water was visible in Mastiff. Feather came on about 3 minutes into the pause, which was much quicker that all the weak hot periods I've seen the past few days. A minute and a half later, Mastiff started to overflow, and Cave began erupting.
This was a strong hot period, one in which Giant could've erupted. Feather never quit. Mastiff was boiling up to 1.5 meters at times. The water level in Giant was high, and there were several surges higher than the cone, pouring out water. But when that surging continued without an eruption, it became obvious that we weren't going to get an eruption. Feather itself finally died out about 16 minutes after it started.
After that, it was time for Grand again. It was a long interval, finally erupting in the dark. This was due to a Turban interval where Grand booped about a meter high and delayed the eruption for two Turban intervals.
Just before the Grand boop, I looked down basin and saw a huge amount of steam at Oblong. This increased and the we saw water surging. With the wind and cold, it was hard to tell if that was really the start, but in any case, I did manage to see several large surges, and the whole eruption lasted several minutes. Earlier this summer there have been eruptions of Oblong after Giant, so this was acting like the strong hot period we'd seen 3-1/2 hours earlier was an eruption. Or else Oblong wants to become Giant's indicator.
There's a cold storm coming in during the night, so made no plans to go out and try to catch the next hot period. Expect that will probably be the one that leads to an eruption. On the other hand, earlier this season it's been about 16 to 20 hours between strong ones, so maybe will get to see Giant in the rain tomorrow mid-day.
Went out to put the full moon to good use, and shortly after midnight got another One Burst Grand, with Rift erupting, after a 30 minute delay.
The rest of the day was spent watching disappointing activity at Giant. Got out to the cage after seeing the morning Beehive, and it appeared that nothing much had happened overnight. At best, there may have been another Feather-only hot period about the time we were out at Grand. After several bathtub pauses from Bijou, finally got a Feather plus Feather Satellite hot period at 14:30.
Then it was bathtubs every few hours. Finally gave up at midnight after the second pause that lasted over 6 minutes.
Another cool, windy day, which can be quite tiring even though not doing much.
It's early, but I want to keep an eye on Giant in case it shortens up. But first I went down to take a look at the damage around the Riverside trail. They've torn up the old asphalt and are carting it away. I assume it will be replaced by a new and improved boardwalk which will keep people (especially the "Asian Invasion") on trail, or at least not provide excuses for wandering around loose.
At Fan & Mortar, I would have gotten excited if it were not just a day and a half since the last eruption. Fan was completely quiet, except for frequent splashing from Main Vent. Not just little spits, but thick, miniaturized versions of what people like to see at New Crater/Steamboat. And Bottom Vent was erupting enough to put out a little trickle down its runoff. I left, knowing better.
Spent several hours at Giant, interrupted by a nice One Burst Grand. Finally left Giant when I got a Feather-only hot period. Since it was less than three days since the eruption, would be nice to think that this is an indication of a short interval...
The evening was another One Burst Grand eruption, followed by another Feather-only hot period, about six hours after the previous hot period.
Two hours after checking in, we had the same cabin set up the same way as when we were here last. As just like when we left, the three major geysers had all just erupted.
But this time there was a bonus-- an eruption of Morning. So after a quick meal, we headed out to Fountain Paintpots for a wait. Finally got an eruption of Fountain in the dark that got illuminated by a couple of spotlights.
One of the reasons we returned now is so we can take advantage of the full moon. Did just that by heading out to Grand. Got a bonus as Castle was going into steamphase as we arrived, and that's one of the better times for moonbows. They were there, but a bit faint as the moon was low and a bit yellowish from the smoke haze.
