Category: Activity Report

The day was cold and miserable, with occasional clearing up so that it was only unpleasant.

About a half hour after arriving in the cage there was a Mastiff bathtub with Southwest vent activity. After the usual hour long activity, Bijou started having short (45s-1m20s) pauses every 12 to 14 minutes or so. This continued for the next four hours, with a single longer pause (2m08s) about halfways through.

We finally got our strong hot period, probably the first since the previous day, at 13:18. This wasn't as strong as the previous, and featured a restart that didn't have much in the way of Giant surging. Never thought that it would result in an eruption.

The rest of the day was devoted to indoor activities knowing that there wouldn't be any geyser-related interruptions, like preparing a decent meal. Didn't try for the evening Grand eruption because it was pouring rain about then.

Day started out poorly with rain and a call that Fan & Mortar were erupting.

The rain quit within an hour, but that meant the wind was picking up. And ended up being worse that the last few days. At times, on the bike trail, it was like going uphill even when it was actually downhill.

Got out to Giant just as a Feather-only hot period started. So it looked like there was no reason to be out in the basin for several hours. A good time to fix breakfast and get some other defered tasks done. I planned to get back in about 5 hours or so, based on previous hot period intervals.

As it turned out, that was a bit optimistic. Someone saw another weak hot period about 3-1/2 hours later. (And not only never made a radio announcement, but logged it in a way as to obscure that fact.)

So instead of heading back to the platform, went to Grand instead. RIght after sitting down in the usual area, I saw a badger approaching the boardwalk from the west. It got nearer, then suddenly changed direction and headed south, toward Bulger. Eventually it crossed the boardwalks near Bulger, where there weren't people, and headed off into the trees behind Rift. That was the first badger I've ever seen there.

Also while waiting for Grand, someone lost a dollar bill to the wind and it ended up in the runoff channel. It went unclaimed when it was finally rescued during the eruption.

The One Burst Grand eruption lasted 13m14s, following false pause at around the 11 minute mark. Afterwards, I finally got to see Old Tardy in eruption. It looks like it's trying to make a new runoff east of the walkway, killing some grass. Probably the buildup from the slime due to Crystal being in near constant overflow allows this.

Back at Giant where we spend three hours in the wind, with Bijou stopping from 45 to 65 seconds every 11 to 13 minutes. It really did seem like it was waiting for the next Grotto eruption.

Finally about 6 hours after the previous Grotto, we got a pause that lasted longer. Almost immediately water was visible in Mastiff. Feather came on about 3 minutes into the pause, which was much quicker that all the weak hot periods I've seen the past few days. A minute and a half later, Mastiff started to overflow, and Cave began erupting.

This was a strong hot period, one in which Giant could've erupted. Feather never quit. Mastiff was boiling up to 1.5 meters at times. The water level in Giant was high, and there were several surges higher than the cone, pouring out water. But when that surging continued without an eruption, it became obvious that we weren't going to get an eruption. Feather itself finally died out about 16 minutes after it started.

After that, it was time for Grand again. It was a long interval, finally erupting in the dark. This was due to a Turban interval where Grand booped about a meter high and delayed the eruption for two Turban intervals.

Just before the Grand boop, I looked down basin and saw a huge amount of steam at Oblong. This increased and the we saw water surging. With the wind and cold, it was hard to tell if that was really the start, but in any case, I did manage to see several large surges, and the whole eruption lasted several minutes. Earlier this summer there have been eruptions of Oblong after Giant, so this was acting like the strong hot period we'd seen 3-1/2 hours earlier was an eruption. Or else Oblong wants to become Giant's indicator.

There's a cold storm coming in during the night, so made no plans to go out and try to catch the next hot period. Expect that will probably be the one that leads to an eruption. On the other hand, earlier this season it's been about 16 to 20 hours between strong ones, so maybe will get to see Giant in the rain tomorrow mid-day.

Went out to put the full moon to good use, and shortly after midnight got another One Burst Grand, with Rift erupting, after a 30 minute delay.

The rest of the day was spent watching disappointing activity at Giant. Got out to the cage after seeing the morning Beehive, and it appeared that nothing much had happened overnight. At best, there may have been another Feather-only hot period about the time we were out at Grand. After several bathtub pauses from Bijou, finally got a Feather plus Feather Satellite hot period at 14:30.

Then it was bathtubs every few hours. Finally gave up at midnight after the second pause that lasted over 6 minutes.

Another cool, windy day, which can be quite tiring even though not doing much.

It's early, but I want to keep an eye on Giant in case it shortens up. But first I went down to take a look at the damage around the Riverside trail. They've torn up the old asphalt and are carting it away. I assume it will be replaced by a new and improved boardwalk which will keep people (especially the "Asian Invasion") on trail, or at least not provide excuses for wandering around loose.

At Fan & Mortar, I would have gotten excited if it were not just a day and a half since the last eruption. Fan was completely quiet, except for frequent splashing from Main Vent. Not just little spits, but thick, miniaturized versions of what people like to see at New Crater/Steamboat. And Bottom Vent was erupting enough to put out a little trickle down its runoff. I left, knowing better.

Spent several hours at Giant, interrupted by a nice One Burst Grand. Finally left Giant when I got a Feather-only hot period. Since it was less than three days since the eruption, would be nice to think that this is an indication of a short interval...

The evening was another One Burst Grand eruption, followed by another Feather-only hot period, about six hours after the previous hot period.

It was like we never left.

Two hours after checking in, we had the same cabin set up the same way as when we were here last. As just like when we left, the three major geysers had all just erupted.

But this time there was a bonus-- an eruption of Morning. So after a quick meal, we headed out to Fountain Paintpots for a wait. Finally got an eruption of Fountain in the dark that got illuminated by a couple of spotlights.

One of the reasons we returned now is so we can take advantage of the full moon. Did just that by heading out to Grand. Got a bonus as Castle was going into steamphase as we arrived, and that's one of the better times for moonbows. They were there, but a bit faint as the moon was low and a bit yellowish from the smoke haze.

It was packing to leave day. Did see Beehive in the morning (an over 18 hour interval), then a One Burst Grand. In the afternoon walked up on an eruption of Castle.

That was folllowed by a 9-1/2 minute One Burst Grand, but at least it was a Turban start where it took Grand 1m12s to finally get going.

After all the excitement of the past few days, nothing much happened.

Went out to see a One Burst Grand where lightning started shortly before the eruption, then rain started as we were bicycling in. Went up to Beehive and waited for about an hour. Decided to leave and had just got to Bronze and Silver Springs when the Indicator was called. Later was about to head out to Grand when the rain started again. By the time it ended, Grand had erupted. A good day to rest up and get ready to head home,

Updated: 2018 Aug 11: Uploaded video at New Crater/Steamboat Eruption 2018 Aug 04.

---

After Giant, there was no reason to not got to Norris this morning, other than I was getting short on sleep. Left in the dark at 05:00, only saw two elk along the way, and arrived at Norris at 06:00.

We'd packed up and covered the truck and were just heading to the entrance trail when we heard Kit yelling on the radio. Seems Steamboat was having one of its huge minor eruptions, and she thought it was starting. As it turned out, it came close, but no eruption. Good thing too.

For the next eight hours, there were a few minors, but nothing to get too excited about. It was a cool, windy day, with occasional clouds. Then, after a lull of several hours, at 14:10, there was a sudden surge in activity, and within moments, we had an eruption.

It was a bit windy, but blowing away from us. Toward the parking lot. The north then climbed quickly, while the south never came close to matching it. Comparing this eruption to the one on 27 May, this one didn't seem as tall, but was definitely more powerful. We had to shout at each other. The water column of the north vent also never turned reddish brown. It did look dirty at times. With the wind, I would suppose that much of the water was carried beyond the local watershed which feeds back into the north vent.

Another difference was that it was harder to tell when the water phase ended. An hour later there was still a small stream of water coming out of the southernmost part of the south vent. It was my impression that within 15 minutes the columns had lost all their height and were mostly steam.

The platforms were packed almost from the start. That there was a ranger talk being given at the top platform contributed to that, too.

Later on finally got down to take a look at the runoff. It was a lot less than the previous eruption I've seen, which supports the contention that there wasn't as much water. (Or that a lot more of it was being tossed onto the trees and parking.)

The car cover I bought specifically for use at Norris worked perfectly. We got back to a dry lot, but there were lots of vehicles covered with white residue. I saw one Ford F150 pickup that used to be black, but now was a sort of matte-finished gray. Including the windows.

Did go out for the last Grand eruption of the day. It was a nice two burst, but the wind picked up just before the eruption started, so impossible to see the start of Turban or Vent.

On the way out, heard the screech of an owl that was sitting in one of the dead trees in the Castle runoff. Could hear it over at Grand, too.

Updated: 2018 Aug 08: Uploaded video at Giant Eruption 2018 Aug 03.

---

After another hot period around midnight, at dawn it was again time to head back out to the Bijou Cage. There were frequent pauses lasting about a minute every 12 to 15 minutes until about a half hour after Grotto started. Then we got another moderately strong hot period, but once again, there wasn't much surging after the restart. Shortly after, we had another Rocket major eruption.

About seven hours later we had a similiar buildup, but this time the hot period consisted of just Feather and Feather's Satellite. At three minutes in duration, this was one step above the solo Feather hot periods. But it seemed to be a good sign, because the past few days we'd have gotten one of the medium strength hot periods at this point.

A few hours later, shortly before time to head back out, it was really disappointing to hear on the radio that Fan & Mortar were in eruption. Annoying because was lounging around the cabin waiting to head out to Giant. Didn't want to go too early, as was going with full nighttime gear, which would be bulky, heavy and warm.

Again came out to an eruption of Rocket followed by a series of short, half-minute long pauses every 12 to 15 minutes or so. After two hours of this, and six hours after the previous hot period, we finally got a longer pause.

This hot period started out slow, but as it built, it just seemed stronger than all the others had been seeing the past week. Mastiff's surging was taller and wider. There wasn't a restart, and when Giant started surging, the water level seemed higher.

The wind, so annoying during the day, was now perfect. It moved all the steam out of view, yet didn't seem to limit the height of Giant's water column. I wasn't able to measure the height, but it seemed much higher than the previous, day-time eruption I saw a week ago.

The use of two high-power flashlights made the eruption easily visible. And because it was at night, it was easy to move around and enjoy the eruption both close up and well back on the walkway. The light reflected from the water column was illuminating the ground as far back as the bike trail. It also attracted a family who saw the light show and joined the six of us on the platform for that latter half of the eruption.

Grotto finally started erupting right after Giant ended.

This morning I saw something new and different. An RV that had parked in the red "no parking" zone by the Lodge, and in front of a hydrant, was being ticketed.

Updated: 2018 Aug 09: Uploaded video at Fan Minor 2018 Aug 02.

---

Went out after midnight for the next hot period and managed to miss all sorts of geysers.

Didn't know it at the time, but Oblong erupted just before we arrived at the Bijou Cage. In the short while we were there, Grand and Beehive erupted (we did see the first), then shortly after we left, it was Castle's turn.

One piece of entertainment was finding a rental car parked next to the bike trail in front of the Inn. I contacted the NPS to report it, but it was still there when we returned to the Cage in daylight.

In the morning, was surprised to get a second minor Feather-only hot period. The timing fit, but the type of eruption didn't. That again reset things for a while.

Just before time to head back again, at Fan & Mortar, we saw something I have never seen before-- a Fan minor eruption. The buildup was identical to a full Fan & Mortar eruption, but once we got to the stage where High vent was erupting continuously to 15 feet or more, it just stayed that way for about 10 minutes.
The end came suddenly, and within a minute, the vents looked the way it does as a cycle is dying down. Once again, will post some video once I leave the land of the cloud.

Then it was back to the Cage, where, instead of a long wait, almost immediately there was a medium-strong hot period. This time, there was some strong surging in Giant, and the water level looked to be better than previous times, but that activity came late in the restart, and obviously didn't result in the desired eruption. This was the shortest interval between hot periods I've seen this trip, 3h20m. Makes estimating the time to return even harder.

Turns out the Grotto eruption that started before this last hot period was still going, 5-1/2 hours later. The first mini-Marathon of the interval, and again, of my stay. When I arrived back around 18:30, Bijou looked a lot like it used to look after a marathon. It was in a perpetual slowdown punctuated by occasional short pauses. This activity continued for about three hours until there was a 2m50 second pause. It was shortly before that that Bijou regained its strength. In the dark, it made pauses easier to notice.

Pauses now came about every 12 minutes. Shortly before midnight, Grotto started. At 55 minutes into that eruption, at 00:51, well after midnight, we finally got the
expected hot period. At 00:55, it was ten minutes over twelve from the previous one. This one looked a lot like the previous ones, the major difference being that Feather never quit. Once again, only once or twice did the surging in Giant look anything like it was trying to start, and these surges came after a lot of splashing.

Came out before midnight for the next expected hot period. This one began a half hour after midnight, and about ten minutes after a Grotto start. And it was another 7-1/2 hour interval. The strength was comparable to the previous day's events, including the lack of any strong Giant surging. The one surprising thing was that shortly after the end, Rocket erupted. So in this case, the hot period was associated with both the start and end of a Grotto eruptions.

In the morning, I finally did witness a long, 6 minute pause in Bijou. About three hours later, there was another one. In both cases, there was nothing else happening other than water visible low in Mastiff. Between the two, starting about an hour after the first pause, were a series of short pauses and slowdowns again.

An hour after the second long pause we got a hot period, one that appaeared much like all the other medium strength we'd see. The interval here was 10 hours.

I went back out at the 6 hour mark. (In part, because there wasn't an available table in Lower Ham's, which cause me to have to delay my first burger of the trip.)
For almost three hours there was a series of short pauses and slowdowns. The hot period took place at the 7-1/2 hour mark, and if anything, was weaker than the previous two of the day.

Another morning arriving at the Giant platform to find that nothing had happened there overnight. After an hour's worth of regular short Bijou pauses, we got the expected hot period. This was another medium of the restart variety. Medium because while most of the vents were active, Giant just didn't seem to show any evidence that it could erupt. There wasn't much surging, and what there was came from down deep. There was even some strong surges that were left to right, pouring out water and meaning nothing.

Another feature of this hot period was that it wasn't related to the start or end of Grotto, but came an hour and a quarter before Grotto started.

Four hours later, from Grand I saw a long Bijou pause, which it turns out did have some Southwest Vent activity. After that, the Bijou again had a series of short pauses and slowdowns until a hot period started at the same time that Rocket began. It too was "medium".

WIth this hot period, it appeared that Giant was shifting modes. Instead of a strong one followed 6 hours later by a weak Feather-only and then 10 or so hours later by another strong, we were starting to get these medium ones about 6-1/2 to 8-1/2 hours apart.

After last evening's hot period, I was wondering what I would find on the platform. As far as I could tell, nothing had happened overnight. The platform was still wet, but the pools were separate, especially around the Southwest Vents. That indicated that there hadn't even been a long Bijou pause/Bathtub overnight.

About an hour and a half after I arrived, there was a radio call of splashes in Fan's Main Vent. Shortly after, Bijou had a long 5m30s pause. So for a short period of time, there was radio traffic concerning both of the major geysers. For me, the end of the pause meant nothing would be happening there and I was free to go down to Fan & Mortar on the off chance that it would finally erupt.

It took its time, but it did. The activity in High and Gold would build and then die down, then repeat. It did this over a period of about ten minutes. Finally, one of the surges got so strong that East Vent had to erupt. That was quickly followed by starts in Upper and Lower Mortar and in Main Vent. Because of the wind direction, I stationed myself beside the trees to the north, where I could record the preliminary activity and the start.

The wind direction wasn't too bad, as there wasn't really any wind. The drifting steam did provide bright rainbows in the morning sun, and at one point I got to see a full circle, and recorded some of it.

Afterwards, it was back to the Bijou Cage. About an hour and a half after the previous activity there was another long Bijou Pause, this time with some Southwest Vents activity. This took place shortly after Grotto had started. The end of Grotto (via Rocket) came and went, and there was no hot period, not even a long pause.

It was an hour later that Bijou finally slowed down and paused, and show went into a hot period. This one was strange. It was stronger that the simple Feather only ones, but definitely weaker than what we'd like to see. Mastiff never did any surging, and there wasn't as much overflow as it usually puts out. Feather's Satellite was never seen, but Cave was active. Feather's duration seemed shorter too.

After that, it was time to see Grand, and it did reward us by quickly having a two burst eruption.

About 4 hours after the hot period, back in the cabin, was surprised by someone announcing water in Mastiff. That was it, but it still said that it was time to get back out. Once again, there was a long pause at about the time Grotto started. An hour later there was another one. Rocket came and went, and all Bijou was doing was having one minute or so long minors.

It was about an hour and a quarter after Grotto ended that a pause slowly built into a hot period. It took about three minutes before the Southwest Vents came on. This time there was strong activity. When full, Mastiff was pouring out water, and surging to 4 or 5 feet at times. With the restart, Giant showed several cone filling surges, but the water level between surges was never at the bottom of the rim as it was during the eruption the other day. And with that, it was time to head back in.

Today I almost had the chance to see, by myself, an eruption of Giant in daylight in July. Well, sorta.

After yesterday, I figured something might happen at Giant overnight, and the platform looked more than wet enough for at least a minor hot period. The morning was also quite foggy. Unlike yesterday, the smoke did not reappear, although we did get some showers in the afternoon.

Not knowing when or how large it had been, I waited for the next activity. That turned out to be a 49s long Feather-only hot period at 13:59. That was 22 hours after the previously observed hot period, which sorta fits the pattern I've been using to make decisions. This hot period came just 15 minutes after the start of a Grotto eruption.

I returned in time for the next Grotto start, at 17:59, but other than a long pause (2m34s), there wasn't any activity on the platform. I wanted to see what happened at the end, so I quickly went back to the cabin to prepare for a wait in the dark.

As I returned, Rocket started erupting. That was good timing. I also noticed that Spa was starting to erupt. No water in the runoff when I saw a burst, and a few minutes later, there was water well down it.

Within minutes of the end of Grotto following that Rocket eruption, Bijou paused. Feather came on 6 minutes into the pause. It was still pretty light, so I was able to record the major part of the hot period when Feather's Satellite started. Feather was only on for a little over 3 minutes. Then the platform was quiet for the better part of a minute when suddenly Feather and several other vents, including Post Hole, all started splashing.

The surging in Giant started about then, and while it looked nice, it never built up into something that looked like there could be an eruption. It was obvious that the water level was well down in the vent, unlike the last eruption hot period when it seemed like the level was above the vent rim.

This activity, at least, gives me an idea as to what tommorrow will be like-- up early to check on the platform and confirm that it probably had some sort of minor hot period. Then wait for the next hot period. If no minor, then that could be in mid-morning, otherwise I'd expect it mid-afternoon. Could be an interesting day.

The basin was vacated for Norris. Started the morning down at the Bijou Cage, where I saw an eruption of Giant. Nothing much happened at the start or end, but a couple of hours later there was a Bathtub with Feather overdrooling.

The One Burst Grand eruption was nicely backlit, but came three seconds under ten minutes.

The rest of the day was devoted to trying to catch the first hot period of the current interval. The platform in the morning did not look like there had been anything from the vents by Feather than a bit of overflow. Finally succeeded in the early afternoon, when we got to see a 1m30s Feather only hot period. The only problem with this activity is that it didn't seem to be related to the start or stop from Grotto.

The afternoon the smoke suddenly reappeared. It tinged the clouds a reddish-brown. It got blustery and it rained a couple of times, which didn't seem to clear away the smoke.

After the minor hot period, waited quite a bit at Giant, but nothing much else happened. So went over to Grand for an early evening eruption. Unfortunately, the moon was completely obscured by a cloud bank to the south.

Radio Rant:

For the third time, the NPS was talking over the announcments of events down at Giant. This time it was for a possibly injured coyote across the river from Liberty Pool. The previous time was for something that Law Enforcement should have been handling (one that was interfering with announcents leading up to the last Giant eruption). I can't remember what was the first time anymore, other than it could've waited.

Another day started with a wait at Norris. After seven hours we left having seen one event worth getting the least excited about.

Back in the Upper Basin, went out to Grand. Earlier, while we were at Norris, it had the first three burst eruption since we got here. The eruption we saw was the first sub-nine minute eruption since we got here.

Then spent some time down in the Bijou Cage. Saw a couple of Grotto starts, but nothing much else happened. Never saw water in Mastiff, and never saw the Southwest Vents even try to start. While waiting, suddenly smelled smoke, and could see the plumes to the west.

Finally it was time for Grand. Originally was hoping for a nice moonlight eruption, but thanks to the smoke, the moon was a dark red ball on the horizon shedding no light. Had just walked up, after seeing Bulger's Hole fill but not erupt, when Grand started explosively. This interval was 5h34m, which is the shortest interval since we got here. It also lasted less than ten minutes, so not having to wait was nice.