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The One Burst Grand for our return was not particularly auspicious. Arrived well after sunset, but that glow, with the moon meant it was still light. Ended up waiting almost two hours for an almost 7-1/2 hour interval. The Turban activity was dull and normal, and if there was a delay, it was well before we arrived. The moon was visible when we arrived, but clouds moved in from the north so that there wasn't even a glow by the time of the eruption.

The only item of note was the frequent activity among the sputs, probably Sput D. Loud (for nighttime) and frequent, and what exactly is going on there will have to wait for daylight.

Out at dawn to sit in the fog. Grand erupted on the Delay, and even had a second burst. The wind picked up enough to push the fog away once the eruption started.

A few hours later was headed out to Castle and then Grand when got the call that Beehive's Indicator was erupting. So instead went over to Geyser Hill to catch Beehive up close. Considering the one to three day intervals and the number of no-Indicator eruptions, have seen a few from Geyser Hill. This one drenched the walkway well beyond Anemone.

Castle was erupting as we finally got down that way, and the One Burst Grand interval was less than six hours despite a Delay.

From there it was time for Daisy, and arrive about two minutes before the eruption. I didn't see anything from Splendid during that brief time. The Daisy duration was longer, 3-1/2 minutes this time.

From there caught an Atomizer major eruption, then returned to Daisy again. This time was around long enough to confirm that Splendid was doing nothing prior to Daisy's eruption. Worse, the duration of the eruption was just over three minutes.

While waiting for Daisy, a coyote wandered past between Splendid and the trees, heading south. After Daisy's eruption, we just got on the main bike trail when several coyotes off to the southwest started yipping and barking. Usually hear them from that area in the evening or dark, not in the middle of the day.

Caught the fourth Grand eruption of the day, and this time not only did it not have a Delay (I was there fairly early and saw several intervals), but there was a second burst. It was a short eruption, a bit over ten minutes long, but Grand made only a feeble attempt to refill, then Vent and Turban quit.

Heading out to Grand when I noticed that Crystal Spring was in overflow and Belgian was full. I've yet to see any pattern in their levels.

There were never really any good waves. But suddenly Grand had a couple of small boops, about 1/2 meter high. Almost immediately, the pool began to drop. It was four minutes before Turban started erupting, and by that time, the interval was well over 25 minutes for a Delay.

The duration of the Turban eruption wasn't out of the ordinary, lasting a bit over five minutes, so at least a delay of two Turban intervals was expected. It was a surprise then to see a full Grand Pool and waves at the fifteen minute mark. There wasn't any overflow that I could see. A minute later, with overflow just starting to be vislble due to its steam, Turban started almost explosively. It took Grand only about 30 seconds to join in.

Eight and a half minutes in, it looked like Grand had paused, only to restart and go into a Bit Sawmill mode for another minute. Vent and Turban, at least, didn't quit.

There was another West Triplet eruption after Grand, this one only lasting 6 minutes. Belgian and Crystal had dropped a bit, the latter below overflow, and Slurp was noisily erupting at depth.

It appears that Aurum may be shifting into summer mode. Spent a little time around it well after the six hour mark. I did get to see the pool just north of Doublet erupt. When I arrived, it was withing the lower rim, but splashing a few centimeters high. The wash zone around it was dry. At 16:34, I saw it erupting to about 1 meter, and the wash zone was filled. That was the end of the eruption. I don't know the name or number, or anything else about what it does.

Saw Turban erupting as I tied down my bike. 35 minutes later I saw the next Turban eruption. For about ten minutes, it looked good, but there were never any waves. Fortunately, the next Turban eruption had no overflow, and Grand erupted on the second Turban fill. This was another two burst eruption, with excellent lighting. West Triplet started during the second burst.

It appears the way to keep Rift from erupting is to want to video record the start of an eruption. I've now seen a number of complete West Triplet eruptions, and never has Rift shown any inclination to start. Percolator and Sput D tend to start about ten minutes into West Triplet's eruption, then they quit shortly after West Triplet ends. One variation was today's later eruption where Sput D stopped for about five minutes.

It being full moon, went out for a few eruptions with that in mind. Unfortunately, Castle erupted before moonrise, and the One Burst Grand didn't seem to have the same moonbows of the night before. Did finally get the Rift start. It didn't seem to matter as Grand erupted about 15 minutes later, but wasn't able to record it.

Did another check on Daisy. This time there wasn't any boiling in Splendid prior to Daisy's eruption, but there was water in the orange lobe and it dropped as expected. The boiling afterwards didn't seem quite as strong, but was from both vents, and I didn't stay around for long.

Grand was cooperative in the morning. I think I arrived for a Turban Delay, as the first Turban duration was well over six minutes, and for the next one Grand's pool didn't have much, if any, overflow. The real cooperation was that there were two bursts, and it was fairly obvious that the pool was not going to drain before the second burst started. West Triplet started after, but there was no eruption of Rift.

Came out early for the next Grand opportunity, arriving with West Triplet and the sputs all in action. Again, there wasn't an eruption of Rift. This time there definitely was a Turban Delay, as the interval was over 36 minutes and Grand even had a couple of small boops.

Two Turban intervals later, we got another Grand eruption were there wasn't much doubt there was going to be a second burst, but this time , after about 45 seconds, Grand went into Big Sawmill mode. At that point it felt like it was trying to stop, and just couldn't. This lasted for at least 20 to 30 seconds, when finally the activity picked up a little bit. This continued on for a burst lasting nearly three minutes.

Then finally got the opportunity to see Grand by moonlight. There were occasional clouds covering the moon for a few moments, but nothing threatening. It was One Burst Grand, but the moonbows were some of the best I've seen. From West Triplet, for moments there was visible a full arc extending to the left and over the steam from the Daisy Group. At times, it seemed like the stronger parts, in Grand's water column, had a hint of color in it. Best of all, the dozen or so people out there didn't feel the need to provide their own illumination.

Arrived at Norris at our usual time. It was three hours before there was any activity worthy of note. It was a nice, strong surge with the usual little bit of vertical to the right of the North Vent. Following that, about every half hour to hour there was a similar event, but in most cases there wasn't any followup. The next to last event was at 13:33.

The following event was about 45 minutes later. This one looked different from the beginning. It was stronger, thicker, and the vertical surging was definite and pronounced. Within moments, it built into the eruption start, at 14:15. I somehow managed to capture this on video, despite my efforts to screw it up. I'll post the video the middle of next week.

I waited too long to get a height measurement. By the time I got back to the bench, all I got was 50%, which works out to about 65 meters or about 210 feet. Still taller than any other geyser but Giant, but well below what it had been a few moments earlier. This was probably because of the wind direction causing much of the water to flow back into the North Vent. The water was already brown after about five minutes, and threatening to have a full choke. Unfortunately, that never happened. Most of the runoff was behind and toward Echinus. There were several new runoff channels forming over there, while nothing was going in west of the North Vent's runoff channel. That channel was practically dry for most of the eruption we saw.

Thanks to the wind direction, it was easy to see the base of the water columns and the vents for most of the eruption. At times it was obvious that there were several areas of forced steam around and in front of the South Vent. In addition, it was easily apparent that there is some sort of third vent to the right of the North Vent. The video I took shows this clearly.

Finally left the area after a couple of hours. The steam was mostly steady, but some chugging could be seen and heard when the wind shifted more toward the north.

In the Upper Basin, attempted to go out for a post-sunset, early moonlit eruption of Grand. But a thunderstorm moved in and we had no desire to get soaked by it, so headed in before the One Burst Grand eruption could happen.

Started the day out by waiting for Daisy to erupt. Splendid was quiet when I arrived, but it was pushing water out into the orange northeast lobe. As Daisy activity increased, the water in Splendid dropped so that the water was no longer going into that orange area. Then, about a minute before Daisy, Splendid's Main Vent started to boil up to about 1/2 meter. This is the first time I've seen such activity in a long time. It quit as Daisy started, which was expected.

The Daisy eruption as again short, this time 3m17s. But a few minutes after the end, Splendid started having boils from both the Main Vent and the Side Boiler. This activity continued for about 20 minutes, and I left a few minutes later. I stopped by about an hour after Daisy, and did notice a small boil from the Main Vent. So there's definitely a small pickup in the activity from Splendid. Will have to see if there's any progression over the next few months.

At Grand, West Triplet was erupting as I arrived. After it ended there was a series of indistinguished Turban eruptions, which lead to a delay. Finally, three more Turban intervals later, Grand had its One Burst Eruption. West Triplet started almost immediately. I expected this eruption to trigger Rift, but was disappointed.

When I came out for the next Grand eruption, I was surprised to see Percolator and Sput D erupting with West Triplet completely drained and dry, and Rift quiet too. About ten minutes later West Triplet started from deep down in the vent. This eruption finally resulted in an eruption of Rift. It was right after the end of West Triplet when Grand erupted. This time we got a second burst with low sunlight and clear skies behind the water column.

The first Grand eruption of the day was distinguished by being a short One Burst Eruption that had a long period of the pool pulsating before draining. From there it made sense to go to Geyser Hill, as it had been nearly three days since the last Beehive eruption, and was in the latter half of the Aurum interval.

Aurum seemed not a vigorous as at other times, but still looked promising. So was in the wrong location when Beehive suddenly began. Because of the strong, shifting wind, over by Sponge we got soaked several times. Shortly after than we got the Aurum eruption with an interval just under five hours, so a bit longer.

The next wait at Grand was long, for no apparent reason. No delay, no West Triplet, not even heavy overflows. Just a couple of hours of weak Turban eruptions until it was well out of the NPS prediction window and the crowd started to disperse. But once again, Grand did reward us with with a seconds burst, and despite the wind, the sunlight made for a nice view.

It's interesting in how some observers are intent on recording every spit of every little feature and sput of a group, then fail to report the most interesting activity. A case in point is how some are reporting all the little sputs around Daisy, yet then fail to note the duration of the Daisy eruption itself. That's a number that changes over the years, and seems to be related to the activity (or lack of activity) of Splendid. Back when Splendid was active, the durations were about 30 seconds longer, and if the current value were to start showing a change back to that, it would be good to know. Besides, it's not that hard to calculate.

With the weather forcecast for damp and cold, it seemed like a good day to be elsewhere. Did get out for a One Burst Grand in the morning. Expected to wait a while, with all the recent longer intervals, but this time it cooperated and had an interval less five and a half hours. So was able to hit the road earlier than expected.

Checked out Oblong, and if I hadn't known there was a report of activity the day before, I wouldn't have been able to determine that from what it looked like. Did not look like the black slime mats were torn up, and because of the wind, not possible to determine if there was any smell of cooked vegetation. The crater was back to full and overflowing.

Right after that was another undistinguished One Burst Grand eruption. The poor weather was dry enough that I did go out for the next One Burst Grand. It was nice to have a short interval although the threatened rain never came.

Yesterday just south of the entrance to the Firehole Canyon Drive I encountered two rabbits that were feeling suicidal. At least they ran out from nowhere right in front of my vehicle. I don't think I hit either one. This morning on the way to Norris there was another one at the same location, and I definitely heard a thump this time. The strange thing is that I can't remember ever seeing rabbits anywhere in the Park.

And it's a pretty miserable day when the highlight is kiling a rabbit before dawn. But other than a strong minor a few hours after we arrived, New Crater/ Steamboat looked a bit better than yesterday, but not my much. The rain started around noon, and lasted until we left around 19:00. The platforms were full by noon, but not crowded. It was pretty calm there because many of the gazers who need to socialize (sometimes at high volume) have decided to stay home this year. The most crowded place was at the bridge over the runoff channel, where the line of people and chairs along the railing(s) forced vistors to run a gauntlet to get through.

Because of the weather and lateness of our return, I didn't get a chance to confirm the report of an Oblong eruption today.

It wasn't really necessary, as all the indications were that it was too soon, but went up to Norris anyhow. The first few hours of activity by New Crater/Steamboat were so poor that we were considering leaving around noon. But as the day progressed, the activity did improve enough to suck us in until early evening. By then it was obvious that the progression had stopped, and no reason to stick around.

Did see an eruption of Vixen. One that lasted, and lasted and lasted... I gave up after 25 minutes, and it turns out the duration was closer to 45. This after having been fairly regular with about 1/2 hour intervals and durations from 10 to 15 minutes.

Arrived back in the Upper Basin to discover that Grand was having an interval well over 7h20m. So went on out, expecting to see the start while still on the bike. Instead got out there for a full Turban eruption interval.

The pool was nice and full and having waves the next time Turban started. Instead of the expected "vigorous" Turban, it actually had no bursts for several seconds before restarting. It took Grand about 75 seconds to finally start.

Grand also rewarded those who had waited all that time. The first burst lasted 9m19s, which is right on the edge of having one or two bursts. It was easy to see that the pool had water and wasn't draining, so like the other evening, we got another second burst after a long wait.

Thought I was going out for a twelve hour double interval at Grand, and it turned out instead I was showing up shortly after first overflow. That was because, following the previous evening's long interval there was another one overnight. Then we had a three Turban interval delay before the One Burst Grand eruption. The delay did insure that it was nice and warm and not steamy.

Was thinking of then heading to Artemisia, but seeing the steam cloud over the ridge just before Grand started meant there was no longer a reason to do that. But a notification that Beehive's Indicator had started was welcome. Considering that right now Beehive's intervals range from one to four days, any opportunity to see it up close will be taken. This was right after an Old Faithful eruption, so there were quite a few people there despite no one there to encourage them to stick around.

Then checked out Aurum, which it turns out had erupted during Grand's eruption, but we did get soaked by an eruption of Lion right after Beehive.

Later that afternoon, got a radio call from Lynn Stephens announcing a window for an Atomizer major eruption. Since I rarely see that geyser, and there was nothing much else to do, it was a good time to head down there. Since it was warm and Artemisia had already erupted, it was not obscured by steam.

Daisy has been having intervals under two hours, so worth checking to see if there are any other changes in the area. Was able to predict a double interval and be there for an eruption that lasted only 3m13s, which seems even shorter than previous years. Before the Daisy eruption, Splendid did nothing other than a blip over the Side Boiler just as Daisy started. Afterwards, in Splendid the Side Boiler and the Main Vent alternated having heavy boils, some almost a meter high. That seems stronger than prior years. I left after about ten minutes and they were still active.

In the afternoon Grand had another two Turban interval delay before the One Burst Grand eruption. There was a short, 19minute long West Triplet eruption at about the time of the delay. The only other thing of note was that when I arrived, Slurp was again in eruption. No overflow from it or from Crystal, but quite noisy and splashy.

Finally, just to show how dull and boring the Upper Basin has become, I went to Great Fountain for a late evening eruption. Before sunset, so the better view in the warm air was from the benches. It was a long pause, nearly nine minutes, but the first burst had some really nice tall plumes and some nice explosions at the start.