Category: 2019

Another day spent at Norris. Started out overcast, and there were some showers during the morning but by afternoon in was clear but cool. At around 11:00 there was a strong minor eruption of New Crater/Steamboat that could/should have resulted in an eruption. Unlike yesterday, there was some followup activity, with weak minors every our or so until around 18:00. Then nothing as of 20:30 when we gave up and left.

A day at Norris. It started out cold and damp and foggy. That persisted until 09:00, well into the morning. Then it cleared a bit, but above the fog were clouds. Those started to precipitate a couple of hours later, with each shower getting stronger and wetter. The last shower around 17:00 as still going when we finally had enough at around 18:30.

Since we stayed all day, that means that New Crater/Steamboat didn't erupt. It did have frequent strong activity, but only once, in the early afternoon, did it look like it tried to get started. And then there was no followup activity, and a longer period of quiet.

Grand had some longer intervals overnight, so it was late morning before heading out. A cool morning, but with little chance of any wet coming from the sky. Got out in time to see the full Turban Delay interval of 31m15s. Grand had a nice explosive start, but the breeze cooperated so it was possible to see Turban start, too.

It was another two burst eruption, and this time the second burst wasn't that long. But the crater showed no attempt to refill for a third eruption, and Vent and Turban actually quit afterwards.

From there it was down basin for a look at Giant & co. Spent an hour watching Bijou splash away, with only one slowdown during that time. The platform was dry, despite yesterday's rains. I did see some splashes from Mastiff's front vent, and the back vent was sending low water horizontally about a couple of meters. Giant's water level also appeared high, so that there was some nice vertical surging on occasion. But on the whole, there was nothing much going on, despite the decrease in Grotto marathon eruptions.

For the afternoon eruption of Grand, during the hour wait there wasn't any activity from Sput D until moments before Grand started. This one was explosive, with an initial burst rocketing up about seven or eight meters. It was just one burst, but at least Vent & Turban continued afterwards.

After a summer of mostly nice weather, woke up to the sound of rain on the roof, and a weather forecast of showers for at least the next five days.

It wasn't raining much, so no excuse to not go out to Grand and get reacquainted with what it's like to see geysers in the rain. But was able to head on before the showers started, and there wasn't much wind when it was precipitating. We also got two bursts, the first ending at 7-1/2 minutes, with the second consisting of well over two minutes of Big Sawmill. The only remarkable thing about it was that Vent & Turban didn't quit.

Before heading out for the afternoon Grand, I discovered that the ravens had attacked by bike and ripped up one of the handlebar grips. The one I'd fixed just a few weeks ago, not the one I will probably have to fix before next season. Maybe it was ravens responsible for the bike rack pileup the other morning.

Got out there during a gap in the rain, but we never really got wet during the wait. The first Turban interval I saw was six seconds short of an official Delay, so no surprise that Grand erupted two Turban intervals later. It wasn't that cold, but really steamy, so couldn't tell if I saw the start of Turban or not. The Vent start time in relation to Grand says that I didn't.

The observations were a bit less today because it was time to take care of things in West Yellowstone. But just getting there was full of surprises. First it was the RV that tried to go beneath the Upper Gas Station canopy. At least the driver only knocked loose the first vent cover, and not the air conditioning unit.

Then it was the injured bison walking down the middle of the road at the Thud Group. It was covered with pine needles, too, so I would think it had had an automotive encounter. Just west of the Madison Campground was another bison on the north side of the road. The time of day was when everyone heads in from West Yellowstone, and I was wondering why I wasn't seeing any oncoming traffic. That was because there was a 1.5 mile long backup due to people stopping to see this one, lone bison.

Before we headed out, did go out for a One Burst Grand eruption. Nothing much to report there, other than it looks like the behavior of Sput D might be decoupling from Turban. There were a couple of times where there were two small eruptions of the sput between eruptions of Turban. Also, two Turban intervals before the Grand eruption the Turban interval was six seconds under 25 minutes. So officially it wasn't a delay, but Turban seems to have thought it was. The duration was almost 6-1/2 minutes, and Grand finally did erupt two Turban intervals later.

We got back in time for the next Grand. This turned out to be a two burst eruption, but unfortunately, the second burst lased almost 2-1/2 minutes. Sput D was active both before and after, with heavy overflow from West Triplet after. This seems to be the latest norm. I expect there to be another Rift in a few days, too.

With reports of a long Fountain duration, we went out there on the off chance of seeing a geyser eruption worth seeing. Instead Fountain started just before it got too dark to seen, but too light to justify the bright lights. With the huge crowd there, we left getting the duration to someone who likes watch the surf crashing against the rocks at high tide.

And between the time we drove over the overpass and parked at the Lower Ham's store, Grand started, so instead we headed in for the night.

Decided to go out in the morning even though the Grand interval was well over six hours. Got to Castle where I saw Vent jetting away, so I headed back in for breakfast.

Went out early for the next Grand eruption, and got to see that yesterday's Rift eruption didn't mean a shift back to West Triplet erupting. Instead we got an active Sput D along with frying pan activity from Sputnik and heavy steaming from back in the rocks from Sput F2. The Turban intervals were fairly long, one just 20 seconds short of a Delay. During the wait the wind picked up quite a bit. But the eruption had a second burst, so there was no reason to complain. Except maybe because the people down by Rift didn't get soaked, as was expected.

Afterwards, because we were taking our time walking back to the bikes, we heard the "water in Beehive's Indicator" call just after crossing the bridge. I would have liked to have stayed longer at the bridge, as there were two otters in the Firehole downstream. But needed to get to Geyser Hill in case the indicator was short. As it turned out, it was a long indicator and had to wait a bit. The eruption itself, unlike Grand, got people wet down by Plume.

The day ended with an evening wait. Turban had a Delay that never looked it Grand was going to erupt, and then took four more intervals before Grand finally showed signs of life. The pool filled early, but the runoff was at the expected time. With the pool having strong waves, Vent started overflowing and Grand followed immediately after. Turban joined in about 10 seconds later. This was another One Burst Grand, and unfortunately, the sun had already dropped below the ridgeline, so the lighting wasn't as good as it had been all wait.

So the second geyser of the day I see in eruption is Churn, from over by the bike rack at Castle. It was a normal eruption, lasting about a minute and about 2-3 meters high. I was over at Grand twenty minutes later when there was a second eruption, just like the first, except maybe even taller. Or it maybe the first looked shorter because I was farther away.

The first geyser I saw erupting was Rift. It continued for several more hours, and during that time there were frequent small, short eruptions by Sput D. Sput F2 was steaming heavily, but I didn't see any indication of steam from Sputnik. There was even a short low-pool eruption of Percolator.

Arrived at Grand Group with Turban in a delay that eventually lasted over 30 minutes. This was followed by a second Turban Delay, this one about 33 minutes long. In both cases the Turban eruption duration was long, 6-1/2 and then seven minutes. The following Turban eruptions were much shorter, with poor overflow and little sign that Grand was trying to erupt. Rift ended three Turban eruptions after that. Finally, six Turban eruptions later, we finally got our eruption, an interval of about 8h18m, which is probably the longest interval of the year.

This activity was reminiscent of activity that's been seen before, when Rift would matter. Grand would stall out until a couple of Turban intervals after Rift had quit. I haven't seen this sort of behavior for years. It will be interesting to see in what mode the group is in tomorrow. Will West Triplet be active, or just overflowing.

Came out again before sunset, and this time Grand was a bit more cooperative. The first Turban interval seen was another Delay, with Grand having a boop at the 35 minute mark. The lighting was from low, as the sun was near the ridge, which made it easy to see any variation in the pool. There were never any good waves, and immediately after the boop, the pool dropped and it took 4 more minutes before Turban finally erupted. This eruption lasted almost 7-1/2 minutes.

Twenty minutes later, overflow was poor but Grand's pool was high, and rising. Turban started, and Grand kept rising, and the overflow started. Over the next two minutes, the pool kept getting higher and the waves kept getting bigger, until it was pouring water off. I expected an explosive start, but it was a normal build up of boils into bursts and then a full eruption. Vent started only 1-1/2 minutes after Grand, and the whole eruption, like the one earlier, lasted less than ten minutes.

Arrived at Norris even earlier than yesterday. The minor activity from New Crater/Steamboat had picked up a little, with notable activity every 20 to 30 minutes. Then starting around 10:00 they started getting big enough to get out the camera in case something happened. Then there was a huge attempted start around 11:07, followed by hours of nothing.

At least it was another nice day, even if the wind picked up in the afternoon and the cover to my truck became a sail.

When we left at sunset, I remarked how the activity of the last few hours looked no better than the day before. I didn't expect another attempt at erupting until around midnight, and dreaded the thought that we would end up coming back for a third day of waiting for nothing.

Another of those days wasted at Norris. There was something interesting every hour or so, but it wasn't sustained, and until the last one we saw at 19:15, just before leaving, none had much of a followup.

I also did a walk through the Back Basin and record video of how it looks in the steamy morning.

Today was a day to get out and about. Went to Lone Star, where it appears we arrived just after the previous activity had completely finished. So we had a bit of a wait, but there was no hurry to be anywhere else.

Turns out that this time there wasn't a minor eruption prior to the major eruption. Instead we got about an hour and a half of splashing which turned into sloshing which turned into what kept looking like the start of a real eruption. When it finally erupted, it was immediately apparant that we were getting the major eruption.

On the way out, we stopped at the little thermal area just off the biketrail to see the small geyser on the hillside. After the Lone Star eruption, we continued our tour of the thermal features by heading out across the meadow toward the bridge. The area was completely dry, surprising considering how wet the weather has been this summer. But that also meant that we had absolutely no bugs bothering up.

On the south side of the river we did encounter one area where we had to watch our step, but you got into the squish only if you weren't paying attention.

I've never been out to that area, so was impressed by some of the spouters and sputs out there. There area also lots of deathtraps out there, features with large overhangs, or small, hot holes hidden in the grasses.

But most impressive of all was Buried Geyser. It's way up on the hillside, with an impressive, yellowish-tan runoff channel and lots of beading in the formations around the vent. The runoff disappears into a couple of caves, only to reappear farther down.

After we got back, it was time for a Grand eruption. Got out in time for a Turban Delay that had several minutes of Grand booping. It then took two Turban eruption intervals before we finally got a nice two burst eruption.

The string of Turban Delays before Grand eruptions continued. At least in the morning, Grand ended up erupting on the Delay, so it didn't matter much. We're also back into the mode where Sput D is frequent and West Triplet is only overflowing.

Mid afternoon the delay did matter. There was a storm to the north, but it looked like it was going to miss us, and it did. Then we had the Turban Delay, and it took three intervals before Grand felt like giving us a One Burst Eruption. Meanwhile a new storm developed, and by the start of the second Turban eruption after the Delay, the rain, along with a strong wind, had started. This weather continued until the end of the One Burst Grand eruption. So of course we got to return without having to deal with getting any wetter. The eruption itself was short, only ten minutes, and there was a distinctive slowdown at around the eight minute mark where Grand went into Big Sawmill mode. But the weather did clear out the benches. They were full as it started, and there may have been about a dozen people there for the end.

Went out for the early night eruption, as hadn't done that this trip. This time, finally, while the Turban intervals were long, there wasn't a Delay. There were quite a few people out for this eruption, as the cloudiness kept the air warmer. It felt more like mid-July, and I didn't need the cold weather gear. But as we were walking back past Castle, it started to sprinkle. This continued during the bike ride back to the cabin, by which time it had stopped.

After a single long Rift eruption, it appears we are back to Sput D in control again. At the same time, it's beginning to seem like having a Turban Delay is a requirement before Grand can erupt.

The morning's eruption had two Delays, and Grand at least erupted on the second one. For the afternoon, there was only one Delay, and Grand erupted on the next Turban eruption. In that case, the interval after the Delay had a normal fill and Turban initiated the eruption.

The second eruption of the day also had a second burst. The first lasted about eight minutes, and the total duration was just over ten. A little disappointing, actually, as the pool drained almost immediately afterwards.

Spent a few hours at Fan & Mortar. While there were definite cycles in activity, they were weak. In both cases, River Vent came on, followed by some splashing in High an Gold Vents. Then everything shut off for several minutes, to be followed by a more progressive start. Angle Vent did shut down without a lot of blipping around at the end, so the cycles themselves didn't last that long.

Didn't make an attempt to go out for the early night Grand eruption, which turned out to be a good move. There was a thunderstorm with hail about then.

It was a day to see One Burst Grand eruptions.

The first was at dawn. Castle was in late steam as I tied down my bike,. The wait started out foggy and the walkway slippery, and for the next hour it got progressively foggier and slipperier. I sort of saw Daisy erupt by seeing a column of steam in that general direction, above the fog. But the little breeze there was pushed the steam away from my view, so I was actually able to see Vent overflow before Turban initiated the eruption.

During the wait, there wasn't much activity from Sput D, only one eruption (and overflow from West Triplet) about an hour before Grand erupted. During and after Grand there was the usual heavy West Triplet overflow and weak Sput D eruption. But the West Triplet also had areas of roiling, as if it was trying to start bursting. I also saw a couple of quick, 30cm high boils on Churn as I was walking by.

So it didn't surprise me to find that a few hours later Rift was erupting. This was the first eruption of Rift since we arrived five days ago. At the same time, Sput D was continuously spitting away. I stuck around to catch the first Grand overflow, at a little over four hours after the previous eruption. From there it was a quick visit to Geyser Hill to check on Aurum and Beehive. I waited maybe a couple of minutes for Aurum, and then since Beehive was being watched, I headed back to Grand.

Rift was still erupting, but Sput D was a lot quieter. As the Rift eruption progressed, it eventually stopped completely. About an hour later, I noticed splashes from Percolator, the first activity there I've seen in quite a while. Normally Percolator is full and overflowing when it erupts, but this time it was empty, and the jets had that thin appearance as if they were coming from down deep. Over at West Triplet, it seemed steamier too, as if it was having one of its deep drain eruptions. (The crowd was too thick to attempt taking a look.)

Meanwhile, Turban had consecutive Delay intervals, with the One Burst Grand eruption one interval after the second Delay. It was about ten minutes after Grand ended that Rift finally quit, too, for a duration of well over three hours.

Came out for the sunset Grand to find West Triplet still drained. Nothing happened down there the whole time I waited for Grand to erupt. This time, at least, Grand erupted on the second Delay. That mean the crowd was still able to see the eruption. Another Turban interval and it would have been dark. The start itself was explosive, maybe 5 meters high, with no preliminary boops or boiling or other warning.

It was a day spent a Norris watching New Crater/Steamboat do little to nothing. Arrived at 06:30 and left at 19:20, and during that time I never saw anything I would consider as an impending eruption. The best we saw was near the end of the wait when I finally felt the need to at least pull the camera tripod out of the bag and attach the phone mount. Otherwise there was a good, strong minor every few hours, but none of them had any sort of vertical component. Also missing was the low rumbling, huffing and thumping that seems to be coming from the North Vent area.

The one amusing part of the day was right as we were leaving, when a couple of surfer dudes, wearing nothing but shorts and sandals, with a towel draped over the shoulders, asked where they could go swimming. The answer they got didn't thrill them, as they were told to try either Boiling River or the Firehole Canyon areas. Someone should have also pointed out to them that the last time someone tried to go "swimming" at Norris, they didn't make it out of the pool at all.