Category: 2025

After last night, it was welcome to wake up to clear skies and no wind, although there was heavy frost on all the vehicles in the cabin area. Once again, Sawmill started during the walk from Castle. Spasmodic was high, and starting to overflow. Belgian Pool was full clear to the rim.
West Triplet also showed evidence that it had overflowed a bit, but was now well below that.

The wait for Grand started out well enough, but just after the six hour mark of the interval we had a heavy fill, strong Turban eruption with Vent overflowing during that time. This meant we were going to have another long wait.

After the sixth Turban eruption later came the announcement of water in Beehive's Indicator followed by the start. Of course Grand erupted on with the next opportunity. This One Burst Eruption lasted less than ten minutes but Vent & Turban still quit afterwards.

2025-May-23 : 13:01:13 V7/T1Q

 13:00:25	Turban		-0m48s
 13:00:56	Vent Ovfl	-0m17s
 13:01:13	B1	--- d=09m35s
 13:03:44	Vent	2m31s
 13:10:48	P1	9m35s
 13:12:18	V&T Quit	11m05s

				     	ΣD=09m35s
	* * * * *
 10:17:00			d=05m39s 	
 10:35:29	Int: 18m29s	d=04m20s 	
 10:54:32	Int: 19m03s	d=03m42s  V0 Vent ovfl: 10:55:43	
 11:10:30	Int: 15m58s	d=03m28s  V1	
 11:29:44	Int: 19m14s	d=03m26s  V2	
 11:48:48	Int: 19m04s	d=04m14s  V3	
 12:08:31	Int: 19m43s	d=04m10s  V4	
 12:26:26	Int: 17m55s	d=03m39s  V5	
 12:43:10	Int: 16m44s	d=03m31s  V6	
		     Turban: 17m39s

Following that I checked on Economic, which was unchanged from the night before. It's hot and overflowing, but needs something more for there to be some activity. As I came back past Grand I noted that West Triplet was in a steady overflow.

The Sawmill eruption I saw start lasted well over four hours. An hour or so after it finally quit I went back out to see if Uncertain might erupt. It was also well inside the Castle eruption window. It wasn't long before Castle started, and the eruption lasted 2m52s. It slopped for a while, but after that was much quieter than many post-minor periods I've seen.

Uncertain didn't seem to do much until shortly after the Castle eruption when Sawmill suddenly had a 50s long eruption. It was still quiet for the better part of half an hour before it started to have periods of overflow. A couple more of these, and it started erupting. That eruption was followed about a minute later by the start of Sawmill.

As we were leaving I noticed that Oblong was putting up a lot of steam. A change of position confirmed that it was in eruption.

The next Grand eruption followed much of the pattern of the previous eruptions-- a long wait before the One Burst Grand. Waited exactly two hours as the Turban intervals and durations got shorter. After a Turban interval that was less than 16 minutes, we got a longer one, and during that extra time Grand finally started looking full with waves. The One Burst Eruption lasted almost 10-1/2 minutes, and despite being longer than the Grand eruption earlier in the day, Vent & Turban continued.

2025-May-23 : 20:53:20 T1C

 20:52:30	Turban		-0m50s
 20:52:47	Vent Ovfl	-0m33s
 20:53:13	Boop		-0m07s
 20:53:20	B1		--- d=10m28s
 20:55:42	Vent		2m22s
 21:03:48	P1		10m28s
Vent & Turban continue

				     	ΣD=10m28s
	* * * * *
 19:05:18			d=04m35s 	
 19:24:03	Int: 18m45s	d=04m13s 	
 19:43:44	Int: 19m41s	d=03m39s 	
 20:01:22	Int: 17m38s	d=04m03s 	
 20:18:53	Int: 17m31s	d=03m08s 	
 20:34:35	Int: 15m42s	d=03m25s 	
		     Turban: 17m55s

Sawmill was in eruption when I arrived, and was still erupting when I left. Belgian Pool had recovered and was just below full. West Triplet was overflowing after the Grand eruption.

Arrived at the Lodge just as Old Faithful erupted. We were checked in, unloaded and the cabin organized by the time of the next Old Faithful eruption. Right after that, went out to Grand. We knew that Rift had been seen in eruption, and it was still erupting as we arrived. But we also knew that there was a good chance that Bulger and Bulger's Hole would be active, too.

Sawmill started after we'd crossed the bridge, and then we saw Bulger was in eruption, too. It was a major and we hurried over there in time to see water in Bulger's Hole. The pool dropped, then came back and it erupted weakly for about half a minute. It was shortly after that that the Rift eruption ended.

About a half hour later, Bulger had another 5-1/2 minute long major eruption, and once again Bulger's Hole erupted with it. The duration was the same, but this time the eruption was strong, with a height of about three meters (above eye level while I was standing watching it.

During a brief interruption in our wait for Grand, Turban had a long Delay Interval lasting over 33 minutes. That was followed by seven more Turban eruption intervals before we finally got our first One Burst Grand of the year. At first I was going to illuminate the start, but there was still enough light, and a strong wind from the northwest so that the eruption was easily visible, with a distinctly bluish cast.

2025-May-22 : 21:40:46 D7/G1C

 21:40:46	B1	--- d=09m48s
 21:41:26	Turban	0m40s
 21:43:53	Vent	3m07s
 21:50:34	P1	9m48s
Vent & Turban continue

				     	ΣD=09m48s
	* * * * *
 18:40:11			d=04m37s 	
 18:58:48	Int: 18m37s	d=03m52s 	
 19:32:03	Int: 33m15s	d=05m06s  D0	
 19:49:58	Int: 17m55s	d=03m36s  D1	
 20:06:58	Int: 17m00s	d=03m26s  D2	
 20:25:59	Int: 19m01s	d=03m33s  D3	
 20:43:44	Int: 17m45s	d=03m17s  D4	
 21:02:08	Int: 18m24s	d=03m25s  D5	
 21:20:55	Int: 18m47s	d=03m30s  D6	
		      Grand: 19m51s

During that long wait, there were a couple more Bulger eruptions, at half hour intervals, but all Bulger's Hole really did was fill and splash maybe as high as the rim. During one Bulger eruption, there were two such fill episodes. The Bulger stopped erupting and all that was seen were a few splashes.

Also shortly before Grand Castle finally had a major eruption. It was rumbling nicely in the dark as we were untieing our bikes.

---

The "brief interruption" meantioned above was the appearance of a grizzly bear and her new cub on the boardwalk down by Beauty Pool. They continued down the boardwalk until they reached the northernmost Turban runoff channel. By that time, I'd shoved everything back into the pack, after getting out the bear-spray. The mother bear looked like she wanted to continue up the hill behind Grand, but then returned to the boardwalk when she wasn't followed. They passed right next to the benches where I always wait for Grand, then by the little boardwalk tree got back onto the ground headed southwest.

By that time I was over by Bulger, and able to take some video of the pair as suddenly the mother started running toward Churn and Scalloped. Now the bears that had been headed toward me were now headed away, so I stopped my retreat. The bears got back on the boardwalk by Scalloped, crossed the bridge, and went up the walkway between the railings. That was the last I saw of them. Someone on the radio reported them over by Castle.

Based on their behavior, the mother knew exactly where she wanted to go, where there was a way to cross the river without getting wet. A while later, I heard on the NPS radio that the two had been sighted in the trailer rows of the government area. Also learned that a similar pair had been sighted by Lynn Stephens in the Lower Basin near Labial around noon-time.

In all my waits at Grand, this was the first time I've felt the need to move due to animal behavior. A few times I've had bison herds suddenly appear and pass around me either going up the hill or coming down. I've also seen a bear, briefly, on the hillside.