Category: Activity Report

Another day pretty much like the previous. Again, there was some nice activity from New Crater/Steamboat during the morning, but by afternoon it had settled into a mode where it looked like it was trying to start, but as soon as the North Vent started to build, it would die down instead.

I also didn't get to see the bear that wandered up Tantalus Creek and headed off toward the parking lot.

Arrived at Norris in the dark. It appeared that New Crater/Steamboat was much improved from yesterday. But that only lasted until mid-morning. As the day progressed, it regressed. When we left just before sunset, the activity seemed to be little better than what we'd see yesterday. The platform and rocks around the South Vent were dry, as well as the back runoff channel. A disappointing day.

Spent about an hour and a half at Norris to confirm that it was way too early for a Steamboat/New Crater eruption. The activity was even quieter than when we arrived for the previous eruption. Based on this, we figured there was at least six to eight hours before the chance for an eruption, and left.

Got back just in time to head out to Grand. The interesting things about the morning One Burst Grand eruption was the way Vent and Turban died down to almost nothing, then came roaring back. Stuck around for the possibility of afterbursts, but the afterplay didn't start for over ten minutes.

Mid-afternoon Beehive eruption had a slow start, with about ten seconds of large surges to about 5-7 meters before actually starting. But despite the wind, it was a nice tall eruption.

The afternoon had another One Burst Grand Eruption. This time Cent & Turban did quit, and it took nearly 24 minutes for them to restart. Once again there was a short, 6 minute West Triplet eruption after Grand quit.

Was probably the last opportunity for a moon-lit Grand eruption, so went out even though the high clouds scattered the light so that there weren't sharp shadows. Unlike most nighttime eruptions, the breeze for the One Burst Eruption was not to the north, so the eruption was nicely visible from the wooden benches area.

With the parking lot scheduled to be gone next year, a trip out to Imperial was fairly high on the list of things to do this year.

We got a later start than intended, and the lot was well over half full by the time we arrived around 09:00. There were considerable number of people going beyond the overloop not just to Fairy Falls, but to Imperial. The whole hour we were there, there was at least another group present.

Imperial erupted continuously whiile we were there. Some of the bursts were huge. From where we were at the last trees before the mudpots, some of the water was visible well above the ridgeline. If my math is correct, these bursts were around 12.5m (45ft) high.

Also watched Spray coming and going. Didn't get intervals, but did see it slow down each time, stop for perhaps 15 seconds, the slowly restart.

Arrived back to the Upper Basin just as the Grand eruption window was opening. Went out and there was already no room on any of the benches, except one wooden one at the very north. Once Vent started, I made my way down toward Rift, as the spray from the wind, while not reaching the boardwalk, was obscuring the water column. Did get a second burst, a nice tall one. And Vent & Turban didn't quit afterward.

Not much to say about the evening One Burst Grand Eruption. Rift was erupting as I arrived. It appears there was a Turban Delay in progress then, based on the next Turban eruption being without overflow and having both short interval and duration. The delay was for three Turban intervals, and Rift quit during Grand's eruption.

West Triplet was in eruption as we arrived at the Grand Group. It lasted only about five more minutes. Then it was an hour and a half of short Turban eruptions and intervals. That ended with what seemed like, at first, just another Turban eruption. But this one built in strength, and with the moonlight, it appeared that the steam over Grand was getting stronger.

Finally, after 2m12s, Grand began erupting. The first burst was short, followed by a short second burst. The breeze made it easy to see the entire water column in the moonlight. With a duration of less than ten minutes, we knew that the odds of a third burst were poor, but possible. What we didn't expect was for Vent & Turban to quit.

Up for the next Grand eruption with the sun well above the trees, and it already starting to get warm. This One Burst Eruption at least lasted just over ten minutes. At around 8-1/2 minutes, Grand went into full Big Sawmill mode. At one point, around the nine minutes mark, there were distinct bursts maybe four meters high for a period of about ten seconds. But it could never find a way to quit. The activity picked up a little before it all quit.

It had been well over 20 hours since the last time Artemisia erupted. So went on down there since there wasn't much else to do. After about two hour wait, finally got the thumps signalling the start. Pretty standard eruption, although the steam plume never overwhelmed the observation deck like the last time.

Looks like Beehive has found the ability to erupt daily again. Got the Indicator call, went over to Geyser Hill to see it, and made the mistake of not staying put but instead trying to run through the rain. At least a nice warm day, and dried out while waiting for Grand next.

Saw a big burst out of Depression as I was tying up my bike at Castle. Over at Grand, only had to wait one Turban interval for the One Burst Eruption. Afterwards, watched Slurp erupting and actually putting out a trickle of water. A major eruption.

For the sunset One Burst Grand Eruption, the sun disappeared behind a thin bank of clouds just as the waves on the pool started getting big.

It was mostly a Grand day. It started with a moonlight One Burst Eruption just after midnight. There was a hint of moonbows in the steam, which obscured the start.

The morning One Burst Grand eruption could've been a bit better. The sun was just starting to illumintate the tops of the jets. With a duration of just over 9 minutes, a second burst would have looke quite nice.

Later, just before noon, I walked up on the start of Rift. The water had yet to reach the boardwalk. After another One Burst Grand eruption, Rift was still active. Grand erupted on a Turban Delay, with some booping around four minutes before the actual start. The start itself was slow, with building boiling before a nice bubble start.

I did get to see an eruption of Bulger's Hole. Bulger had been having its frequent minors, and I caught one just after the Grand Eruption. Ten minutes later, it had a major eruption. Four minutes into that, the Hold erupted to 2 to 3 meters for about 30 seconds, then quickly draining.

Also saw the start of Grotto Fountain. The top of the water column was easily over the tops of the trees in front of it for well over a minute.

Checked out Oblong, but no more eruptions since the one in the dark. The runoff channel from Solstice looked even drier, at least at a distance, which re-inforced the idea that it had quit shortly before my observation the other day.

The final Grand of the day occurred before sunset. There was a delay this time, too. The standard delay where the following Turban eruption is short, with no preceding runoff. This time there was finally a second burst. What made that a little more interesting was the the pause was long, over a minute, and there were several large boop-like boils before the burst actually started.

Headed up to Norris at dawn with the expectation that there wouldn't be much reason to stay past noon. When we arrived at 06:20, what we saw did nothing to persuaded me otherwise. New Crater/Steamboat was pretty quiet. Down at the bridge there was a steady trickle of water, augmented by widely spaced surges from South Vent.

Over the next 3-1/2 hours we never saw anything that looked promising. The weather deteriorated, with a thick gray cloud cover, and no warmth. As for the geyser, there was no vertical activity from North Vent, nothing sustained and definitely nothing approaching any sort of notable surge. The only thing I saw that was moderately encouraging was that it appeared that occasionally the play was nice and wide, and wasn't being killed by South Vent. Was considering moving my deadline from noon to 10:00.

So it was a complete surprise where we got a really nice burst out of North Vent at 09:56. One that kept building, turning into a surge as South Vent joined in. In a matter of seconds, it was obvious that an eruption had started.

Everyone was completely unprepared. It took me 40 seconds to dig out my phone/camera, attach the handle and start recording. I did have the presence of mind to almost immediately run down to the runoff and see what it looked like. I captured the appearance of the North Vent runoff channel filling, impressive how calm that started, only to be a raging stream a few seconds later.

At that point, returned to my seat where I at least covered the packpack in its raincoat. At first it looked like we could get some chokes, as slight the wind was toward the north. The North Vent was brownish and not steady, while the South was taller and continuous.

Then the wind shifted, toward the platform. I had to abandon the area to get out of the rain and into my raingear before becoming soaked. But that also meant that nothing was being washed into the North Vent. It became clear and clean for the rest of the time we were there. The wind kept slowing shifting from down to the bridge to the upper platform. No spot was safe.

After returning to the Upper Basin, went out for Grand. It first had what appeared to be a Turban Delay, which the long duration and subsequent lack of overflow before the next eruption tended to confirm. After two intervals, there was a second delay. This time Grand did erupt on the next opportunity. It was less than 17 minutes later, and overflow from Grand was just starting. Grand filled over the next minute until it finally had a series of increasingly larger boils. One Burst, as usual.

Last night, while waiting for Grand, I thought there was a period of time where the steam from Oblong had increased, and it might be trying to erupt. As it turned out, it did erupt a few hours later. There was a second one while we were still at Norris. So after Grand, when down to check things out. I couldn't see or smell any evidence, despite knowing there had been eruptions.

Also while down there, checked out the Giant platform. Grotto had had a long marathon yesterday lasting until around dawn today. It looked like Bijou started erupting while we were waiting for Grand. The platform was totally dry, which indicates that despite the changes going on around it, Giant isn't ready, yet, for a hot period.

Once again went out for activity at Mugwump and friends. The sequence of events there seemed fairly standard-- Mugwump was erupting every sixteen minutes or so. About five minutes later Three Crater would start having splashes, some up to two meters high. These continued into the next Mugwump eruption, when it would stop. In addition, Myriad Group #1 was active. This would start having strong convection at the time Three Crater would start, and last about two minutes. On one occasion, it had a couple of bursts to about 1/2 meter.

The water level in Sawmill's pool is as high as I've seen it since it was active. I thought I'd post a photo of it showing that. Note the small catchment in the foreground.

Arrived at Grand for a Turban Delay and a West Triplet eruption. The latter wasn't long enough to trigger Rift, and the Delay was for only two Turban intervals. It was a One Burst Grand eruption, not too exciting, but nice sunny conditions.

Got to see Artemisia erupt for the year. Was hot and dry and sunny, so perfect conditions, except the breeze was up the slope, so had to constantly keep shifting position. There was also an Atomizer minor eruption, little more than heavy splashiing, at the start, but didn't stick around for any more activity there.

Was one of the hotest days I've experience here in years. Supposedly the weather station recorded 86F. So was a pleasant surprise for the afternoon One Burst Grand to require only a short wait. During most of the eruption, there was a full rainbow from Vent all the way to Rift. And for the first time in quite a while, there was a short pause before Vent & Turban restarted. Once again, there was a short, about six minute duration West Triplet eruption shortly after.

Later took advantage of the full moon to experience Grand. It cooperated in erupting not only before midnight, but had two bursts. The moon was too high for any rainbows.

First up was a visit to Mugwump and friends. Spent about three-fourths of an hour there, seeing three eruptions. The last was much larger than the first two, in that only the last one put water down the runoff between the pool and the roadway.

Before each eruption, Three Crater started up. A number of the bursts seemed larger than in the previous visit. The activity there stopped with the Mugwump eruption, only to start back up again about six to eight minutes later.

When saw the activity the previous visit, in late June, there was one time when I waited in the evening when there was no breeze but still warm. The pool was dead quiet at times, and it was possible to see convection and upwelling from and area in front of Mugwump's vent. Today, before the last, large eruption I saw, this area boiled heavily and had several bursts to about 25cm. This activity was seen about the time Three Crater started and lasted for a couple of minutes. It was seen again just before the Mugwump eruption.

Over that Grand, all the sputs were quiet prior to the One Burst Eruption. There were consecutive Turban delays. The Grand pool filled slowly during the second delay. There was never a time it looked really good, then dropped. The progression was just extremely slow. So much, that Grand started having heavy boils and even boops nearly two minutes before the eruption finally started.

Down basin, Solstice Geyser is quiet. From what I could tell, the runoff channel was dry and the slime mat was drying out, implying it's been that way for several days. During the days prior to this visit, I'd seen reports of it being both active and quiet, so will be interesting to see if it is becoming intermittent, with long durations and intervals.

At Giant there was no evidence of change or increase in activity. The platform was nearly dry, with just the usual puddle next to Giant's cone that could have been rainwater. At Oblong, I did walk up to it slightly below overflow. That restarted a few minutes later, obvious from the steam coming from the catch basins near the vent.

Conditions in the morning were clear, sunny and almost too hot. That changed by the time it was time to head out to Grand. There had been distant thunder for about an hour before that, and it was mostly cloudy with occasional sprinkles as I headed out. After a couple of Turban intervals I finally had to put on the rain gear.

While the rain stopped by the time the eruption started, the wind shifted and it got more humid. That meant that when Grand started, the northern benches got wet and there was so much steam it was difficult to see much of the eruption. So it was a bit of a surprise when finally, after a minute of waiting, there was the first surge of the start of the second burst. And thanks to that amount of time and the wind direction, it was possible to see the full water column.

I made it as far as the bridge before I had to wait at Castle for a lull in the rain to bicycle back to my cabin.

Today I noticed that the Firehole River is as low as I ever see it, with the ledge at the Sawmill runoff channel completely exposed. But I also noticed some fresh, clean gravel has been washed below it, creating a debris fan. I expect that when Sawmill reactivates, it will create a huge delta, but what caused this small one? Closer examination shows that the area around "Snake Eyes" & SG-#8 is exceptionally clear of debris, as well as the runoff channel, as the photos here show. I suspect there was an eruption there. I didn't notice this when I left in early July.

The One Burst Grand for our return was not particularly auspicious. Arrived well after sunset, but that glow, with the moon meant it was still light. Ended up waiting almost two hours for an almost 7-1/2 hour interval. The Turban activity was dull and normal, and if there was a delay, it was well before we arrived. The moon was visible when we arrived, but clouds moved in from the north so that there wasn't even a glow by the time of the eruption.

The only item of note was the frequent activity among the sputs, probably Sput D. Loud (for nighttime) and frequent, and what exactly is going on there will have to wait for daylight.

Out at dawn to sit in the fog. Grand erupted on the Delay, and even had a second burst. The wind picked up enough to push the fog away once the eruption started.

A few hours later was headed out to Castle and then Grand when got the call that Beehive's Indicator was erupting. So instead went over to Geyser Hill to catch Beehive up close. Considering the one to three day intervals and the number of no-Indicator eruptions, have seen a few from Geyser Hill. This one drenched the walkway well beyond Anemone.

Castle was erupting as we finally got down that way, and the One Burst Grand interval was less than six hours despite a Delay.

From there it was time for Daisy, and arrive about two minutes before the eruption. I didn't see anything from Splendid during that brief time. The Daisy duration was longer, 3-1/2 minutes this time.

From there caught an Atomizer major eruption, then returned to Daisy again. This time was around long enough to confirm that Splendid was doing nothing prior to Daisy's eruption. Worse, the duration of the eruption was just over three minutes.

While waiting for Daisy, a coyote wandered past between Splendid and the trees, heading south. After Daisy's eruption, we just got on the main bike trail when several coyotes off to the southwest started yipping and barking. Usually hear them from that area in the evening or dark, not in the middle of the day.

Caught the fourth Grand eruption of the day, and this time not only did it not have a Delay (I was there fairly early and saw several intervals), but there was a second burst. It was a short eruption, a bit over ten minutes long, but Grand made only a feeble attempt to refill, then Vent and Turban quit.

Heading out to Grand when I noticed that Crystal Spring was in overflow and Belgian was full. I've yet to see any pattern in their levels.

There were never really any good waves. But suddenly Grand had a couple of small boops, about 1/2 meter high. Almost immediately, the pool began to drop. It was four minutes before Turban started erupting, and by that time, the interval was well over 25 minutes for a Delay.

The duration of the Turban eruption wasn't out of the ordinary, lasting a bit over five minutes, so at least a delay of two Turban intervals was expected. It was a surprise then to see a full Grand Pool and waves at the fifteen minute mark. There wasn't any overflow that I could see. A minute later, with overflow just starting to be vislble due to its steam, Turban started almost explosively. It took Grand only about 30 seconds to join in.

Eight and a half minutes in, it looked like Grand had paused, only to restart and go into a Bit Sawmill mode for another minute. Vent and Turban, at least, didn't quit.

There was another West Triplet eruption after Grand, this one only lasting 6 minutes. Belgian and Crystal had dropped a bit, the latter below overflow, and Slurp was noisily erupting at depth.

It appears that Aurum may be shifting into summer mode. Spent a little time around it well after the six hour mark. I did get to see the pool just north of Doublet erupt. When I arrived, it was withing the lower rim, but splashing a few centimeters high. The wash zone around it was dry. At 16:34, I saw it erupting to about 1 meter, and the wash zone was filled. That was the end of the eruption. I don't know the name or number, or anything else about what it does.

Saw Turban erupting as I tied down my bike. 35 minutes later I saw the next Turban eruption. For about ten minutes, it looked good, but there were never any waves. Fortunately, the next Turban eruption had no overflow, and Grand erupted on the second Turban fill. This was another two burst eruption, with excellent lighting. West Triplet started during the second burst.

It appears the way to keep Rift from erupting is to want to video record the start of an eruption. I've now seen a number of complete West Triplet eruptions, and never has Rift shown any inclination to start. Percolator and Sput D tend to start about ten minutes into West Triplet's eruption, then they quit shortly after West Triplet ends. One variation was today's later eruption where Sput D stopped for about five minutes.

It being full moon, went out for a few eruptions with that in mind. Unfortunately, Castle erupted before moonrise, and the One Burst Grand didn't seem to have the same moonbows of the night before. Did finally get the Rift start. It didn't seem to matter as Grand erupted about 15 minutes later, but wasn't able to record it.

Did another check on Daisy. This time there wasn't any boiling in Splendid prior to Daisy's eruption, but there was water in the orange lobe and it dropped as expected. The boiling afterwards didn't seem quite as strong, but was from both vents, and I didn't stay around for long.

Grand was cooperative in the morning. I think I arrived for a Turban Delay, as the first Turban duration was well over six minutes, and for the next one Grand's pool didn't have much, if any, overflow. The real cooperation was that there were two bursts, and it was fairly obvious that the pool was not going to drain before the second burst started. West Triplet started after, but there was no eruption of Rift.

Came out early for the next Grand opportunity, arriving with West Triplet and the sputs all in action. Again, there wasn't an eruption of Rift. This time there definitely was a Turban Delay, as the interval was over 36 minutes and Grand even had a couple of small boops.

Two Turban intervals later, we got another Grand eruption were there wasn't much doubt there was going to be a second burst, but this time , after about 45 seconds, Grand went into Big Sawmill mode. At that point it felt like it was trying to stop, and just couldn't. This lasted for at least 20 to 30 seconds, when finally the activity picked up a little bit. This continued on for a burst lasting nearly three minutes.

Then finally got the opportunity to see Grand by moonlight. There were occasional clouds covering the moon for a few moments, but nothing threatening. It was One Burst Grand, but the moonbows were some of the best I've seen. From West Triplet, for moments there was visible a full arc extending to the left and over the steam from the Daisy Group. At times, it seemed like the stronger parts, in Grand's water column, had a hint of color in it. Best of all, the dozen or so people out there didn't feel the need to provide their own illumination.

Arrived at Norris at our usual time. It was three hours before there was any activity worthy of note. It was a nice, strong surge with the usual little bit of vertical to the right of the North Vent. Following that, about every half hour to hour there was a similar event, but in most cases there wasn't any followup. The next to last event was at 13:33.

The following event was about 45 minutes later. This one looked different from the beginning. It was stronger, thicker, and the vertical surging was definite and pronounced. Within moments, it built into the eruption start, at 14:15. I somehow managed to capture this on video, despite my efforts to screw it up. I'll post the video the middle of next week.

I waited too long to get a height measurement. By the time I got back to the bench, all I got was 50%, which works out to about 65 meters or about 210 feet. Still taller than any other geyser but Giant, but well below what it had been a few moments earlier. This was probably because of the wind direction causing much of the water to flow back into the North Vent. The water was already brown after about five minutes, and threatening to have a full choke. Unfortunately, that never happened. Most of the runoff was behind and toward Echinus. There were several new runoff channels forming over there, while nothing was going in west of the North Vent's runoff channel. That channel was practically dry for most of the eruption we saw.

Thanks to the wind direction, it was easy to see the base of the water columns and the vents for most of the eruption. At times it was obvious that there were several areas of forced steam around and in front of the South Vent. In addition, it was easily apparent that there is some sort of third vent to the right of the North Vent. The video I took shows this clearly.

Finally left the area after a couple of hours. The steam was mostly steady, but some chugging could be seen and heard when the wind shifted more toward the north.

In the Upper Basin, attempted to go out for a post-sunset, early moonlit eruption of Grand. But a thunderstorm moved in and we had no desire to get soaked by it, so headed in before the One Burst Grand eruption could happen.

Started the day out by waiting for Daisy to erupt. Splendid was quiet when I arrived, but it was pushing water out into the orange northeast lobe. As Daisy activity increased, the water in Splendid dropped so that the water was no longer going into that orange area. Then, about a minute before Daisy, Splendid's Main Vent started to boil up to about 1/2 meter. This is the first time I've seen such activity in a long time. It quit as Daisy started, which was expected.

The Daisy eruption as again short, this time 3m17s. But a few minutes after the end, Splendid started having boils from both the Main Vent and the Side Boiler. This activity continued for about 20 minutes, and I left a few minutes later. I stopped by about an hour after Daisy, and did notice a small boil from the Main Vent. So there's definitely a small pickup in the activity from Splendid. Will have to see if there's any progression over the next few months.

At Grand, West Triplet was erupting as I arrived. After it ended there was a series of indistinguished Turban eruptions, which lead to a delay. Finally, three more Turban intervals later, Grand had its One Burst Eruption. West Triplet started almost immediately. I expected this eruption to trigger Rift, but was disappointed.

When I came out for the next Grand eruption, I was surprised to see Percolator and Sput D erupting with West Triplet completely drained and dry, and Rift quiet too. About ten minutes later West Triplet started from deep down in the vent. This eruption finally resulted in an eruption of Rift. It was right after the end of West Triplet when Grand erupted. This time we got a second burst with low sunlight and clear skies behind the water column.

The first Grand eruption of the day was distinguished by being a short One Burst Eruption that had a long period of the pool pulsating before draining. From there it made sense to go to Geyser Hill, as it had been nearly three days since the last Beehive eruption, and was in the latter half of the Aurum interval.

Aurum seemed not a vigorous as at other times, but still looked promising. So was in the wrong location when Beehive suddenly began. Because of the strong, shifting wind, over by Sponge we got soaked several times. Shortly after than we got the Aurum eruption with an interval just under five hours, so a bit longer.

The next wait at Grand was long, for no apparent reason. No delay, no West Triplet, not even heavy overflows. Just a couple of hours of weak Turban eruptions until it was well out of the NPS prediction window and the crowd started to disperse. But once again, Grand did reward us with with a seconds burst, and despite the wind, the sunlight made for a nice view.

It's interesting in how some observers are intent on recording every spit of every little feature and sput of a group, then fail to report the most interesting activity. A case in point is how some are reporting all the little sputs around Daisy, yet then fail to note the duration of the Daisy eruption itself. That's a number that changes over the years, and seems to be related to the activity (or lack of activity) of Splendid. Back when Splendid was active, the durations were about 30 seconds longer, and if the current value were to start showing a change back to that, it would be good to know. Besides, it's not that hard to calculate.