geysers.org

Of course I spoke too soon and Grand had a 6-1/2 hr with West Triplet and Rift following. But the mid-day did fit the pattern. I didn't stick around to see if Rift started as I'd had enough of Mr. Look-At-Me-I'm-Standing-On-The-Bench-For-Two-Hours when he yelled out, over a minute after the end of the first burst, "the pool's refilling" when it obviously wasn't. (I realize now that I prefer tourons over geyser groupies.) The evening wasn't much better, because West Triplet and Rift erupted too early for Grand to join in, but at least Percolator never stopped. Oh, well. So much for speculating.

Penta Geyser 09 Jun 2007

Finally got to see both Uncertain and Penta up close, although didn't see the start of the latter, and it was getting dark.

Observed several Giant hot periods up close, all short and weak. But one interval was less than 50 minutes. I don't know exactly because I was returning to wait for it only to find it in progress.

Castle seems to be having a number of "split major" eruptions, where there's a significant pause (up to 15 minutes) during the water phase, and it's confusing all the geyser groupies and NPS types who've never encountered it before.

Other Geyser Times

Uncertain Geyser 09 Jun 2007

09 Jun 2007

• Grotto Ftn. 09:00ie, 12:46ie, 18:43ns
• Grotto 09:02, 12:46, 16:45
• Uncertain 11:32
• Rift 18:59 d=51m33s

Friday was a wasted day, and pretty much covered in an earlier posting, except for one thing.

In years past, Grand would often undergo an interval mode shift sometimes between late April and early June. Just this time of year, actually. These mode shifts would mean that intervals would suddenly increase or decrease by a sizable amount, and often accompanied by dormancy or reactivation of Rift and West Triplet. In the last few days, I've noticed that Grand has stopped having short eruptiion intervals, even when all the signs say it should and could. Also, with last night's eruption, I've now seen in the past few days several eruptions where West Triplet did not erupt with Grand, and Percolator was quiet, too. (Actually, last night West Triplet came up to about a foot below overflow, blipped for less than a minute, then dropped.) This may be a simple fluctuation in behavior, or signal a shift in activity.

Unfortunately, in all those mode shifts, the burst count never seemed to be affected, good or bad.And just having mentioned out-loud the possibility means things are going to revert.

And nothing to do with geysers

At the bottom of one of the boxes of Yellowstone stuff that sat in the closet the last few years was something that I'm going to have to list on eBay under "Paper Memorabilia & Ephemera"

Once daylight arrived, it became obvious how close we came to getting snow. All the ridges and slopes around the Upper Basin down to Observation Point were dusted white.

One thing I left out of the Giant report is that I'm almost certain there wasn't an Oblong the whole time I was there. In those conditions it's possible to miss it, but I'd like to think I wasn't that out of it. I did notice Riverside and Daisy,for example.

So after this morning, the rest of the day was boring. Went out to see Grand do it's West Triplet-delay/Big Sawmill thing a couple of times, but otherwise it was catch up day. The wind at the morning's Grand made me appreciate how nice 37° can be when it's dead calm. The evening's eruption was just as bad.

It may have been really stupid, but it was worth it.

So the evening Grand had to be a long interval in the cold and snow, one I should have bailed out on. But it finally did just about the time the sun set somewhere behind all the gray. With the exact time of Grotto shutting down not known, only the report of it off at 17:40, I was estimating that the window would be opening around 23:00, and I wanted to be there. So after Grand finally got around to its one burst eruption, I headed in and quickly dressed in just about anything I've got to keep me warm and dry.

It turns out I had plenty of time. Spent the next 4+ hours waiting for nothing to happen. At least it was calm and only occasional snow sprinkles to keep things damp. It was only towards the end, when it was time for the next Grand, that I considered bailing out. And even then, I've said I want to see a start from Grand.

The hot period finally started at 03:23. I'd call it "ns", because, magically, Feather was suddenly erupting to full height. In the dark, you realize that hot periods are really pretty quiet, and not all that steamy, either. But this time Mastiff almost immediately began surging in the 5 foot range. Over the course of the next few minutes, it would surge up and then die down, with each iteration a bit stronger than before. With the help of our strong lights (I think my MagLite's battery needs replacement), and the slight breeze from the north, it was easy to see what was going on on the platform most of the time.

By 03:31, Mastiff was in eruption, continuously throwing water higher than Giant's cone. This continued to build and quite suddenly it was noisily throwing water to about 50 feet. Visibility was finally deteriorating because were also getting some good strong action from Catfish. (And maybe Bijou, It was getting hard to see, and too much going on.) All the while, Giant was completely dead. At the time, it seemed like much, much longer, but just 2m30s later Giant finally surged a couple of times and then took off, and up.

Not much to say about the start of the eruption, other than shining our lights straight up we could see the entire water column. At the same time, Catfish went into a powerful steam phase, becoming the loudest performer on the platform for the next several minutes.

My digital kitchen thermometer said that the air temperature at that time was 37°, which was much warmer than I expected, since that was the temperature when I was out at Grand.

After about a half hour, I'd had enough. I'd been a long night, and besides, I wanted to see what a nighttime Giant steamcloud looked like from other parts of the basin. From Grand, there's no mistaking it for a measly Grotto or Oblong, and even at Crested Pool I thought I could hear Giant.

And this makes the third Thursday eruption in a row. I sense a guru geyser gazing pattern developing.

Getting out to Grand and seeing what appeared to be a still erupting Grotto was not what I was expecting. On the other hand, based on the weather forecasts, I was expecting rain or even snow, and instead the moon was visible. It was still erupting after the latest one-burst Big Sawmill eruption, when I last saw it at 05:00.

Seeing Grotto still erupting when time for the next Grand was both annoying and a relief. A relief because that storm was finally coming in, and it was wet, but not cold enough to snow. Annoying because when it does finally end, I know I'll be out in the snow phase of the storm.

Finally, at 17:40, there's a report that Grotto is off. But for how long? I last saw it at 13:00, so it could be as much as 4 hours, or as little as 1/2. Split the difference, and it appears I'll be headed there after Grand for a long night of nothing happening.

That also means that the duration was around 40-42 hours, giver or take a lot because no one saw the start or end.

Other Geyser Times

06 June 2007

• Rift 10:09ie d>46m10s, 22:32ie

It appears that Grotto went back into another marathon before midnight. From 02:30 to 04:30 the platform at Giant was chaotic and week, and there was no sign of any hot periods in the hours before I got there, either.

Shortly before midnight Castle had one of its interrupted majors. After about 6 minutes of water, it shut down for about 5 minutes before resuming activity.

Fan & Mortar, 13:00 05 Jun 2007

While I was semi-comatose from the night's activity, Scott Bryan saw a large steam-cloud down basin that turned out to be the first eruption of Fan & Mortar in nearly two years. He got down there in time to see the end of the water and noted that the splash zone extended well beyond the walkway.

As the day progressed, the weirdness continued. Dome became active. Little Squirt was also observed earlier in the day. Beehive had a one day interval, and I saw two indicators during the eruption. (No photo, unfortunately.) At least the afternoon Grand got in before the thunderstorms hit.

Grotto was in marathon all day, from when I first saw it at 00:00 to 22:00 when leaving the fourth Grand of the day (a whole 5 bursts).

Other Geyser Times

• Dome 11:33ns

Having Grotto shut off around 07:30 meant an afternoon of waiting for Giant Hot Periods in between showers. Only in the last observed one did Mastiff show any potential. As of 19:15, Grotto had yet to start, but Grotto Fountain appeared to be getting close.

Other Geyser Times

• Rift 23:46 d=57m13s
• Giant hot periods
  • 13:06 d=8m46s
  • 16:19 d=3m32s
  • 18:57 d=6m20s

And nothing to do with geysers

Cracker packet at 7200ft

The trees between Oblong and Giant perfectly block the view of Grotto and Giant from the whole distance from Grand to Oblong. It's too bad that someone didn't take the opportunity of the fires in 1988 to do, what's euphemistically called, "scenic vista enhancement".

The middle of the night Grand eruption ended up being the early morning eruption, thanks to Rift and West Triplet. As expected, all the clouds were gone by midnight, and with the almost full moon, there was no excuse to not go out. The wait and eruption were saved from becoming a total fiasco by the eruption being extremely unusual. The time between the start of Turban and the start of Grand was 2m56s. This is longest such interval that I've witnessed since the early 1980s. Turban started out sounding vigorous, and stayed that way the whole time. Due to the fog and low light, it wasn't possible to see either Vent or Grand's pool. But despite poor seeing, it seemed like the pool's fog was not thinning as usual.

With such a delayed start, it's not surprising that Vent started only 47s later. It appears that although Vent's start is keyed off the initiating geyser, it'll take an even greater interval to get a "Vent before Grand" start. In 1983, Mary Ann Moss witnessed one such, but Grand took over 7 minutes to start. In the past I've noticed that these extreme starts result in shorter Grand eruptions (total water and duration), but that may be the case here as a 10m10s single burst resulted in Vent and Turban quitting.

The mid-day Grand gave us the second unusual eruption in a row. First, it was only the second heavy overflow type delay that I've seen this trip. Grand finally boiled up a meter or so, then went calm again. It looked like we might actually get a "boop", which I haven't see since the mid-90s. But about 10 seconds later Grand started for real.

Where this morning's eruption featured a long time between the start of Turban and the start of Grand, this featured the reverse. It took Turban a minute to start, no where near a record, but Vent's vent didn't overflow until 17 seconds after that. Vent itself didn't start erupting until 3m12s, which is the opposite extreme from this morning.

Stopped by the Giant group in preparation for the start of a new Giant Deathwatch, and caught a weak bathtub (water visible only if you looked for it) and then a Grotto start. It took so long from the start of Grotto Fountain that I thought this might e one of those Grotto Ftn. only eruptions. And when Grotto did start, it seemed weak.

Deer behind Grand

The afternoon/evening/twilight Grand eruption was notable only for the lack of any reason there was almost a nine hour interval, and two deer that wandered through. Earlier Grotto started what appears to be a maratthon, at least it was still going 3-1/2 hours later.

It was pointed out to me that some information in my description of the 31 May eruption of Giant was in error. It's quite normal, post-marathon, for Bijou to be dead even hours later, and only reactivate after the first hot period. And even then, it may not be continuous.

Other Geyser Times

• Rift 02:20 d=37m53s, 12:17
• Grotto Fountain 13:10ie d>21m26s, 17:39
• Grotto 13:33, 17:50 (still ie 21:20)
• Giant Hot Periods (not complete)
  • 10:19 d=6m16s
  • 15:49
  • 17:21, d=2m02s
  • 18:45, d≈5m30s

And nothing to do with geysers

Behind the Inn, parked in a "handicapped only" space was a van with several bikes on the back and a kayak on top.

Having a one Turban wait at 03:00 is nice. It's just enough time to settle in and appreciate the cold, but not long enough to get cold.

A 9m10s one burst eruption of Grand, on the other hand, isn't nice, especially on a full moon night when the slight breeze is blowing the steam to the north and West Triplet hasn't started erupting yet. The only excuse Big Sawmill has is that it took 1m25s from the start of Turban to get going. I really do miss the good ol' days when a first burst of that length was disappointing because it meant you probably were only got to get a second.

So of course the next eruption interval from Grand has to be a long. A long that doesn't fit any pattern, that erupts over half an hour after West Triplet ends, and that has no Rift. The pattern of Turban eruptions was chaotic up to the point where it had what I call a Type 3 delay (I think that's what I called it. Ishould've checked my notes back home better): On a fairly short interval, Turban has a strong, short eruption (around 3m30s) without any indication that Grand wants to erupt. That is followed by an even shorter interval (around 16m30s) and Grand usually erupts on one of the next two Turban intervals. This time it took four.

As if in compensation, the first burst was less than 8 minutes long. And as if to compensate for for that, the second burst lasted 2m20s, negating any chance of a third. Then, despite Vent and Turban quitting, the afterplay was fairly strong for a few minutes.

Giant is back to having hourly weak to medium strength hot periods, but as this is only at two days since the previous eruption, I'm not going to get excited until Monday morning.

Beehive erupted, not-unexpectedly to anyone who's paying attention, in the afternoon before the thunderclouds rolled in. I heard Beehive from within my Lodge Cabin for almost two minutes before someone gave out a radio call. And even then, they backdated the "ie" time by a minute.

The transition from early Spring to early Summer sure was quick. A suddenly noisy and gray sky is something I associate with July and August.

Another summer characteristic of the thunderstorms was their persistence. When it came time for Grand, they started up again. Out at Grand, the sky to the north was partly blue, and to the west it looked like the current shower would be the last. Except this continued for well over an hour. IT was as if the storm was just sitting directly overhead. That the lightening all seemed to be between one and two miles away seemed to confirm this. At least it was a short wait at Grand, and it even gave a bonus burst after a first lasting over ten minutes.

After Giant and three hours waiting in the wind for Grand, I decided a full night's sleep was in order. despite the full moon. A midnight run to the plumbing facilities confirmed that decision, as it had clouded up (or never really cleared.

I arrived at Grand at 06:25 to find Vent and Turban restarting along with an empty Grand crater. Back to pick up on sleep.

But before that I noticed that the Penta runoff channel was wet. Yesterday while waiting for Grand, we had a complete Tardy-only cycle, and were well into a second. I couldn't stick around, so my time estimate could be eight hours off.

Mid day proved to finally be a nice day where no jacket was needed, at least until the winds kicked up later in the day. But before that it was so calm that I could easily hear Oblong erupting while waiting at Grand.

Grand 2007 Jun 01 20:18

The evening eruption took place minutes before sunset. It would have been even better if there'd been a second burst.

Other Geyser Times

01 Jun 2007

• Rift 18:44 d=40m00s

And nothing to do with geysers

A lone bicycle can trigger the outbound exit road's radar speed limit sign. I was doing 14mph.

Coming back from adding the postings on Giant, while I was biking between the Inn and the VC, I hear a call that Beehive's Indicator is erupting. The day just gets better. So I went down to the river overlook to enjoy the first Beehive eruption I've seen this trip.

The Grand eruption that afternoon was a bit of a disappointment. Not only did we get a Rift delay, but the one burst eruption lasted 12m25s, which while extremely long, I believe is not a record.

Other Geyser Times

31 May 2007

• Rift 13:54

And nothing to do with geysers

A few days ago the bison was below my cabin. Today, coming back, it was standing next to cabin #235, looking about as animated as the taxidermic specimen in the Upper Store.

Some additions to the posting on Giant, also added inline to that posting:

Before the hot period, as I sat down for breakfast, I noticed no activity from Bijou. Now I wasn't there that long, and it may have already gone into the shutdown, but the lack of activity wasn't attracting any notice.

Well into the eruption one of the NPS Naturalists announced that there was a peregrine falcon down toward Morning Glory. Someone needs to take her aside and get her priorities straight. Or at least to recognize the priorities of many of those people milling about.

Like today (see previous posting.)

There was a small shower between the time I went to sleep and midnight, when I got up. Just enough to wet things down, and make sure they stayed wet all night. When I got out to Grand, it was still above freezing, and dead calm. Usually there's a slight, imperceptible movement of air down-valley, most noticible by the way all the steam clouds tilt slightly in that direction. Tonight, it was straight up. Comet and the sputs of the Daisy group were putting a steamcloud hundreds of feet in the air.

At Grand, this presents a problem. The runoff is all between you and the geysers, and so end up blocking your view. Being back-lit by the moon would make things visible, but that not an option (at least a legal one).. As seen from the northern end of the line of benches, I saw a solid wall of steam that was sharply deliniiated by Vent, extending all the way to the right along the runoff channel. All other views were worse. Oh, well.

Got back out into the basin around 05:30, light enough that it was obvious that today was, at least in terms of weather, going to be the best day of my visit. Out at Giant, though, the platform was dead. An hour sitting resulting in seeing nothing, and it was on to Grand.

I got there on what appeared to be a delay type overflow, and even Percolator quiet, so I was expecting a bit of a wait. Grand had other ideas, and instead erupted over a minute after Turban started. And the second burst missed being a "long" by 8 seconds.

After that, the choices were between the Monkey Cage at Giant or Daisy. So I got to see Splendid's "Side Boiler" for the first time. It was active most of the time during my 20 minute wait, and even started up about 8 minutes after Daisy, along with some weak side vent activity.

Now there was no choice, it was off to Giant. I plopped down back about halfway between the Indicator Pool and the junction to the platform, with a decent view of Mastiff and co., and decided it was time for breakfast (Cheerios mixed with left over trail mix). I noticed no activity from Bijou. Now I wasn't there that long, and it may have already gone into the shutdown, but the lack of activity wasn't attracting any notice. No sooner than I started to feed than I heard comments from the Cage about how it looked like Mastiff was rising.

I stood up, and it was. (Here I've got a minor quibble: I had to give the announcement about rising Mastiff because despite there being over a dozen people in the Cage, all with a better view, no one else did. Every second counts.)

At that point, the hot period preceded fairly normally for the first four or five minutes, giving me plenty of time to put away the food, rearrange the pack and dig out items I expected to need, like the umbrella. But by then, one thing was obvious: Mastiff was not going to wimp out after a couple of small boils. While it stopped a few times, every time it came back stronger.

Around the 9 minute mark, Mastiff was in eruption on its own, with continuous water from both vents well above the cone of Giant. Giant, however, seemed like it didn't want to start, with splashes not much bigger than those I saw last week 24 hours before it finally erupted. Mastiff continued, with Catfish joining in. Somewhere in that direction one of the vents was jetting loud steam, but I couldn't tell which. Finally, after 11m20s, Giant had a splash big enough to set it off.

I'd stationed myself at the front right corner, as close as you can get. (If no one else is gonna take that spot, I sure will.) The wind was almost perpendicular to my line of sight, but still expected that I might need the umbrella. Even though for a few moments, the tip of the water column was directly at my zenith, and I could see the water slowly droping straight for me, the wind eventually moved the water just a few feet over. Tall?yes. How tall? No idea.

Only one marker sign moved, the "Giant" one, and even it moved only a few feet and landed upright. The wind was just enough to push the steam away, so we never didn't have a bad view of Giant once it started. I wanted to take some pictures, but my ancient camera decided that it was time to go from yesterday's "full charge" to "empty".

Well into the eruption one of the NPS Naturalists announced that there was a peregrine falcon down toward Morning Glory. Someone needs to take her aside and get her priorities straight. Or at least to recognize the priorities of many of those people milling about.

Now that I've had my platform start for this trip, I can try other places, if the mood suits. I still want to try to measure the height of the first minute's water, and wouldn't mind seeing a start from Grand.

I expect the rest of the day to be pretty dull, so don't expect more than the briefest of a posting tomorrow

Other Geyser Times

31 May 2007

• Rift 01:17
• Giant hot period 09:28 d=11m20s, eruption

First, a slight change of format. Up until now, I've been trying to make these postings "up-to-date",. But that makes it hard sometimes to keep straight what happened on what date. So from now on, and definitely until the posting situation gets a bit easier, I'll have a single day (or less) per report. Of course, should something interesting happen, like an eruption of Giant or an eight Burst Grand or Economic activity, it'll add an extra posting. The geyser log times will be up to date, of course.

So that makes this report pretty short. With Grotto in a marathon, the rest of my day was spent on errands which I'd expect to do the day before. The weather was cool and partly cloudy with a sprinkle or two. Radio chatter was down, too, it seemed. As of 19:00, Grotto was still active. It was my hope that come the mid-night Grand, it'd still be going, but stop while I'm out there.

I've found that my recent changes to entering geyser times wasn't working properly with Grand burst info and Castle minors. I think I've fixed that. If you see any other problems, let me know. Even though it might take a day or two to fix it.

Yesterday afternoon was another Rift delayed Grand interval in cold and wind. At least the last snow shower was a few hours earlier while waiting for Giant.

Note how yesterday's Giant hot period's alternated durations between long and medium.

Overnight was clear and calm and cold. The moon set just as the east was starting to show some light, so it never got totally dark. The Grand eruption was with the moon only a few degrees above the horizon, and a moonbow/fogbow in the steam over the main runoff channel. Like yesterday, the eruption appears to have been delayed by Rift, or perhaps more accurately, West Triplet. And I've never heard of a Rift interval of less than 10 hours before.

This morning there was only a single hot period, at 05:56, lasting 4m46s, as it appears that Grotto is having another marathon (starting around 02:57). As of the mid-day Grand eruption, it's still erupting.

Other Geyser Times

29 May 2007

• Penta 19:07ie, steam phase
• Grotto Ftn 19:02
• Giant hot periods
  • 11:18 d=8m25s
  • 14:39 d=3m36s
  • 16:36 d=6m06s
  • 17:59 d=3m15s
  • 19:13 d=6m45s
  • 21:02 d=2m20s
• Rift 16:21 d=43m05s

30 May 2007

• Grotto 02:57
• Giant hot period
  • 05:56 d=4m46s
• Rift 01:59 d=38m39s
• Uncertain 08:49

And nothing to do with geysers

Yesterday afternoon when I left my cabin to head out into the basin, I heard a noise to the left. Down the slope, about 20ft away, was a bison grazing away on the hillside.

While waiting at Grand, I thought I saw motion on the top of the hill. It turned out to be a coyote who ducked back into the trees.