Arrived at the bike rack by Castle to find Rift in eruption. For the next 2-1/2 hours got a series of short duration and short interval Turban eruptions. When Grand finally did erupt, Rift was still in eruption. The first burst lasted long enough to be a One Burst Eruption, but not long enough to prevent a second burst. It turns out that after a 70 second wait, we were rewarded with an explosive start to a second burst.
Rift quit sometime during Grand's eruption, and Vent & Turban were only off for about six minutes before their restart.
Uncertain looked promising, but while it made a lot of noise gurgling, there wasn't much visible splashing, and after a half hour or so, the vent was mostly quiet.
Then it was time to go over to Geyser Hill to wait for Beehive. Not a long wait, and the wind ended up cooperating. At first it appeared that the railing was going to get inundated, but the wind shifted enough that by the end of the Beehive eruption, the wall of spray was crossing the river and forcing spectators over there to move.
After noon there was a nice short wait for a less than seven hour One Burst Grand eruption interval.
At first I thought the overnight Grand interval was ten hours, and I had no reason to head out. Then I woke up and redid the math, and decided a twelve hour interval was worth investigating.
I expected to walk up to a full pool, and I did. So much for seeing fog rising above the fog on the webcam. In any case, it was a Turban eruption interval later that we got a Delay that lasted over 33 minutes.
A quick check of Economic showed it to be well below overflow, at the level of the inner rim. There also weren't many puddles in the runoff, and the area beyond the boardwalk was dry.
But like last night, there was only a two Turban eruption interval delay, with the explosive Grand start actually visible due to a slight breeze from the north. Grand ended at exactly eight minutes, followed by a half-minute long pause before the second burst. At 1m07s, that burst wasn't long enough to constitute a Long Burst. About 45 seconds after the end of the second burst, it appears through the steam that Grand was full and starting to push out water. That's when the activty of Turban and Vent picked up, with Vent blasting away. No third burst, and a less than ten minute long Grand eruption ended with Vent & Turban quitting.
Decided that since there wasn't much going on, and it was early, that this might be a good time to go to Fountain Paint Pots and maybe seen an eruption, or at least take a look at the vista enhanced overlook.
There were some periodic Jet eruptions after our arrival, and a half hour later Morning's Thief erupted. I always remembered it as being tall and narrow. This eruption was tall and wide, with much overlap of Morning's pool.
Fourteen minutes later Fountain finally erupted, with two more of the wide and tall Morning's Thief eruptions. Fountain lasted only 28-1/2 minutes. I tried to take video of the whole eruption from the first Morning's Thief, but the wind was directly toward the overlook. And it was cold so there was plenty of steam. Now that it actually is an overlook, will have to try again under better conditions.
In the afternoon we watch ten eruptions of Turban before we finally got a One Burst Grand Eruption. Every one of those was similar to the preceeding, the only change was that the intervals between Turban eruptions got shorter. After the sixth Turban eruption, West Triplet started to erupt. This is the first time I've seen West Triplet have a normal erupion lasting about 1/2 hour that wasn't associated with eruptions of Grand or Rift. At least the One Burst Grand eruption lasted over 11 minutes.
After that, it was time to have dinner. And after dinner, Beehive erupted. The wind cooperated and no one on the walkway got wet.
The sky was clear and the moon was beyond the first quarter, with the temperature already in the upper 30s. But only had to wait a couple of Turban eruption intervals before the Grand One Burst Eruption started. Once again, it was a short eruption, at 8m41s, and there was no attempt at a second burst.
Thanks to an observation in the middle of the night, could sleep in a little longer before going out for the morning Grand eruption. The sky was much clearer than expected, but cold and windy. And still ended up waiting two hours. We finally got a two burst eruption from Grand. After the second burst ended at just over nine minutes, I thought a third burst was guaranteed. The vent drained and made no attempt to refill.
It was a day to get some housekeeping chores out of the way, but fortunately the call for Beehive's Indicator came during a lull. Over on Geyser Hill it was still cold and windy, and that wind kept shifting enough to require the deployment of the umbrella on a couple of occasions.
Later, I got to see Rift in eruption as I arrived at the Castle bike rack. West Triplet was drained by the time I arrived. Instead of the long wait, after a half hour Grand had a Turban Delay Interval of just over 30 minutes. With Rift (and Percolator) still erupting, we got a One Burst Grand eruption that lasted 45 seconds longer than the morning's eruption.
After a night where any sort of aurora failed to appear, we were rudely awaken by the radio call for the start of Beehive's Indicator. Made it out in plenty of time, and didn't need the umbrella this time.
Afterwards, not knowing the time of the overnight Grand eruption, I decided to head out at the twelve hour mark. Then I heard another radio report of the bear and cub in the Daisy Group. That quickly changed to near Castle. I decided today would be a good day to be on foot, in case the NPS decided to shut an area down and I ended up separated from my bike.
Got to Grand just in time of the start of Turban. I'd arrived so early that shortly after I was able to see Grand's first overflow, with the water suddenly creeping down the dry runoff channels. That's when I learned that the overnight time had been posted. Seems that First Overflow time hasn't changed much over the years. This one was 4h17m, and I'd always worked off of 4h20m.
At the same time, Belgian and Crystal were both still extremely low.
What was interesting was that the Turban interval following was over 30 minutes long. One hypothesis I've had is that almost every Grand eruption has a Turban Delay Interval, it's just that we don't seem a lot of them because they come between First Overflow and the opening of the eruption window, when people finally start observing Grand.
In any case, I headed on down basin to check out Economic. It was in overflow, but not as strong as what was seen last night. Onward to Giant. The flowers growing in front of Bijou and Catfish are out in force, and a good sign nothing much has happened there.
Then did the loop around Daisy, which had erupted as I approached Oblong. On the boardwalk next to the swamp beyond Splendid, I found a long line of muddy little bear footprints. All the way to the junction.
Bear cub footprints on boardwalk beyond Splendid Geyser.
Being a Monday, I realized that I needed to head back to Grand before the boardwalk construction crew arrived at 10:00. Got back just in time, as the guy putting up the closure signs appeared at Chromatic at 10:10.
On the way back, noticed that Economic seemed unchanged.
The wait for the One Burst Grand eruption only an hour, with no Turban Delay Intervals. It lasted over eleven minutes, and was followed by a six minute pause in Vent & Turban's activity. West Triplet also started thumping and splashing following Grand.
While waiting for Grand, I was surprised to see Uncertain erupt. All of us waiting there saw the narrow water column, but afterwards Uncertain did not exhibit its usual post-eruption gentle steaming. Instead it was splashing as if it hadn't erupted. It had quieted down a bit by the time I left the area after Grand.
Down at Grotto the boardwalk crew swapped out dumpsters. As usual with the NPS, the esthetics of the placement has a lot to be desired.
Dumpster placement at Grotto Geyser.
Then spent 1-1/2 hours at Fan & Mortar watching what appeared to be a real cycle of activity. Started out near the end, with all the vents of Fan erupting weakly. They then stopped for a while, until I notice Bottom Mortar splashing at depth. This got stronger and then Fan's River vent started. Shortly after, High started and looked quite strong-- 2-3 meters high with Gold also joining in strong. That didn't last long, maybe a minute at most, then the activity subsided. When I left, it looked a lot like how it did when I arrived.
A quick check of East Sentinel showed no change in appearance from yesterday.
At Grand there was an hour wait under cold and blustery gray skies for an undistinguished One Burst Eruption that lasted just over nine minutes, which made no attempt at a second burst.
It was almost dark when the radio call for the start of Beehive's Indicator went out. It included a request for a flashlight. It was still bright enough that the water column could be observed, but we lit it up anyhow. Fortunately, despite it being a windy day, there was no wind during Beehive's eruption, with the water column going straight up and the spray dropping straight down. As we left, the wind picked back up.
("Coy"? Or is it spelled "koi"? Obviously some petty apparatchik decided that someone else, at some time in the future, could potentially be offended by calling a newborn bear a "cub" and that needed to be rectified immediately. Renaming well established things is an offensively obnoxious and stupid exercise of raw power, whether it is unilaterally renaming "Mt. Doane" to "First Peoples Mountain", the "Gulf of Mexico" to "Gulf of America", or changing "cub" to "coy". The online dictionaries don't seem to have caught up with this particular neologism, either.)
The local ravens paid us a visit this morning. Suddenly there was all sorts of noise on the roof and in the trees nearby. I found the contents of the pouch on my bike scattered about, and Suzanne's bike seat had a nice hole punched into it.
Even before the Rift eruption I'd decided to sleep in this morning, but with that wakeup call, got out to Grand around the usual time. Waited a few Turban eruption intervals before we got the expected Delay interval. There wasn't any booping, but the strong convection over Grand's vent was clearly visible and doming at times.
Then had to wait the usual seven Turban intervals before Grand finally did erupt. As the eighteen minute mark on that interval approached, Grand did not look good, but it quickly filled so that by 22 minutes, Turban had started and Vent began overflowing. Still, Grand had to have several seconds of booping before finally initiating the eruption. And once again we got our One Burst Grand which lasted less than ten minutes.
Was contemplating going over to Geyser Hill when the Indicator call went out. Got over there just before the eruption, and had to make a decision as to where to go, especially after yesterday's eruption. The wind was strong and shifting all over the boardwalk. Ended up near Plume, and only had to use the umbrella for a few seconds near the end. Like the Grand eruption earlier, the Beehive eruption itself was knocked over by the wind. The length of board walk drenched was down near the sign and benches, and surprisingly narrow.
I noticed that both Belgian Pool and Crystal Springs were both extremely low as I headed over toward Grand.
Waited a couple of Turban eruption intervals before we got the Delay Interval. This one was relatively short at less that 27 minutes, when compared to the ones lasting well over 30 minutes we've had recently. Grand then had a One Burst Eruption just two Turban intervals later, on an interval that tried to become a Delay but came up short by about a minute.
Checked on Economic afterwards. It was strongly overflowing in all directions, with occasional convection. The water to the south reached nearly to Key Spring, while the runoff under the boardwalk extended well into the flats.
Came back out at dawn for the next Grand eruption. The One Burst Grand lasted twelve minutes, and it finally didn't have a Turban Interval delay and erupted with a shorter interval. Otherwise it was just another cold and steamy eruption.
The day was clear and warming rapidly, and there had been no report on Aurum in over a day, so I decided to go there and record an hour or so of video with the hope of catching an eruption. About an hour later we were rewarded with just that, a nice, strong eruption that seemed to last longer than the 1m16s it actually did.
From there stopped by Beehive to kill a little time with little expectation of seeing an eruption, but didn't have to wait long for the Indicator to start. During that time, as the crowd got larger, I was assessing the winds, and trying to figure out the best place to avoid getting wet. My efforts were wrong, as I got drenched and the umbrella when deployed was of little help.
Still damp, headed out to Grand. Once again we got a short interval before the One Burst Grand eruption. At just under 8m10s there was a long false pause, followed by another 2-1/2 minutes of strong activity (not the usual Big Sawmill). Afterwards West Triplet was in heavy overflow with thumps and some small splashes.
That's when Castle started to have a major eruption. Waited and watched that as it turned to steam before heading in.
Later in the afternoon it appears the bears we saw a week ago were back in the area. Heard over the NPS radio that at first they was causing a traffic backup south of Biscuit Basin. Then they were seen headed south toward Punchbowl and Black Sand Basin along the Daisy to Biscuit bike trail.
It was well before sunset, but went out for the next Grand eruption with the expectation of it happening in the dark. The second Turban of the wait not only was a Turban Delay Interval, but had several boops.
While the Delay interval was in progress, a bison appeared over between Rift and the walkway. It just stupidly stood there as only a bison can for at least fifteen minutes. Finally, just before Turban started to erupt, it began to move toward Grand and the hillside. With Turban erupting, it slowly made it way along the base of the hill. The rim of Grand's crater lies right at the base of the big rock. The bison walked in front of the walk, then ignored Turban and proceeded on until it finally encountered the grassy area to the north.
A couple of Turban intervals later two more bison appeared on the boardwalk by Belgian Pool. These two moved a bit faster, with one going behind Grand and the big rock, while the other passed in front of Percolator and crossed the runoff channel. Once again, they ignored activity from Turban.
It wasn't until the sixth Turban after the Delay that we finally got our Grand eruption. The sun had long set, but it was still bright out, and not too cold. The Turban start of the eruption was explosive, with Vent starting to overflow almost immediately. Grand booped several times before it also began to erupt. It was dead calm, so the highest jets had to clear the growing steam cloud, which then turned into a nice rolling base surge.
Eight minutes into the eruption Grand had a false pause. But it did manage to finally stop at just under 9-1/2 minutes. It was difficult to see, but it appeared there was water in Grand's vent. It was a long pause, and the second burst was just long enough to qualify for the Long designation.
Got out to Grand just before midnight, and in the few minutes before Turban erupted there was no sound of overflow coming from Grand. It was the same for the next Turban eruption. It appears that we arrived just in time for the first Turban eruption after a Turban Delay interval. If that was the case, then we finally got the One Burst Grand Eruption after seven Turban intervals. WHile not as steamy as the previous night, it was not possible to see the starts of Vent and Turban.
In the morning, went out to Grand at sunrise, just in case there was a short interval. Only had to wait an hour for a long Delay Turban interval, but fortunately Grand's pool refilled. That took almost 1-1/2 minutes. The One Burst Eruption lasted 8-1/2 minutes, and Grand made no attempt to have a second burst.
Down at Economic the pool was almost exactly at the point of overflow. The area around was wet, so this may have been higher until just recently.
With nothing much going on, decided that since it had been well over 24 hours, it ws a good time to check in with Artemisia. On the way, as always, stopped by to check on East Sentinel. It was as I've never seen it before-- completely quiet. No evidence of any boiling along the edges. The pool was in good overflow when we walked up, but then suddenly dropped about 4cm below overflow. Then it slows rose back and started overflow a bit once again.
East Sentinel Geyser
Artemisia was full, and we waited only about 2-1/2 hours for an eruption. The wind mostly cooperated for video taking. Early in the eruption Atomizer had a minor eruption.
On the way back from Artemisia, East Sentinel appeared unchanged.
The wait for the third Grand eruption of the day was uneventful. Once again after a few Turban eruption intervals we got a Turban Delay Interval, which resulted in Grand erupting. For well over a minute Grand was pulsating and pouring off water before we finally got the first boop. At the end Grand had water in the crater for maybe 20 seconds before finally dropping.
In the early evening I to wait about 20 minutes to get onto Geyser Hill due to a couple bison who crossed over the boardwalks at the junction heading in opposite directions. Once there, didn't have a long wait for Beehive to erupt.
The Indicator was not erupting when there began a long sustained surge. After several seconds, it built into a sudden start. The eruption was long, lasting nearly six minutes, and there was a nice rainbow from the northern end of the benches.
Went out to Grand with the expectation of having a four Grand eruption day, as the six hour mark was at 22:00. Grand ended up having a five Turban Delay interval, erupting on the last possible opportunity. Then the One Burst Grand eruption, lasting only 9-1/2 minutes, had Vent & Turban quitting. All nicely disappointing.
There was a report of a rumor that an aurora was visible, do headed out to Grand a little earlier than originally planned. All I could see was glow along the northern horizon, so it wasn't much and didn't last long.
Then waited an hour for the One Burst Grand eruption, which again lasted under 11-1/2 minutes. The Grand eruption seemed foggier than usual for an eruption at that time of day. Nowhere along the boardwalk was there a place where fog didn't obscure and scatter the beam of light coming from the light.
Got out early in the morning in case there was another short interval. Instead, after about an hour, got a Turban Delay interval. The One Burst Grand eruption finally came seven Turban eruption intervals later. This time the eruption lasted less than ten minutes, a slight change from the recent One Burst Grand eruptions.
During that wait I checked on Economic. It was still just below overflow. The area around was wet, and it might have had a slight trickle on the southwest side.
The Bijou Monkey Cage by Giant has been rebuilt exactly as it was before, with the benches and large sign in the same locations.
For no apparent reason, in the afternoon Grand had an eight hour interval prior to another One Burst Eruption. Midway through the wait the weather to the northwest started to look bad, and the radar maps showed an approaching storm. But the storm never really materialized, it was just windy with occasional sprinkles.
A report at 0500 of Vent & Turban in eruption let me know that the overnight Grand eruption was somewhere around 0400, and there was no need to rush out.
Got out to Grand just in time for a Turban Delay interval which included a nice boop from Grand. Went down to check on Economic, and it was about 2cm below overflow, but still convecting slightly and it was wet all around the outside of the rim.
The Delay at Grand only lasted four Turban intervals, and the One Burst Grand lasted almost 11 minutes. West Triplet was overflowing heavily after the eruption, but I didn't see any splashes or feel any thumps.
Was intending to go out to Geyser Hill as it was probably time for Beehive, and spend some time at Aurum. That was when I heard the report of Aurum erupting. So instead waited maybe 45 minutes for the start of Beehive's Indicator. The conditions were excellent, with some wind but not enough to matter that close. The duration of the eruption was longer than typical, at 5m16s.
It was a short wait for the next One Burst Grand eruption. Nothing much to say about it, other than it lasted almost 11-1/2 minutes. It was followed by a few splashes from West Triplet.
Afterwards caught the start of Sawmill, and then stuck around for about 1-1/2 hours hoping to see Uncertain erupt. Instead decided to leave when Castle started. With the sun low, there were some strong rainbows, along with a curtain of mist across the bike trail. (Uncertain finally erupted just after we left Castle.)
With Rift still in erution when I left, I expected a long interval. Came out around the 7h45m mark and found Grand to be full. An hour later it was still full, and then it had a Turban Delay interval. This lead to three more Turban eruptions before Grand finally had a good fill.
Even then, Grand took its time and waited well over a minute before starting to erupt. That burst lasted less than eight minutes. But once again, any hopes of three or more bursts were dashed by a second burst lasting over 2-1/2 minutes.
Coming back, there were two bison right next to the bike trail below Castle. One wanders off to the north/left to bed down near the trees. The other just stupidly stood right on the edge of the trail for 15 minutes until finally shuffling off to bed down just far enough away that we could go by.
Around noon went out to catch an eruption of Uncertain, and didn't have to wait long. Even though Sawmill had started, Uncertain started overflowing heavily and within two minutes Uncertain's eruption started.
Returned to the cabin to reconfigure for the wait at Grand, and just when I was ready to leave found a bison grazing away next a cabin across the road for our cabin. Got out of there quickly, only to encounter a second bison by the biketrail across from the store. At least there was a bypass available.
The wait at Grand started out nice enough, but over the next two hours of Turban eruptions the weather deteriorated. It got quite windy with slowly building showers. The wind knocked Grand's water column well to the southeast, but the direction didn't take it over the boardwalk. We got another two burst eruption, once again with a pause lasting nearly a minute. It wasn't long after the eruption that the wind died down completely and the rain stopped.
There was still plenty of light as was locking up my bike. I looked over to see Sawmill erupting, and saw Grand start to do the same. The interval was under six hours. Walked over to see the rest of the eruption, which turned out to be another two burst with a long pause and a fairly long second burst.
Woke up at dawn with no reports for any geyser activity. It being 7-1/2 hours, decided to find out for certain if Grand had erupted, and if it hadn't, figure on a short interval.
Arrived just as Turban started to erupt. No Grand eruption and the pool was full. The following Turban eruption interval was just over 15 minutes. Such a short Turban interval late in the Grand interval implied that Grand would erupt at the end of this Turban interval.
And it did. Once again the steam was pushed aside enough to be able to see the start of Grand and Vent clearly. For the last two minutes or so of the eruption Grand went into Big Sawmill mode. With the fog and steam it was hard to tell when the first burst quit. And at 9m42s, it was long enough for a One Burst Eruption. But after nearly a minute, the start of the second burst could be heard through the fog.
West Triplet started to erupt at some point near the end of the Grand eruption, with many splashes but not much thumping.
Decided to spend some time on Geyser Hill as Beehive could be due soon. Didn't have to wait long. Didn't see any rainbows because I decided to not risk getting wet at that end of the walkway, although it only misted down there.
Afterwards, went over to wait on Aurum. Spent an hour trying to record an eruption start without success. (It erupted about 20 minutes after I left.)
Went out for the next Grand eruption a bit early because it was time for Uncertain. Didn't have long to wait.
From there, headed over to Grand where I probably saw a Turban eruption that concluded a Turban Delay Interval. If that was the case, then we then got to experience a four Turban interval delay. The first burst of the Grand eruption lasted only 7-1/2 minutes. I remarked that we were about to see either a two-star, a three or a four burst eruption. We got the two-star, and the second burst lasted almost 2-1/2 minutes.
Following the eruption, West Triplet again had a heavy overflow with some splashing, but no thumping.
Then waited for Castle, because the interval since last night's eruption was well over 17 hours. It ended up over 18 hours, and we got a minor eruption that lasted just under four minutes.
Arrived at Grand for the evening eruption a bit early, and probably saw the end of the Turban Delay Interval, since the Turban eruption lasted nearly six minutes, and the following Turban eruption was not preceeded by any overflow from Grand.
About an hour later, West Triplet began to erupt. As this was the first true eruption I'd seen, I wasn't surprised that Rift started shortly afterwards. At the same time, Castle started to erupt, the followup to the afternoon's minor eruption.
Until West Triplet quit erupting, Percolator was also in eruption. That was the first activity I've seen from it in at least a couple of years.
It took three Turban eruption intervals after the start of Rift before Grand erupted. This One Burst Eruption lasted exactly eleven minutes, but there was about three minutes of Big Sawmill at the end.
No reports of any geyser activity during the night, so I headed out to Grand at dawn. There was frost on all the cars in the Lodge cabin area, and the frost was starting to form on the boardwalks by Rift and Grand.
West Triplet was in overflow. Grand was also nicely in overflow, so I knew that it had been at least 4-1/2 hours since the previous eruption. Turban didn't erupt for another 19 minutes, a good indication that I had just witnessed a Turban Delay interval.
It took three more Turban eruption intervals before we got a second delay. This one was just over 25 minutes. It was cold, so the view was steamy, but there wasn't much rain on the northern end of the boardwalk, so I could see Turban and Vent from there.
The first burst lasted exactly 9-1/2 minutes, which is more than long enough, but after almost a minute, we got a nicely backlighted second burst. One that lasted for nearly 2-1/2 minutes. Vent & Turban quit with 15 second of the end of the eruption.
Since Castle wasn't acting like it had had a minor before I arrived this morning, and it was almost 18 hours since the previous eruption, and it was a nice clear and calm morning, decided to wait for the eruption. Waited well over an hour. The eruption was nicely backlighted also, while it lasted. The minor eruption lasted 2m36s, with only one preliminary pause before the end. There was very little splashing for the next few minutes, indicating that there wasn't going to be any sort of restart.
While cooking some breakfast this morning, we were stalked by a raven looking for an easy meal. It sat on the peak of the cabin roof, clucking and squawking at us, looking for an opportunity to drop down. It finally gave up only after I put the folding table back inside the truck.
For the mid-day Grand the wait was only about an hour. Nothing out of the ordinary about the One Burst Grand eruption until just before the ten minute mark. Then there was a long false pause whose restart got cheers from the crowd who didn't know better. The eruption lasted another minute, followed by a quick restart from Vent & Turban.
Shortly after West Triplet, which had been in overflow, had a few burst about a meter high. The overflow continued for another couple of minutes. The Belgian Pool water level was up to the rim again.
In the afternoon decided to visit Geyser Hill just before the call for the Indicator came over the radio. There was little wind, so no one got wet on the walkways. After, tried to walk around the rest of Geyser Hill, but was blocked over between Aurum and Pump by a couple of bison grazing just close enough to the walkway.
Castle finally recovered from this morning's minor eruption as I was heading out for the evening Grand eruption. The Sawmill Group was high, with Churn in overflow and Sawmill nearly so. West Triplet had just finished another period of overflow. Caught an eruption of Turban and was going to see if Sawmill was still close to overflow when it started to erupt.
The next Turban eruption interval was a Delay Interval. At around 26 minutes Grand had a series of boops, some as high as two meters. It took another five minutes before Grand's pool finally subsided and Turban erupted.
It was a three Turban Interval delay. It was still light enough to see and the wind from the north pushing the steam to the right helped. The first burst lasted just over ten minutes. There was a pause of nearly a minute and then a nice tall second burst that spiked repeatedly above the steam clouds below it.
The days started the way many do-- with a call of "water in Beehive's Indicator". Got out in plenty of time. There was a breeze blowing the spray across the river and onto the overlook. This meant we had a strong half double rainbow most of the eruption.
A few hours later, it was time again to go out to Grand. Sawmill was in eruption, while Belgian was full and West Triplet was in overflow. A quick check on Economic showed that it was unchanged from yesterday, overflowing in several directions with a hint of convection over the vent.
Only had to wait for two Turban eruption intervals before we got our Grand eruption. This was my first two burst eruption of the trip, lasting just under 10-1/2 minutes, with Vent & Turban continuing after. During the wait for Grand I noticed that West Triplet was in overflow at least once, and overflow started during this Grand eruption.
After lunch it was time to visit more of the basin beside the walkway from Castle to Grand. I caught a Rocket eruption as I stopped a the bike rack by Grotto. I then discovered that the Bijou Monkey Cage was no longer there, but under reconstruction. At least it appears they are going to rebuild it as it was before.
Bijou Monkey Cage construction
Bijou Monkey Cage construction
Did a quick check on Fan & Mortar just to see that nothing has happened there in the last few days. Then headed over to Daisy.
I found that Splendid was full. There was water being pushed into the northern (left) lobe where Splendid's runoff channels begin. Large ripples on the pool, but I never saw any boiling during the lead-up to the Daisy eruption. About ten minutes before Daisy, Splendid began to drop such that when Daisy started, the lobe was empty of water. Despite a strong wind, Daisy had an interval just over 100 minutes.
After Daisy, the refill of Splendid didn't look much different from previous visits. Most of the boiling during the fifteen minutes of observation was from the Side Boiler, with single, infrequent bursts from the Main Vent.
The Sawmill eruption I'd seen while headed to Grand earlier resulted in a deep drain at the Sawmill Group. Sawmill and Uncertain were both quiet when I arrived, but a few minutes later Sawmill had an eruption lasting about 25 seconds. That seemed to help stimulate Uncertain. Just as it was starting to look promising, Sawmill started, and proceeded to erupt for about 26 minutes. The activity from Uncertain died down during the first few minutes of the eruption, and it did nothing for about 15 minutes. Then splashing started up, and it appeared we might even get a dual eruption with Sawmill.
When Sawmill did quit, the activity in Uncertain increased. It seemed to stall during a short Tardy eruption a couple of minutes after the end of Sawmill's eruption. But five minutes later, the surging and bubbling built into another nice Uncertain eruption.
Back out for the evening Grand. Saw Turban in eruption as I locked up my bike. Noted that Belgian had dropped a little, but was still mostly full, while West Triplet had just ended overflow. Was finishing setting up my camera when Grand suddenly started booping, catching me off guard. So I failed to get a video of another One Burst Grand eruption. The wind direction was toward the walkway, soaking the benches between the prediction sign and West Triplet.
West Triplet was back in overflow, and Sawmill was erupting, as we left the area. Have not seen any activity in Bulger since the activity of Bulger's Hole.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Bears behind Bulger Geyser
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.
Before sunrise I was over by Castle and started to feel droplets. Despite the weather forecast of clear, the clouds overhead were more than just keeping it dark. Didn't have a long wait for the Grand eruption, and once again it was a short two burst eruption that seems to have made no attempt at a third burst. At least Vent & Turban didn't quit.
With time to kill, went over to Geyser Hill as it had been sixteen hours since the previous Beehive eruption. Didn't have a chance to start reading a book when the Indicator started. This was also a relatively short Indicator, with a duration under 20 minutes.
It was also windy up there, and I thought at times I could smell the breakfast odors coming from the Lower Store, as it would have been directly upwind. With is more interesting as during the Beehive eruption they had a fire alarm over there go off.
Later it was another short wait for another One Burst Grand Eruption. The wind had not improved and the smoke seemed stronger by then. After the eruption West Triplet came up to overflow. It had some heavy convection but no thumps or splashes.
Mid-afternoon was the time to check out Fountain, based on its earlier activity. Arrived just in time to see the start, a 4-1/2 hour interval, along with a couple of Morning's Thief eruptions.
At sunset walked up to a Turban Delay Interval, but fortunately, we got the One Burst Eruption instead of a couple of hours of a delay. The eruption itself lasted 12-1/2 minutes, with Vent & Turban quitting within seconds of Grand's end.
Shortly after that, several of us sitting on the benches felt a sharp thump, much like the ones you get at Oblong or Artemisia. Have no idea what caused it, as there wasn't anyone near us on the boardwalk. As we left, we saw West Triplet overflow, but it didn't have any convection or thumping.
From there, went directly out to Fountain Group, on the off chance that we might get another Morning eruption. After about two hours of waiting, we got an eruption of Morning's Thief. That was followed within a minute or so of the start of Fountain.
