Category: Activity Report

Arrived at 07:00 to temperatures even colder than yesterday. Except today it was supposed to eventually be nicer. And it was. There was less wind, which made a big difference.

At around 09:00, for the first time this interval, New Crater/Steamboat started looking interesting. Suddenly there was an increase in the flow down from South Vent, and that was sustained for the next half hour. Only once or twice did the North Vent try to join in, so it never looked like an eruption was about to start. The flow down the runoff seemed to decrease as suddenly as it started.

For the next five hours, there wasn't much going on, and on the whole, it looked a lot like the previous couple of days, except with better weather. Unfortunately, the wind tended to move around a lot, with the middle plaftorm being a prime target. But around 14:30, we got another pickup in runoff. Not as noticeable as earlier, but within the next 10 minutes or so, there was a flood of water going down the runoff channel.

It got to the point were I decided that this was my chance to get a start from somewhere other than the lower platform, so I headed down to the bridge. There I found a torrent of water coming down. Surges were moving debris down into the catchbasin above the bridge. I found it hard to tell what was going on, not being familiar with the view, and the steam didn't help. But after a couple of minutes, it became obvious that either we were about to get the start of an eruption, or we could head home because nothing was going to happen until dark.

We got the eruption, about three seconds after 15:00. The surging built into a pair of water columns that were easily visible because the wind shifted so that the parking lot received a small shower. After a few minutes, I headed up to the middle platform, where it was still dry, and remained so for the duration of the water phase.

Then the wind started shifting so that the upper platform got wet, then the lower, then the switchback, then all the way to the bottom. For the duration of the eruption, the only safe place was the "Decker Island" area, and maybe Echinus.

A couple of hours into the eruption, I noticed that there was a second steaming tree down near the North Vent's runoff channel. I've seen the other steaming tree all summer, but never noticed this spot of hot ground.

After yesterday, the cold but clear at Norris was a relief. Except there was a wind that pushed the steam onto the platform and down to the bridge. Not that there was anything to see, but did make for some nice rime ice on the tree next to the platform. The activity seemed unchanged when we left at sunset, although except in the shadows, all the snow and ice was gone.

The weather when arrived at Norris was clear and cold. Over the next few hours, the clouds started to appear. The sun made an appearance at around 09:00 and then the clouds made it disappear, so it stopped warming up. At around noon, it started to get noticeably cooler and a north wind started.

That shifted the steam so that it was now blowing down toward the bridge when it wasn't obscuring our view from the lower platform. By 14:00 the precipatation started, and quickly turned from sleet to snow. We left the platform at 16:20 by which time there was about an inch of slushy snow everywhere. New Crater/Steamboat had been quiet all day, and showed no signs of even trying to give us a decent minor. The drive home was the first in a while where there wasn't a notice of an eruption while we were driving home.

The drive back was loads'o fun. There was a continuous line of cars from the Madison Junction to Fountain Paint Pots. Only part of that was because of a bison heard at Nez Perce. There was a tree overhanging the road at the Firehole Picnic area, and a lone bison starting another blockage just north of Biscuit Basin.

By moonlight, we could see Rift erupting as we approached Castle. I figured that that meant we would need to wait until Rift ended. Which was the case. First we had to wait through a series of four Turban eruptions to get to the Turban delay. Then it took two more Turban intervals before the eruption itself. At some point between the start of Vent and the time a pause could have happened, Rift quit. The night was mild and only a bit hazy from the smoke, and probably the last nighttime Grand for the trip.

The next One Burst Grand Eruption was even more obnoxious. At a little over eight hours, it turned into the longest Grand eruption interval so far this visit. There wasn't any Turban interval delay, just a series of non-descript Turban eruptions and intervals, with nothing to show for any of them. None of the other vents in the area were active, so they can't be blamed either. The only indication of an impending eruption was that the Turban intervals were getting shorter. After the Grand eruption, I did notice that for the first time in a while, Belgian Pool was down about 2cm.

Beehive had a short Indicator eruption, catching us by starting as we approached Anemone, with the wind in our direction. It took a bit of running and berating tourons to get out into the dry area to the north. At least the umbrellas were useful this time. This was around the time that we were starting to see the smoke plume rising to the south.

It appears that Fan & Mortar are going to have weak events from now until the next eruption. There were two today, and decided to ignore the first, but go on down for the second. The opening of Upper Mortar has been so split that it is now easy to see the end-of-event splashing and roaring down deep in the former vent.

And by this time, the whole southern horizon was a mass of smoke plumes visibly growing and rising. Over at Grand for the final One Burst Eruption of the day, were after one Turban interval we got a two Turban Interval delay. Much shorter than the previous waits. There was a hint of rainbow at the top of the Grand watercolumn, but otherwise it was another windy eruption.

Earlier this visit I'd walked north from Artemisia to kill some time. Not much to see along this trail, as the trees are thick and the trail is still an old roadway. But caught an eruption of Cauliflower, and decided I should try to get an interval. Today was the day to do that.

Turns out the interval I saw was 43 minutes, and the duration and size of the eruption was a heavy boiling that lasted about 90seconds. This matches my memories from long ago, so it appears Cauliflower's basic behavior hasn't changed much.

From there headed over to Grand. Had a two Turban interval delay before we got a nice two burst eruption. This time, at least, the eruption was long enough that not getting a third wasn't a disappointment.

Went out early evening for Castle, and managed to have it start while on the bike between the Lodge and the Lower Store. But it was still an interesting eruption. The Lone Star Fire had flared up yesterday, and today was huge. Behind Castle, with its intermittent rainbows, was a huge, billowing black cloud.

Went over to Grand early, and may have missed an early Turban interval delay. As it was, four Turban intervals later, just as the sun was setting, Grand had another long Turban interval. So the One Burst Grand Eruption took place just before it became too dark to see much, two Turban intervals later.

But the real fun of the day was the fire situation. Mid afternoon the NPS closed the road from Kepler Falls over Craig Pass. That this is the Saturday of a three day holiday weekend meant there were lots more people around today, including those who aren't intending to stay in the area overnight. This closure, along with the overpass detour, created a huge traffic mess. The mess was made worse because of numerous animal jams as people stopped to get a selfie of a bison along the road.

At one point, the road from Faithful all the way to the West Entrance was gridlocked. It didn't help that there were people with cardboard signs saying "Old Faithful Closed" encouraging people to make improper u-turns and further block traffic. And, the road near Mud Volcano was again closed to do more cleanup after a gasoline tanker spill in that area. (Who exactly was the genius who decided that work couldn't wait until Tuesday?).

Decided that there wasn't much point to getting out to Grand as it was getting light, so surprised to find out that it had a well over seven hour interval. That messed up plans for the morning, so didn't really get out til it was close to noon. Mostly got started because there was some minor event at Fan & Mortar, and wanted to see what was going on, but arrived after everything died down.

As it was, Castle started erupting as I was tying down my bike. It had all the earmarks of being a minor eruption, as it was constantly stopping and suddenly restarting. One pause, around the 4-1/2 minute mark lasted for almost a minute. But by 15 minutes it was obvious that the transition to steam had started.

Over at Grand, it was a short, two Turban interval wait with no sign of any delays. The eruption itself as two bursts, which is always welcome.

From there, wandered back down to Fan & Mortar to kill some time. Nothing much happened. On the way back, noticed that Spa was boiling in the northern vent, and near overflow, waited for a bit, and it finally did get to overflow. But within ten minutes, the boiling had quit, and it was back below overflow. Grotto was quiet during all this.

Went out for the afternoon Beehive (they are all afternoon Beehives). From there it was obvious that the fire to the south had flared up, and was getting bigger as we watched. No smell of smoke yet, but expect that to change tonight. Last night we caught whiffs of smoke while waiting for Castle.

The evening Grand was entertaining in multiple ways. I saw Turban in eruption as I was walking up, and when I arrived, West Triplet was in overflow, ending about a minute later. The next interval turned into a Turban Delay,

At around the 28 minute mark, Grand, which had been having waves, booped. Then over the next minute, it had several more, before starting to drop. Turban finally erupted about 6 minutes later, and Grand was low. I made a few notes about the activity, taking about a minute, and when I looked up, Grand was not only full again but having another boil. That lead into an explosive start for Grand.

With the sun low, there were some nice rainbows. And it was a pleasant surprise when Grand quit at the 8m24s mark. Except it really didn't try to refill, and then drained, making this one of the shorter eruptions I've seen.

We waited a bit for a possible afterburst, but Grand gave no sign of that happening. So it was about seven minutes before I got down to WestTriplet. It was in a heavy overflow, with thumping and large waves being generated over the vent. Also, a brochure which had been sitting in the vent area for several days finally started to fall apart, with lots of shreds being circulated by the convecting. None of them were escaping down the runoff.

Over the next six minutes, the thumping and upwelling got stronger, and we started getting small splashes. These quickly built into splashes that I consider to be eruptive activity. Then about three minutes later the splashing got really strong, and continuous, and it was obvious that West Triplet was in a full eruption, the first since 26 Aug. During all this, the remainder of the brochure finally drifted into the vent, and it became part of the shreds being circulated.

It was only three minutes later that Rift started. This seemed to start out slower that the typical Rift eruption, and I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been one of those rare eruptions that never overflow. But it too got stronger as the eruption progressed, and the runoff looked normal.

I've seen Grand have this sort of "low pool eruption" before, but this is the first time I can remember actually seeing West Triplet come out of a dormancy period. Interesting that the eruption started in a way (very gradually) that is much different from normal, and how Rift came alive so much faster than normal.

Went out before midnight for another Grand eruption. The smoke filled the basin, not quite as bad as some of the geyser fogs, but still not pretty. While waiting for Grand, at one point Rift started steaming heavily, and making rumbling noises at depth. This lasted for about four minutes, at a time when Sput D was active. An interesting followup to the earlier eruption.

This Grand eruption had a first burst that lasted 7-1/2 minutes, and the whole eruption was only 9m06s. The second time in a row that we were cheated out of a burst.

Also, the bison have made their reappearance, choosing to use the roads to move around, causing lots of problems.

With the weather still nice, went out for another moonlit Grand eruption. This time we got a Turban Delay, but Grand managed to erupt anyhow, and gave us a second burst.

It was still pretty cool out when started waiting for the next One Burst Grand eruption. Castle started as we walked up toward Crested. Waited for an eruption that never looked like it was going to be a minor eruption.

After Grand and Castle, decided that wasting time at Fan & Mortar was the thing to do. In two hours (a full Daisy interval) nothing much happened, which is not surprising since the previous eruption was only a few days ago.

Beehive had it's regularly scheduled afternoon eruption, and after that I saw a Bulger major eruption that had a brief moment of water visible in the Hole. The last 90 seconds or so of that eruption had Bulger stopping briefly, even starting to drain, only to start back up. The Grand eruption was after a two Turban Interval delay, and did give us a nice second burst.

It seemed like a good idea, to go out at sunset and catch one of, and maybe both, of Fountain and Great Fountain. Arrived to the Lower Basin and just as we turned into Firehole Lake Drive, heard a call announcing the start of overflow. Pulled up and sure enough, there it was. That gave us a timeframe for visiting Fountain. Over there, nothing happend during the time we had, so we returned to Great Fountain to catch it, and maybe, if lucky, return for the end of Fountain.

Arrived to find a vent that was barely in overflow. Turns out right after we left, there had been some sort of major drop, and the overflow had only just restarted. So waited, and watched for Fountain. Which also took its time. Well after sunset before it erupted, and still no Great Fountain heavy boiling. Fountain finished and we were still waiting. It was almost completely dark before we finally got "the big boil", and then had to wait almost eight minutes for bursting to start. Fortunately, the crowd there was well behaved, and no one had the genius idea of illuminating it, so we got to see the bursting silhouetted by the last light.

On the drive back, past Hot Lake, the car in front of us suddenly stopped. Odd, but then we saw why-- there was a badger crossing the road and headed toward Narcissus.

By then it was almost time to go to Grand. It seems that it had a Turban delay as we arrived, and we finally got the One Burst Eruption four Turban intervals later. On the second Turban eruption, we even got a long, heavy overflow, but not enough to be a Delay in its own right.

Finally decided since Grand was so late that we'd not try for the next one before dawn, but wait for Castle. After over half an hour, it finally started. Then quit for a short minor eruption just about the time we got into position to enjoy the moonlight on the water column.

Update: Added photo.

With a bright full moon and no need to go to Norris, it was time to see Grand in the dark instead of just hearing in. Came out and waited just two Turban intervals for a nice One Burst Grand eruption,

While waiting for the next eruption, I noticed muddy footprints on the wet boardwalk. Between the rows of benches on the north side were a faint line of paw prints, about 8 to 10 cm across. There was a second set on the main walkway area. They both appeared at the north end, crossed over the runoff channel, and disappeared at the sign location.

It was supposed to be a windy day, and already there was a strong, cool breeze moving the steam around during the One Burst Grand eruption. In the afternoon we did have to endure a four interval Turban delay for what was pretty much a repeat.

The final Grand of the day was again in the dark. There was a small crowd gathered, including people who had just seen Castle have one of its pause-type major eruptions. Many of those drifted away during the several Turban eruptions we had to wait for. But the conditions were fairly warm, for September night, despite the steady wind. Grand finally rewarded us with the fourth One Burst Eruption of the day.

Of interest is that West Triplet still hasn't erupted in over a week, and each eruption of Grand was followed by a strong overflow from it. And, as noted before, the fluctuations in Belgian seem to have stopped. There is even some runoff coming down from Crystal at times.

Day started cold, but not as cold as the forecast. At Norris it was overcast well into the morning, so it never really warmed up until around noon.

Of course there's no fun in finding out that you wasted another day in a place you don't particularly like only to have the geyser you waited for erupt as you were near Madison Jct. just as it got dark and cold again.

A cold, wet day where the original plan was to head to Norris. Except based on the reports and instruments, there wasn't any reason to go and kill a day there. So instead it was spent mostly staying warmer and drier.

Did head out for a couple of Grand eruptions, The first One Burst Grand had an interval just under six hours, and there were only light sprinkles during the wait of a couple of Turban eruption intervals.

The evening Grand was dry, but conditions seemed worse. It looked and felt like October, with a cold wind and gray, low overcast clouds and everything steamy. But Grand cooperated, and gave us a nice second burst after a short 8-1/2 minute first burst. And once again, West Triplet came up to overflow, but did not erupt. Also I've noticed that Belgian Pool still has not fluctuated much in the last few days.

Made an attempt to see Great Fountain, as it was near the end of the NPS window. But when we arrived, it was not even in overflow, and it was going to get dark in about an hour. With the heavy overcast, no chance of any sort of sunset light show, so we left.

Checked out Oblong, just in case, but it was full and overflowing. The Giant Platform was mostly dry, with a few puddles probably left over from the rains the other day, or some big Giant surges. Over at Daisy there was a normal eruption.

Grand had another one of its fifth hour Turban Interval delays, but this time instead of making us wait for an hour, it had a second delay and then erupted. It was another two burst eruption, and Grand's vent held up for about fifteen seconds before draining and and immediate quitting by Vent & Turban.

Wasted some time at Artemisia, then went on down the trail to see if anything was visible. While most of the interesting features are completely hidden, I did see a Cauliflower eruption that had about a meter boil at the beginning, then a few more boils before dropping back down.

The weather deteriorated for the late afternoon Grand wait. There was a consistent 15-20mph wind the whole time, and despite the sunny, clear sky, it felt cold. No delays, and the interval was less than six hours. There was a large boop from Grand a couple of seconds before the eruption started with a bubble bursting. There was a rainbow coming and going the whole time as the wind shifted the spray that was headed toward Rift. We also got a second burst, a long one so not chance for a third. The surprising thing was that despite the eruption lasting over 11-1/2 minutes, Vent & Turban didn't quit.

Once again, West Triplet showed no attempt at erupting, just heavy overflow after each Grand eruption. Now over four days since and eruption, and even longer for Rift. During this time it also seems like Belgian has been full most of the time, and not shown the fluctuations and drops seen earlier.

In the Lodge Cabin area, the NPS has the fire crews doing some tree thinning within ten yards or so of the cabins. Lots of smaller trees are being removed, and branches from some of the larger trees, too. No evidence they are going to clean up all the deadwood littering the area, though.

More Grand eruptions today. Came out at the 11 hour mark no knowing when the previous eruption had occurred. Was at Belgian when Turban started, and moments later saw what appeared to be a Grand Boop well over a meter high This was followed by another, maybe two meters high. Finally Grand started a One Burst Eruption.

Turns out the NPS had the electronic time (around 04:15), but never got around to publishing that information. Typical.

Later spent a hour at Fan & Mortar where I saw nothing but Garbage Mode, with the vents starting and stopping several times during that period.

The after ended the string of short intervals at Grand with a four Turban Interval delay. Once again this eruption was followed by overflow from West Triplet without an eruption. It's now been over three days since its last recorded eruption.

The night was warm, with a clear sky and a bright moon. Probably arrived just in time for a Turban Interval delay. This Turban duration was long, and the next interval didn't have overflow. The delay turned out to be beneficial, because before the next Turban eruption, Oblong erupted.

In the dark, it seemed like the Oblong eruption was short in both height and in duration, but could definitely see bursting and hear it. Several others went down for a closer look, and got there before the end. During the subsequent wait for Grand, it seemed at times like the steam picked up down there, but no followup eruption.

The One Burst Grand eruption was pretty standard for one lasting about eleven minutes. But during the eruption, I noticed Churn splashing, backlit by the moon with heavy steam. Was over by the time I got past the trees at Rift and Bulger, so I returned to Grand.

This time, West Triplet did not even overflow following the Grand eruption. It's now been well over three days since the last eruption of West Triplet was observed.

Went out in a foggy Upper Basin with the expectation of waitiing a few hours for Grand. Turned out it was less than one, although that was a two Turban Interval delay. The eruption itself was my third consecutive two burst eruption, which is something I haven't experienced in quite a while. The second burst had a distinct false pause about a minute in, but instead restarted and lasted for another minute. During the eruption West Triplet overflowed, but I don't know if it actually erupted.

In the afternoon we finally got back to having One Burst Grand eruptions. I think this was probably a four Turban Interval delay, but can't be sure. The first Turban eruption I saw lasted over six minutes, which is a good sign of a delay, and the next interval had no overflow.

It was an all Grand day, it turned out. Went out after dark for the moonlight One Burst Grand eruption. This one was short, less than ten minutes and Vent & Turban seemed to quit at the end for well over a minute, then came back without a pause in Vent.

After came in last night, the thunder and lightening started. There was more in the early morning hours, which meant there wasn't much incentive to get out despite Giantess still being active. This rain did have the nice effect of getting rid of most of the smoke in the air, although there was still a hint when I first got out and about.

Thanks to an electronic time, knew that we were actually well into the interval as we headed out for the One Burst Grand eruption. I noticed that Sawmill was perhaps even higher than noted earlier this visit. The catch basins may have been just rainwater, but hard to tell. At Grand only waited for one Turban interval. After the eruption, West Triplet was overflowing heavily for a while, showing no attempt at erupting.

On Geyser Hill, waited through a rain show to finally get some daylight activity from Giantess. At over a day, it was still bursting nicely. Infant was still boiling heavily up to a meter, and it smelled almost exactly like Emerald Pool at Norris.

Walked around to check out Plume. The only difference was that the water level was actually visible in the two front/lower vents, and the deep sputtering was visible and sounded a lot wetter.

For the afternoon Grand, there wasn't any attempt at a Turban Delay. We also had a relatively short first burst and a quick second. After this eruption, West Triplet didn't try to overflow.

The early nighttime eruption also had two bursts. Caught us by surprise, as the interval was under 5-1/2 hours. But it had two bursts, and again, West Triplet overflowed after the Grand eruption with no attempt at erupting on its own

After last night's fiasco, headed back to Norris when we found no report of any eruption. This time not only was it dark, but foggy as we pulled into the parking lot. The fog got worse out in the basin, such that as the sun rose, it was difficult to see from the platform what was going on with the vents. We did know that there was some sort of push around 07:07 that got us excited, as if it was starting to erupt.
But nothing.

And that was the way it went for the rest of the day. There would be what appeared to be the start of the push from the North Vent, only for the South Vent to take over.

Around 11:00 we got a radio call informing the gathering that Giantess had started erupting a couple of hours earlier. There was general disappointment with this, but no one left to head back south the the Upper Basin.

At around 17:15, I went down to Cistern to take a look at what it was doing. It wasn't overflowing much, even though the boiling over the vent was fairly heavy. The day had been so disappointing that I was considering leaving to got and see some of the activity of Giantess. As I rounded the last hairpin turn and got within sight of the platform, New Crater started another push that actually got the inhabitations shouting. I started video recording, and made my way back to my chair as this push died. I left the camera running, fortunately, as a second push started a few seconds later, and this one led to the actual eruption at 17:36.

I rushed back to get a height measurement. I got 65% of 130 meters, or 84.5meters (277ft). This matched the impression of those who saw the start from a distance, that it wasn't one of the taller eruptions.

The wind direction was perfect. Most of the parking lot was spared being drenched, and we never were in danger of getting wet. If the wind had been a bit more to the north, we probably would have had a dirtier eruption, and perhaps even a choke. As it was, North only showed a hint of brown for a while.

Stayed for about 90 minutes, until the clouds and wind shift encouraged us to leave. Got back to the Upper Basin with it not quite dark, and headed over to Geyser Hill. The parking lot was mostly dry when we left, although the exit end loop was damp along the edges.

Did the loop around the hill before heading over to the benches near Vault. At Plume, it looked like there was quite an area that had gotten wet, but Plume itself sounded unchanged from what I'd seen earlier. Over between Depression and Heart I thought I caught a whiff of low tide. I expected more, considering there had been quite a bit of time for grass to grow in the various runoff channels.

Caught a couple of Giantess active periods, and an eruption of Vault. Most interesting was the activity of Infant. It was well above the rim, and the muddy looking water was boiling and erupting up to a meter high almost continuously. It also had a sweet smell a lot like Emerald, not the putrid smell I normally associate with it.