Category: Activity Report

After returning from last night's Grand eruption, I figured that today not only could I get a slow start, but would have several hours to head down basin to take a look at Daisy, Grotto, Giant and other points of interest. Except it didn't turn out that way.

As I was getting up and about in my cabin, I heard Scott's voice on the radio announcing that Penta was in eruption at 06:44. Knowing that most eruptions of Penta last well short of an hour, I was resigned to not seeing it erupting. So I was surprised when I biked up past Castle and there it was, still going strong at 07:30. I figured I had at least an hour before it was time for Daisy, so I could head over there and catch Penta draining away. Instead, it just kept going, with all the other members of the Sawmill Group full.

Penta, Sawmill & Churn Geysers, 2008 May 18

It was at the time that I noticed that the overflow of the vents by the Thumping Hole had ceased that I looked over and caught Churn in eruption. It had been going for a while, and like yesterday, wasn't able to get a picture. But now things were getting interesting, but at the same time, my plans for the morning were ruined. Unlike yesterday, Churn didn't have a series of eruptions. A hour later, however, Sawmill started. I wanted to get pictures of both Penta and Sawmill in eruption from several angle. I went down towards Belgian, and right after I turned around, I saw the first splashes from Churn. Gettting all three into a single frame with my ancient camera was a bit of a challenge, and you can see my best efforts aren't that good.

The Churn eruption seems have been the key to getting Penta to finally quit. As the window for the next Grand eruption was approaching, I took the opportunity to head back to the gas station to prepare for another wait. Sawmill was still going as I returned, but as it seems to do far too often, it quit about the time I passed Scallloped Spring.

Speaking of Grand. Both last night and today's series of Turban eruptions were quite similar. In both cases there was a "Two Turban Delay". Instead of heavy overflow and waves as in years past, in these cases there was visible bubbling in Vent along with what appeared to be a full pool. In both cases, the duration of Turban was short (less than 4 minutes) despite what appeared to be vigorous activity. The following Turban intervals were short, around 17 to 18 minutes, with the Turban eruption lasting around 6 minutes, which is typical activity in such a delay mode. The bubbling in Vent is hard to see unless you know where to look and what to look for, but I wouldn't mind if this became a preferred delay mode. (Sure beats the 7 Turban Delay which takes 10 or more...)

The photos of the new drain vent near Old Tardy will have to wait until tomorrow. I've discovered that, thanks to software upgrades in the last year, I only have one computer that can still read the old Kodak KDC format. And that requires and it can't connect directly to the computer I use to post these messages. So it's become a convoluted task, and probably the incentive I need to finally get a new camera.

I also confirmed that, with my iPhone, I can add geyser eruption times to my Geyser Log database while in the basin and during the actual eruption. The speed is modem-slow, but I can make things a little faster/better by changing around the webpage.

The drive home was exactly what was expected: 6 hours of dullness that ended in my garage.

Other Geyser Times

18 May 2008

• Penta, 06:44ie, d>2h15m
• Churn
  • 07:45ie, d>30s, during Penta
  • 08:54, d=1m16s, during Penta and Sawmill
• Sawmill, 08:52, d=55m05s

A weekend visits to the park is always different than a long stay. They always seem to feel too hectic,at least for me, and I've always prefered the long stays. It's okay to miss the an eruption that takes place as you arrive, whereas with a weekend, that's a significant portion of what you came for. But when a weekend is all you can get, you take it. Earlier in the week it became farily obvious that this was going to be a really nice couple of days, perhaps the best of the spring, and a good time to figure out how to prepare for future weekend trips this summer. What t I didn't count on were the bears getting in the way.

The entire basin was closed yesterday because there were a couple of bears seen roaming about, including one which earlier in the week had take down a baby bison in full view of visitors up on Geyser Hill. So when I arrived, tthat closure was still in effect, and the choices for what to do were severly limited. I decided the Beehive overlook was the best place to spend my exile. The advantages are that it is near something erupting (Geyser Hill), you can see most features down basin (at least their steam clouds), and Beehive was probably going to erupt this morning. Fortunately, the three hours I spent there resulted in my missing nothing interesting down basin, as Castle had a minor as I arrived and Grand waited until well after the opening. (The less said of Giant and Fan & Mortar, the better.)

The indicator preceded the 10:39 Beehive eruption by only 19 seconds, and was maybe a couple of feet high at most. Beehive was already sloshing heavily when it started, and it quit moments after it became obvious that Beehive was in eruption. It did awaken for a bit later in the eruption, but due to the wind, I was not in a position to see much of it. So while Beehive has been fairly reliable erupting every day, the amount of actual warning you get may be none.

The Sawmill Group was interesting, too. During my exile, I noticed that Tardy was always on every time I looked down basin. So the wet runoff channels but dropping pools was no surprise. Looked like Penta might have a chance during the next cycle. Instead, as I was leaving the area, I saw Churn erupt for the first of three eruptions in the series. The first eruption even had that dead fish smell even though I was told that Churn had been active earlier in the week. During that same series, I saw a Bulger major, the first one I've probably seen since the 1990s.

Penta was not to be, however, as the pool levels didn't look right and Sawmill had a steady stream of small bubbles reaching the slowly rising surface. Sure enough, Sawmill began eruting while well below overflow.

Even worse, Rift started an eruption while I was there. I didn't see when West Triplet started, but it was active when Rift started, but quite within a few minutes of Rift's start. It seems typical of the Grand Group for West Triplet and Rift to reactivate in mid-to-late May, but why can't it ever wait until after I get to see West Triplet as an intermittent spring?

But the most intriguing thing is a new hole in the Old Tardy runoff channel, just before it joins the Crystal Spring/Slurp runoff. THis hole is about 8--12 inches across, and has that same layered appearance that the holes near Scalloped Spring exhibit. When I first saw it, I thought that it might have been a feature that appeared over the winter, but Scott Bryan said that it wasn't there when he was in the basin on Thursday. From where the ground is wet or dry, it appears that it might be a drain for all of the Old Tardy runoff that used to flow in that direction. Years ago there were some patches of steaming ground around Old Tardy. I'll have to go through my old notebooks to find the maps to see if any of those places correspond with this hole. (And I'll try to post pictures of it tomorrow.)

There's a lot of snow still on the ground. Coming in through Island Park, it seemed that if there wasn't snow, then there was standing water But the Madison and Firehole Rivers don't seem all that high, at least compared to some of the seasons I remember. The shelf in the Firehole at the Sawmill Bridge is just barely under water. So perhaps the worst is yet to come. (And if there's standing water around here like there is in Island Park, gonna be a long, nasty mosquito season.

Other Geyser Times

17 May 2008

• Churn
  • 12:01, d>1m
  • 12:21, d=1m22s
  • 12:40, d=1m18s
• Rift, 12:57
• Oblong
  • 08:12ns
  • 14:00
• Castle
  • 08:01, minor, d≈3m
  • 11:39

This morning the webcamera shows an eruption of Giantess, the first eruption in about 22 months. Based on the nature of the play from Giantess, and that I think I saw activity in Vault, it appears that the eruption started in the early morning hours.

Update: 10:45

Well, it appears that the activity was the final stages of a steam-phase eruption that started early last night (say around 22:00). The OFVC seismograph should have the start time, so let's see how wrong I am.

Mary Beth Schwarz reports that since I've left, the mode shift at Grand continues. There have been several more false Vent overflow delays, and then yesterday (04 July) Grand had it's first known "boop" delay in several years. (A "boop" is when, during a Turban heavy overflow delay, Grand has boiling to up to several feet over its vent which does not result in an eruption. )Like the false Vent overflows, this usually results in several Turban interval delays.In this case, six. Fortunately, the delay took place early in the Grand interval, which kept that interval from being excessively long.

Grand decided that it needs to not only have more long intervals, but to resurrect a pattern I've not seen this trip: the one where every Turban interval is about 30 seconds shorter than the previous,and Grand won't even try to erupt until there's an interval of about 17 minutes or so. And even then, there's no guarantee that you won't just get some sort of Turban delay. But this time everything cooperated and we got a less than ten minute long two burst eruption.

Then while starting to pack up the truck for the trip back, I got a bonus. Haven't really seen Beehive all trip, because so many of the eruptions have been without the Indicator. The previous eruption someone announced that water was rising in the Indicator, and within a minute, Beehive was in eruption. I was in my cabin, and barely got out the door from one radio call to the next. Weeks ago I'd resigned myself to seeing Beehive no closer than from the river overlook, if I was lucky.

Today we got another such call, but this time the Indicator cooperated. I was able to walk fast and get to about Anemone when Beehive took off. With the prevailing winds, that meant I was on the wrong side, and took the cold drenching to get to the other side. There were full 360° rainbows in there somewhere, but I didn't stick around for them. That water was cold. I wish I'd brought the camera, because not only was that the first time I've seen the Second Indicator, for much of the eruption it appeared taller than the Indicator itself. And I still don't know who exactly it was who gave out the call.

Elk below Castle Geyser

For the second afternoon in a row, Grand had a false Vent overflow. Today at least Grand finally did erupt during West Triplet, but I don't like this sort of behavior, and almost thankful that I won't be around to have it frustrate me. While waiting, we did have a herd of elk and their calves appear below Castle and head off across the walkway and north.

Lately Grand has been having a long interval followed by a couple of shorts, or some sort of variation on the theme (like two longs in a row, or three shorts, etc.) Today it tried something different. The early morning interval was a long, so I expected a short. Instead we got one of the longest intervals of my stay. It seemed to break all the rules. We had a false Vent overflow, West Triplet erupted a second time without Grand following along, and had several short (under 17 minute) Turban intervals, and Grand finally initiated the eruption for The Burst and Quit. It was a hot day and fun was had all around.

At least it kept to form for the nighttime eruption, with a little over seven hour interval putting the start in the second minute of July. But what I don't understand is why tourists come out on a moonlit night and then proceed to wave weak flashlights at the eruption. Fortunately the moon was so bright that they didn't matter.

Coming back from downbasin, I always look over on Geyser Hill as I bike up that well-despised hill the Inn sits on. It's mostly to check for a Beehive Indicator, but occasionally I do get to see something else of interest. This morning, after Grand, I noticed that Giantess was putting up a strong, well defined steam cloud. Now it was around 08:45, which is a bit late for any dry ice effects, but the last few days we've been having calm mornings, and those are excellent conditions for Giantess to have its big boils. Not making any predictions, but just noting that this is the first time that I've seen anything at all from that pool.

The second burst of the mid-day Grand eruption was had a long second burst that featured lots of Big Sawmill action. During the last half minute, Vent was reduced to a steam jet with little to no water visible. The post-eruption pause, at over 23 minutes, was unusually long, too.

I was a bit surprised that for a Grand eruption that would take place just after sunset with a full moon in warm conditions, there were just a few tourists out beside me. No gazers or even geyser groupies. I remember years past where there would have been a dozen or so of us out there. Then again, most of those people have gone, been driven away, or gotten older. But still, you'd think that some of the newer gazers would take advantage of such opportunities.

Thanks to Grand once again deciding to have a long interval when it could instead have erupted by moonlight, I got to see that Grotto was still in its marathon eruption when I left at 04:30. Which, it turns out, was just about the time it shut down. Grotto was off and dead by 05:20. So once again, the Bijou Monkey Cage would be filling mid-morning and overflowing by noon. Grand had a consecutive long interval, and despite the breeze, it was a hot wait there.

Mastiff Geyser 2007 Jun 28 12:31

Had already decided earlier in the week that if a Giant hot period started while I was at Grand, I was not going to race down to the Cage with the rest of the herd, but stay there and, should it actually erupt, try and get some photos, and get to see what it looks like from there. Today I got my chance. Unfortunately, some of the pictures were blurred because I was in such a hurry and the camera is so slow to respond. As with last week, the time between the start of Mastiff's surging turning into actual jetting until the start of Giant seemed to last forever, despite it being just a bit under two minutes.

Giant Geyser 2007 Jun 28 12:33 from Grand and Oblong

Giant signs

I do sort of wish that the circumstances of the two eruptions, this one and last week's, were reversed, as I'd really have liked to have heard just how high this one was. It was definitely larger that earlier, but by how much? (Maybe someday, instead of immediately yakking into their cell phones from within the Monkey Cage every time, some people can put the effort into seeing and recording eruptions from other locations like I've tried to do. And I do resent, just a bit, how a number of geyser groupies just assumed I'd be measuring this height like last time.)

The Grotto that started the night before didn't last, so when I came out for the middle of the night Grand, nothing much was happening down there. Giant's platform looked like there hadn't been an event in hours. Thanks to Grand having a 9 hour interval, I got to see the platform again, when it looked unchanged just before a short, weak hot period. But then Grotto started, and it became apparant that this was going to be the hoped for marathon.

Morning's Thief 27 Jun 2007

The marathon meant that it was possible to be elsewhere, and I was able to fulfill other obligations, as the photo shows. I'm told that while I was gone, Beehive had an eruption that was actually preceded by the Indicator. That evening, thirteen hours after the start, Grotto was still erupting.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto Fountain 06:33
• Grotto 06:44
• Giant hot periods
  • 06:27 d=1m57s
  • 07:35 d=4m21s
  • 08:40 d=1m40s

The marathon quit shortly after sunrise, setting things up for an afternoon of Giant. A short afternoon, as the hot period took place at 12:44. It was disappointing because it didn't last long (about 9 minutes) and did not feature much in the way of Mastiff activity. And then the hourly hot periods resumed with a Mastiff bathtub.

That activity continued, with the last daylight hot period actually the best of the day, and in some ways better than the recovery hot period. Grotto also started only about a half hour earlier, so it was hoped that it was a new marathon starting, and this all meant everyone could get a good night's rest.

Grand finally almost cooperated by erupting just before sunset, with the light disappearing late in the eruption. There was a particularly intense rainbow coming straight out of Vent when you stood in the right location. It would cooperated better if it had had a second burst.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto 19:48
• Giant hot periods
  • 12:44 d≈9m
  • 14:04 bathtub
  • 16:14 d=2m00s
  • 17:27 d≈6m
  • 18:57 d=2m
  • 20:14 d=7m15s

Turns out it was a mistake. Spent a whole night, and the next day, seeing weak hot periods and short Grotto eruptions. Grotto finally went into a marathon at 14:35, and Giant had the big hot period we'd been expecting for 36 hours shortly after that. The first six minutes of it seemed fairly ordinary, the only distinguishing feature being a number of previously quiet vents were active. Then, several minutes after Feather had quit, it restarted and Giant started massive surging. So much so that observers there insisted Giant was about to start. Unfortunately, it didn't, and now we wait out the marathon.

Grand seems to like having short intervals during the evening, night and early mornings, reserving the longer intervals for mid day when the crowds are the largest. The morning eruption was right at the time when the sun was appearing over the trees, so that only the tops of the jets, and the mass of the second burst were illuminated.

Other Geyser Times

• Grotto 00:42 d≈2h15m, 09:00 d≈1h15m, 14:39
• Grotto Fountain 08:57, 14:35
• Giant hot periods
  • 00:16 d=4m37s
  • 01:17 d=2m08s
  • 02:27 d=4m32s
  • 03:58 bathtub
  • 05:02 bathtub
  • 06:08 bathtub
  • 07:15 bathtub
  • 08:10 bathtub
  • 09:05
  • 10:04
  • 10:56 bathtub
  • 11:57 4m53s
  • 12:51 bathtub
  • 14:02 d=1m55s
  • 15:11
  • 15:57 d=2m22s
  • 17:02 bathtub
  • 18:02 d=5m55s + restart

Another pretty dull day, with lots of weak Giant hot periods and waiting for Grotto to do something. But as the day progressed, the amount of surging in Giant and Mastiff got stronger. Made it easy to believe that something might happen, and soon.

Other Geyser Times

24 June 2007

• Grotto Fountain 10:44, 18:44ie
• Grotto 10:48, 18:44ie
• Giant hot periods
  • 11:30
  • 12:24 d=1m44s
  • 13:32 d=3m46s
  • 14:22
  • 15:28 d=4m40s
  • 16:17 bathtub
  • 17:13 d=2m27s
  • 18:18 d=5m20s
  • 19:10 d≈2m
  • 20:12 d=2m46s
  • 21:11 d=4m19s
  • 22:08 bathtub
  • 23:17

Grotto at sunset

23 Jun 2007

Grotto went into a marathon eruption. Start time was almost certainly the eruption the previous night, as it was erupting when I was out at Grand after midnight. Well into the eruption Grotto had the first observed Rocket major eruption that I have heard of for this year, at 12:48. Lasted only a couple of minutes, and a strange time for it. But the marathon ended shortly thereafter.

This set the recovery hot period in the early nighttime hours. The duration was a bit disappointingly short, but an indication that at least we don't need to worry too much about any eruption taking place on Sunday.

Fan & Mortar continued their usual chaotic behavior with flashes of " hot periods" which sucked in a new set of the newly arrived who someone get the idea that the very first cycle they see is the one that's going to initiate an eruption. Despite being the same as what everyone else has been seeing for weeks.

Beehive broke out of its window, with a late evening eruption. Again, it appears that there was no indicator. Beehive surged a couple of times and then took off.

Other Geyser Times

• Giant hot period 22:30 d=5m37s

Been a dull series of days, with little to report, other than Beehive had yet another Beehive eruption with not just no indicator, but no warning. Someone whose voice I don't recognize was at Lion for the start, and because she was facing away, was caught by surprise.

And yes, below is another Grotto Fountain that didn't result in the start of Grotto.

Other Geyser Times

22 June 2007

• Grotto Fountain 15:40, 17:12
• Grotto 17:22
• Uncertain 16:46

Giant signs 20 Jun 2007

Agsin, post-Giant there's not a lot to report. Yesterday I did forget to include the photo of the signs' resting place.

I did see a new bit of touron weirdness on my way to Grand: an orange car (I don't even bother keeping up with the models and makes any more) that was practially in the old plaza area between the old VC's theaters. It seems someone thought the walkway leading from the road across from the old Photo Shop was a road. It was headed by the time I got near enough to get a better view. No camera on me at the time, either.

Grand itself was another short interval. The best feature of that was that it put the next eruption squarely in the dark to dawn time frame, and that was more than enough excuse to use the night to catch up on sleep instead. (And the rain showers I heard at 02:00 helped, too.)

The day started out as expected: Grotto still erupting along with a several hour wait at Grand. But just before the Grand eruption, I noticed that the steam cloud at Grotto had suddenly ceased. Scott Bryan confirmed that Grotto was off, giving us a fourteen hour duration, and a Giant window opening sometime in early afternoon.

The rest of the morning was spent in trying to catch up on a little of the sleep I hadn't gotten the last few nights. Then it was out into the basin to see what would happen next. I figured the Bijou Cage was near capacity, so no reason not to wait at Grand, even though it was well before time for an eruption. One indication of just how full the cage probably was was when I saw an eruptions of Aurum and that weren't announced on the radio about an hour earlier. On the way out, ran into Lynn Stephens at Castle.

Since I was in time killing mode, we were talking there for quite a bit when Lynn suddenly goes, "Beehive!" Sure enough, there it was, climbing to full height, and once again without an indicator. You could almost tell by the radio reaction that there were a lot of people who once again were thinking of how they'd heard of another Beehive eruption while at Giant.

Beehive was nearing the end when Scott announced the rise in water in Mastiff. Now this was a bit of a disappointment, as we were only a little over six hours since Grotto quit, and the last time there was a quick hot period/recovery, it lead to a weak hot period and nothing much. But not this time. Lynn and I both got on the bikes and headed down that way. Within two minutes, at 14:01, the hot period had started with several vents starting. By the time I was in sight of the platform it was apparent that Mastiff was in charge, with nice boiling visible even at a distance.

Mastiff Geyser 2007 Jun 20 14:10

I'd decided that for this eruption, I was going to try to get a height measurement at the start of the eruption, and for that I had to walk past the platform and on south to the markers. I got into position at the 200ft markers just about the time Scott announced four minutes and Mastiff going flat but overflowing. This was normal, but the key was for Mastiff to come back, quickly and even stronger, which it did. I also noticed that at the 200ft mark, Mastiff was obscured by Giant's back shoulder, so quickly retreated to the 300ft marker instead. By 14:10, Mastiff was obviously in eruption.

Giant Geyser 2007 Jun 20 14:12 Start Sequence

After two consecutive nighttime eruptions, and two more under less than ideal conditions
(although 31 May was more than acceptable), it was wonderful to be perfectly positioned to see a start on a warm afternoon. I quickly took the sequence of photos here, then used my clinometer to get a reading on the height. I was disappointed to get only 60%, which comes to 180ft. But as the photo sequence shows, this just didn't seem like a huge, high start.

(My camera is an ancient, ten-year old Kodak DC-50 first generation digital camera. It takes up to 7 seconds to process and store an image, so that sequence is at least 30 seconds long.)

I noticed that the northern corner of the cage got soaked nicely, and took pictures of the resting places for the marker signs. After that, it was enjoy the spectacle time.

Shortly after the start it was announced that Castle was erupting, as if anybody cared. I assume by an NPS naturalist on rove, as unless they were lucky enough to be stuck in an NPS staff meeting, every gazer seemed to be at their chosen spot in sight of Giant.

Grand kept up the tradition of being difficult in erupting after Giant. The two nighttime eruptions of Giant I saw featured Grand erupting within ten minutes or so (at least from the steam clouds I saw.) For this one, like the early morning eruption in May, Grand erupted while I was tying down my bike at Castle, denying me the enjoyment of waiting for Grand while watching the waning Giant activity.

Now the pressure is really on. I figure I've got one more chance at a Giant eruption, next week before I leave, and can't leave with a five out of six record.