Category: Activity Report

One of the things I like about a Grand start on a delayed Turban interval is the explosive start. For the last 10 minutes or so all there is to see is a full, heavily overflowing pool that fluctuates slightly. Then suddenly, with only a couple of large pulsations, Grand suddenly rockets up to 10 meters high. It's as if Grand has been fighting for all that time to erupt, and had finally figured out how to unleash itself, and is going to make sure it keeps erupting.

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to guarantee against a one burst eruption.

(Years ago Grand would have "boops", where it would have several boils to 3 or 4 meters, as if the eruption was starting, only to suddenly subside. It was amusing to see people who knew enough to be dangerous suddenly taken aback when the pools dropped instead of erupted.)

For the last few days, in what had to have been not the greatest of conditions, we kept getting eruption times on every feature on Geyser Hill (especially Plume) from dawn until dusk. Or so it seemed. So today, it what started out as a beautiful day, a day in which we've yet to have any precipitation from the thunderclouds, and on a day when there's a large influx of observers for the Memorial Day weekend, Beehive erupts in the middle of the afternoon. No one saw the Indicator, the only radio call was at least two minutes into the eruption. Webcam observers probably got a better start time.

And I saw my first mosquito today, a sure sign that Spring really has started.

Other geysers:

• Rift 11:03
• Fountain 12:23
• Great Fountain 13:50

As yesterday afternoon progressed, the temperature rose,the sky cleared and the wind died down (or at least wasn't as obnoxious) so that by the evening One-Burst Grand, the weather cold almost qualify as nice. Otherwise a dull, uneventful afternoon, and one to use to settle into a routine.

Today has been nice. Still cool, and with the midday breeze, but clear and in the sunshine, a jacket isn't really needed. Grand had, if the electronic monitor is to be believed, a little over 6 hour interval this morning. Castle must've had a minor overnight, too.

In any case, it was a nice day to stick around and watch a full West Triplet (and Rift start at 11:03). I see from the weather forecast that it'll turn wet again just as it's time to start spending time at Giant.

In other notes, when zips by you on a bike and says that dogs aren't permitted in thermal areas, don't whine back, "well, I didn't see a sign". You are just admitting that you know that you aren't supposed to dragging your little darling out there, but also didn't think anyone would care. Just don't say anything would be better thing to do.

Tilt does erupt! On my way out to Grand last evening, once again while tying up my bike, I saw a geyser erupt. This time, at least, it wasn't Grand.

The activity I saw lasted about a minute from when I first noticed it. It was throwing jets of water away from the boardwalk about one meter high from the northern opening in the vent. Nothing impressive, but nice to know it's not dead. (I should probably write up a few Tilt related memories for posting later this summer.

Otherwise another long one burst Grand (d=11m31s). At least it went early, so I didn't have to wait in the cold, windy and dark. Just the cold and windy.

Today Grand decided to have a longer interval for no apparent reason, and Rift had a duration which for me seemed a more normal length. Midway through that eruption, West Triplet decided to throw in one of its empty vent steam minors.

Sawmill Group had a deep drain with a couple of Sawmill restarts, followed by an eruption of Uncertain.

Other Geysers:

• Rift 10:47 d=1h19m
• Uncertain 10:57

After the excitement of the morning, time to catch up on a variety of things that have been put off due to a combination of Giant, weather and lack of transport. All that done, it was time to head back out to Grand. The weather had changed back to windy, cool, and overcast with occasional snow showers.

In just the few days I've been here, I've seen a couple of Rifts that in my previous visits would be worthy of note, because of the shortness of their durations.

On 21 May, one lasted ≈34m. Today the eruption at 13:01 lasted only 28m21s. It was the second of the day, the first being early in the morning around 01:15. And neither eruption seems to have had any detrimental effect on Rift.

Meanwhile Grand continues to annoy. At least the afternoon's one burst eruption lasted 11m20s, and was followed by a Vent & Turban pause of 19m14s.

Graham Meech stayed out all night as Giant continued to have hourly hot periods during the night, none of them as strong as the one that occurred the previous night while I was making these postings.

The hot period at 05:22 had little Mastiff surging, and initially seemed to last 7m20s. Until Feather restarted and Giant almost immediately began strong vertical surging. Within three minutes, Giant began to erupt, at 05:32. (I was in my Lodge cabin getting ready to come out when Graham's call went out. When I heard him announce the restart, I knew I wouldn't be seeing this eruption start from up close. I was in front of the Lodge instead.)

The lighting was good, for at least my human eyes, and the wind direction such that the spray and steam was carried northward, making Giant's water column easily visible from a distance. It was too early for good backlighting.

As Giant died down, I rode my bike down to see Grand. Once again, it started as I was locking my bike at Castle. It was a 8m43s long single burst eruption. The only other thing of interest were the bison cow and calf who were, according to a visitor, standing in the runoff channel at the start, and finally realized that that was not a good place to be standing and took off running.

Other geysers of interest:

• Oblong 05:27 ie
• Daisy 05:07
• Riverside 01:44, 08:23ie
• Grotto 03:53

This will be pretty short, since I spent the day between Giant and Grand. At least the latter was fairly cooperative. The weather was cool (cold when breezy) but no rain or snow.

Giant hot periiods:

• 06:28 d=4m40s
• 07:27 d=1m40s
• 08:57 d=4m00s
• 09:57 d=2m10s
• 12:01 d=1m39s
• 13:00 bathtub
• 14:16 d=6m37s
• 16:28 d=1m30s
• 17:37 d≈3m20s
• 18:35 d=2m10s
• 19:35 d=1m42s
• 20:39 d≈5m

Other geysers:

• Grotto Ftn 09:07, 13:49
• Grotto 09:12, 13:54
• Penta 13:17ie
• Grand 09:18 T2C, 17:21 T3Q
• Oblong 04:31, 07:33, 12:46, 15:55ns
• Riverside 05:46, 12:28, 19:06
• Daisy 06:04, 09:39, 12:53, 15:57, 18:51

In the Grand Group it was a cold, miserable day. By afternoon,m temperature was just above freezing, so the windswept snow melted where it landed. When I arrived, Rift had just started, and we were in a delay overflow. With a short Rift duration, I was hoping for a short delay. No such luck. The second Turban was a short but strong eruption, followed by a 16m11s interval. So no surprise the total delay was D9.

Following a short Grotto marathon overnight, there was a Giant hot period at 14:33, d≈5m. A second hot period occurred 16 17:14, slighly longer d≈6m, and then at 19:29, d=5m50s. Grotto still had not restarted as of the last hot period (at least I never heard a report of that.).

• West Triplet 12:25
• Rift 12:57 d≈34m
• Grand 16:07 T1C
• Daisy 12:31, 15:50
• Oblong 14:40, 18:54
• Riverside 16:17
• Castle 18:51

Having been gone a long time, some of the things I'm noticing are probably well known and obvious to those who' ve been here more recently. But I'm still going to comment on them.

Tilt Geyser is completely different. The original Tilt, which had functioned as a noisy steamvent in the 1980s and 1990s, has been completely filled in by algae and debris carried along by Crested's runoff channel. In the several minutes that I stood there, I noticed that the blowout vents were fluctuating between overflow and down about 1.5cm. The changes in level was also accompanied by ripples and palpitations. That, I assume, is the sum total of Tilt's present activity, which I guess would still qualify it as an intermittent spring.

The Sawmill Group appeared almost as I remembered it, with one minor and one major exception. Tardy has developed a new runoff channel which heads northeast and under the boardwalk, which would have been useful when I wanted to put electronic monitors around the group.

The big exception was the new hole (or holes) that have developed beside or even under the bend of the boardwalk at Scalloped Spring. Thanks to the snow showers, it was easy to see the long stretch of warm walkway. The between the walkway and the old collapse feature actually had water sloshing around about a half meter down. I'm surprised the NPS hasn't panicked and closed the trail. If the do, let them wait until July.