Category: 2026

Woke up shortly before the alarm, and within a minute or two got the Beehive Indicator call. This time I only made it to the Firehole River bridge before I heard the roar of Beehive's eruption. Did get as far as Anemone (both vents were erupting). Also, Little Squirt was in eruption, and the alter ground near the boardwalk was steaming heavily.

Went back to the cabin to reconfigure, then headed out to Grand as it was almost 15 hours since the eruption we saw yesterday. Arrived to find Grand in overflow. Turns out that, based on the secret NPS time, I probably saw first overflow.

For the next couple of hours, it was a series of undistinguished Turban eruptions. Finally, West Triplet started to erupt, and eruption that lasted over an hour. During the middle of that eruption, I again saw slight steam coming from the location of East Triplet. Finally, after about fifteen minutes of heavy steaming, Rift began its eruption.

That eruption only lasted about 46 minutes. Two Turban eruption intervals later, Grand had its first good overflow, and we got a steamy but backlit One Burst Eruption.

2026-May-20 : 10:10:04 G1Q

 10:10:00	Boop	-0m03s
 10:10:04	B1	--- d=10m59s
 10:12:58	Vent	2m53s
 10:21:04	P1	10m59s
 10:22:09	V&T Quit	12m04s

				     	ΣD=10m59s
	* * * * *
 06:33:35			d=43s 	
 06:49:49	Int: 16m14s	d=03m45s 	
 07:11:29	Int: 21m40s	d=04m26s 	
 07:31:11	Int: 19m42s	d=03m56s 	
 07:52:20	Int: 21m09s	d=04m15s 	
 08:07:49	West Triplet d=01h04m 
 08:12:28	Int: 20m08s	d=04m29s 	
 08:31:56	Int: 19m28s	d=03m54s 	
 08:49:27	Rift d≈46m
 08:50:41	Int: 18m45s	d=04m18s 	
 09:09:13	Int: 18m32s	d=03m40s 
 09:12:22	end West Triplet	
 09:28:32	Int: 19m19s	d=02m59s 	
 09:46:36	Int: 18m04s	d=03m20s 	
		      Grand: 23m28s

When to return to Grand was an open quesiton. I didn't want to go too early, as these long waits in the cold and wind are tiresome, but didn't want to miss a short interval. Settled on getting out at around the 6-1/2 hour mark. So Grand erupts at just over six hours. I'd just finished something to eat and was getting properly configured.

Instead I went out to wait for Uncertain. Sawmill had a short, no overflow eruption while I was watching and waiting for West Triplet to quit, and see if Rift would start. It didn't. Then Sawmill starts another eruption about 45 minutes later, this time getting strong and overflowing.

By this time Uncertain had been splashing and gurgling nicely, so three minutes later, it also erupted.

At that point it was getting colder and windier, and it looked like the precipitation could start soon.

After last night, Grand erupted at dawn with a reasonable interval. The temperature was listed at 19. Rift erupted soon after, and had quit by the time I got out just before 09:00. The temperature was still a couple of degrees below freezing, and there were quite a few icy runoff channels around Grand.

I also noticed that it was nicely steamy. There was nothing coming from the hillside with the sputs like Sput D and Sputnik. But there was a slight whisp of steam coming from the location of East Triplet.

Afterwards I went to look around Geyser Hill, where there were still a lot more frozen runoff channels, even at 10:00. At around 11:40, I decided I wanted to get over to Grand, and left. I was at the bridge when the "water in the Indicator" call came out. So I reversed and watched the eruption. After a morning with a consistent wind direction, it shifted three minutes into the eruption so that the boardwalk got a soaking.

A quick reconfigure at the cabin, and it was out to Grand. Arrived to find Turban in what was probably a Delay Interval, based on the Turban eruption duration and the behavior during the following interval.

Six Turban eruptions later, late in a West Triplet eruption, we got our second Turban Delay eruption. Four more Turban eruptions and we got a third Delay. Grand finally erupted two more Turban intervals later, on an interval of sixteen minutes.

Grand started with a large boop, and there were two bursts. West Triplet followed the Grand eruption, and there was a report of Rift erupting with a 11 hour interval.

2026-May-19 : 16:30:02 D4/D2/G2Q

 16:29:58	Boop	-0m04s
 16:30:02	B1	--- d=10m57s
 16:32:54	Vent	2m52s
 16:39:11	P1	9m09s
 15:39:53	B2	0m42s
 15:40:59	P2	1m06s
 15:41:36	V&T Quit
				     	ΣD=10m15s

 	* * * * *
 12:30:30			d=04m43s 	
 12:48:21	Int: 17m51s	d=03m24s 	
 13:07:31	Int: 19m10s	d=03m46s 	
 13:25:18	Int: 17m47s	d=03m13s 	
 13:44:47	Int: 19m29s	d=03m11s 	
 14:03:23	Int: 18m36s	d=03m38s 	
 14:18:22	West Triplet
 14:34:42	Int: 31m19s	d=04m56s  D0	
 14:52:52	Int: 18m10s	d=02m49s  D1	
 15:08:47	Int: 15m55s	d=03m38s  D2	
 15:25:38	Int: 16m51s	d=03m11s  D3
 15:56:19	Int: 30m41s	d=4m22s	  D4/D0
 16:14:18	Int: 17m59s	d=3m23s   D4/D1
 		     Turban: 15m44s

Following Grand we only had to wait a few minutes to have an eruption of Uncertain, and then it was time to get out of the wind and cold.

I'd checked the road conditions before we left, and our route to Yellowstone appeared to be a bit wet, but otherwise open. That changed, because when we approached the last exit to Laramie, we encountered a line of trucks parked along I-80, because the highway to the west was closed. That was not good.

We fueled up and then I took a look at the road conditions map. Not only was I-80 closed, but so was US-30. There was, however, no indication that Wyoming-34 was closed. It branches off of US-30 about ten miles north of Laramie, and that's where the closure started. Decided to risk the ten mile drive, as the alternative was to head east to Cheyenne and then head north on I-25. If Wyo-34 was open, it would make the alternate route less painful.

It was open, but pretty slushy for much of the fifty miles. Then it was north on I-25, which was wet, but not slippery or slushy most of the way, so I was able to drive at the 80mph speed limit.

That got us to Casper, where the exit we'd intended to use to fuel up was blocked due to a collision. Fortunately, the closure was gone by the time we went back on the way to an alternate route. At that point, the conditions improved dramatically, and except for slush at the summit of Togwotee Pass, the road was clear.

So we checked in about two hours later than expected, and as we walked from the front desk of the Lodge to my truck parked by the cabins, we heard the "water in Beehive's Indicator" call. We had to go out to Geyser Hill without extra layers, and Geyser Hill was colder and windier than usual. But despite that, it was a nice welcome back.

Later we went out to Grand hoping for an eruption, but after two hours of non-descript Turban eruptions, we gave up. By then it was almost 22:00, and dark, and cold. The temperature was around 28, and windy.