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Arrived at 07:00 to temperatures even colder than yesterday. Except today it was supposed to eventually be nicer. And it was. There was less wind, which made a big difference.

At around 09:00, for the first time this interval, New Crater/Steamboat started looking interesting. Suddenly there was an increase in the flow down from South Vent, and that was sustained for the next half hour. Only once or twice did the North Vent try to join in, so it never looked like an eruption was about to start. The flow down the runoff seemed to decrease as suddenly as it started.

For the next five hours, there wasn't much going on, and on the whole, it looked a lot like the previous couple of days, except with better weather. Unfortunately, the wind tended to move around a lot, with the middle plaftorm being a prime target. But around 14:30, we got another pickup in runoff. Not as noticeable as earlier, but within the next 10 minutes or so, there was a flood of water going down the runoff channel.

It got to the point were I decided that this was my chance to get a start from somewhere other than the lower platform, so I headed down to the bridge. There I found a torrent of water coming down. Surges were moving debris down into the catchbasin above the bridge. I found it hard to tell what was going on, not being familiar with the view, and the steam didn't help. But after a couple of minutes, it became obvious that either we were about to get the start of an eruption, or we could head home because nothing was going to happen until dark.

We got the eruption, about three seconds after 15:00. The surging built into a pair of water columns that were easily visible because the wind shifted so that the parking lot received a small shower. After a few minutes, I headed up to the middle platform, where it was still dry, and remained so for the duration of the water phase.

Then the wind started shifting so that the upper platform got wet, then the lower, then the switchback, then all the way to the bottom. For the duration of the eruption, the only safe place was the "Decker Island" area, and maybe Echinus.

A couple of hours into the eruption, I noticed that there was a second steaming tree down near the North Vent's runoff channel. I've seen the other steaming tree all summer, but never noticed this spot of hot ground.

After yesterday, the cold but clear at Norris was a relief. Except there was a wind that pushed the steam onto the platform and down to the bridge. Not that there was anything to see, but did make for some nice rime ice on the tree next to the platform. The activity seemed unchanged when we left at sunset, although except in the shadows, all the snow and ice was gone.

The weather when arrived at Norris was clear and cold. Over the next few hours, the clouds started to appear. The sun made an appearance at around 09:00 and then the clouds made it disappear, so it stopped warming up. At around noon, it started to get noticeably cooler and a north wind started.

That shifted the steam so that it was now blowing down toward the bridge when it wasn't obscuring our view from the lower platform. By 14:00 the precipatation started, and quickly turned from sleet to snow. We left the platform at 16:20 by which time there was about an inch of slushy snow everywhere. New Crater/Steamboat had been quiet all day, and showed no signs of even trying to give us a decent minor. The drive home was the first in a while where there wasn't a notice of an eruption while we were driving home.

The drive back was loads'o fun. There was a continuous line of cars from the Madison Junction to Fountain Paint Pots. Only part of that was because of a bison heard at Nez Perce. There was a tree overhanging the road at the Firehole Picnic area, and a lone bison starting another blockage just north of Biscuit Basin.

By moonlight, we could see Rift erupting as we approached Castle. I figured that that meant we would need to wait until Rift ended. Which was the case. First we had to wait through a series of four Turban eruptions to get to the Turban delay. Then it took two more Turban intervals before the eruption itself. At some point between the start of Vent and the time a pause could have happened, Rift quit. The night was mild and only a bit hazy from the smoke, and probably the last nighttime Grand for the trip.

The next One Burst Grand Eruption was even more obnoxious. At a little over eight hours, it turned into the longest Grand eruption interval so far this visit. There wasn't any Turban interval delay, just a series of non-descript Turban eruptions and intervals, with nothing to show for any of them. None of the other vents in the area were active, so they can't be blamed either. The only indication of an impending eruption was that the Turban intervals were getting shorter. After the Grand eruption, I did notice that for the first time in a while, Belgian Pool was down about 2cm.

Beehive had a short Indicator eruption, catching us by starting as we approached Anemone, with the wind in our direction. It took a bit of running and berating tourons to get out into the dry area to the north. At least the umbrellas were useful this time. This was around the time that we were starting to see the smoke plume rising to the south.

It appears that Fan & Mortar are going to have weak events from now until the next eruption. There were two today, and decided to ignore the first, but go on down for the second. The opening of Upper Mortar has been so split that it is now easy to see the end-of-event splashing and roaring down deep in the former vent.

And by this time, the whole southern horizon was a mass of smoke plumes visibly growing and rising. Over at Grand for the final One Burst Eruption of the day, were after one Turban interval we got a two Turban Interval delay. Much shorter than the previous waits. There was a hint of rainbow at the top of the Grand watercolumn, but otherwise it was another windy eruption.

Earlier this visit I'd walked north from Artemisia to kill some time. Not much to see along this trail, as the trees are thick and the trail is still an old roadway. But caught an eruption of Cauliflower, and decided I should try to get an interval. Today was the day to do that.

Turns out the interval I saw was 43 minutes, and the duration and size of the eruption was a heavy boiling that lasted about 90seconds. This matches my memories from long ago, so it appears Cauliflower's basic behavior hasn't changed much.

From there headed over to Grand. Had a two Turban interval delay before we got a nice two burst eruption. This time, at least, the eruption was long enough that not getting a third wasn't a disappointment.

Went out early evening for Castle, and managed to have it start while on the bike between the Lodge and the Lower Store. But it was still an interesting eruption. The Lone Star Fire had flared up yesterday, and today was huge. Behind Castle, with its intermittent rainbows, was a huge, billowing black cloud.

Went over to Grand early, and may have missed an early Turban interval delay. As it was, four Turban intervals later, just as the sun was setting, Grand had another long Turban interval. So the One Burst Grand Eruption took place just before it became too dark to see much, two Turban intervals later.

But the real fun of the day was the fire situation. Mid afternoon the NPS closed the road from Kepler Falls over Craig Pass. That this is the Saturday of a three day holiday weekend meant there were lots more people around today, including those who aren't intending to stay in the area overnight. This closure, along with the overpass detour, created a huge traffic mess. The mess was made worse because of numerous animal jams as people stopped to get a selfie of a bison along the road.

At one point, the road from Faithful all the way to the West Entrance was gridlocked. It didn't help that there were people with cardboard signs saying "Old Faithful Closed" encouraging people to make improper u-turns and further block traffic. And, the road near Mud Volcano was again closed to do more cleanup after a gasoline tanker spill in that area. (Who exactly was the genius who decided that work couldn't wait until Tuesday?).