Tag: Sawmill Group

In the middle of the night got a notification of Beehive's Indicator erupting. Got out too late to see it, but did confirm that the bubblers near Little Squirt were quiet (but the boardwalk was frost free) and did see Old Faithful on the way back.

Not much reason to go to Norris, so decided to skip the day and see geysers. The morning's One Burst Grand was nicely back lit, very steamy but the wind was from the north. Afterwards, went down to see Fan & Mortar in Angle/Garbage mode.

I thought I'd seen Daisy heading out to Grand, but was mistaken as I arrived at what I thought was well before the two hour mark, and Daisy was nowhere near ready. The eruption itself lasted on 3m09s, which seems to not be unusual this year.

The crowd at the early afternoon Grand looked like one that is waiting for an eruption in July. As it was, they got to see a three Turban Interval Delay. The Delay interval was short, only 25-1/2 minutes, but sufficient. The next two Turban intervals were short and had little to no overflow.

West Triplet continues to overflow fairly steadily, with no signs of erupting. It has also taken on a brownish color. The flow picks up during and after Grand, and can be little more than a trickle otherwise.

Afterwards, came across Crystal Spring having one of its major slopping episodes, where water floods out over the rim in all directions. Waited about 20 minutes for a repeat, but all I got were some brief slaps against the shelf every three minutes or so.

Went out early for the late evening Grand. Saw Turban erupting as I tied up my bike. The next Turban eruption was 35 minutes later. Since it was less than 5-1/2 hours since the earlier Grand eruption, I wasn't surprised there wasn't an eruption. Fortunately, the Delay was only for two Turban intervals, and it was still pretty light when Grand started. The first burst lasted under eight minutes, so we expected and were rewarded with a second burst that lasted just over a minute. Long enough that we didn't get the third burst, and Vent & Turban didn't quit.

After leaving Grand, noticed that Sawmill was higher than I've seen it in years. And it was still rising. It was getting dark, but the reflection of the sky in the pool seen from over by Tardy showed the level pretty clearly. It appears that it got to the point where overflow was starting, and then the pool dropped. There might have been some water flowing under the gravel in the runoff, as there were several areas that looked wet when we left.

As we left, I also noticed that Churn was down slightly, stopping most of its overflow. The level was similar to that following an eruption of Churn.

Went to Norris because it has been 39 years since Suzanne first saw a Steamboat eruption. That was at 11:55, so we left at noon, after seeing no real change from yesterday. At this point it seems just stuck, and could erupt tonight or weeks from now.

On the drive out, encountered a herd of a couple of dozen bison at the exit to Firehole Canyon Drive about to make their trek up river. The line of traffic behind them was just forming. Since we were headed in the opposite direction, we had no trouble getting through. Coming back from Norris, we only saw a few bison at a distance, so the drive was one of the first in a while that wasn't delayed.

Back in the Upper Basin, went out to see Grand and instead saw that something had happened in the Sawmill Group. Over the past few years, within a narrow range how the group looks hasn't change much. Churn is always in overflow, for example, except when it erupts. Then it's below overflow for a short period of time.

This time, we walked up on Churn down at least 30cm. Tardy was out of sight. Sawmill had a few puddles in the damp runoff channel. It did rain overnight, but the day has been dry, and the puddles shouldn't have been there just because of rain.

Over at Oval Spring, it was down at least a meter, and erupting up to a meter above the rim from the north vent. Belgian was also down at least 3cm and Spasmodic was mostly quiet and in a deep drain. Definitely would be keeping an eye on the area for a while.

Over at Grand, we got a long, slow fill that at the 30 minute mark had Grand have a low boiling boop lasting about 30 seconds. Then the pool slowly drained. Four minutes later Turban started, and then the pool started its refill. That took a bit over two minutes, and following another quick Boop, Grand started erupting.

At a little over eight minutes, Grand quit. The vent was quite steamy, but water could be seen sloshing in it for 1m08s. The second burst itself was also just long enough to earn a "Long" designation. It was obvious that there wasn't going to be a third.

During Grand, West Triplet started, and Bulger continued a series of minor eruptions.

So after Grand, it was time to reexamine the Sawmill Group. Now Slurp was erupting. Over the next hour and a half, watched the pool levels all rise. It took an hour and a half from when we first saw it low for Churn to reach overflow. When I left the area, two hours after walking up, the area was pretty stable. The minors series from Bulger was continuing, with durations ranging from splashes for a few seconds to one almost a minute long. Oval stopped erupting, but was having heavy convection over the north vent. Slurp continued to erupt, occassionally become just steam as Crystal stopped overflowing. Sawmill rose up to about 10cm above the top of the orange band in the vent. The wetness and puddling in its runoff channel was no longer visible.

About an hour and a half later, we got a radio call from Todd Singleton that Tardy was in overflow, and having small eruptions. That is the first time in years that I've heard of any activity there. Whenever I've gone by, Tardy may have been in overflow, but it would be totally calm. So went on out, and got to see activity for well over half an hour. About every 65 to 70 seconds, Tardy would splash for a couple of seconds. Some of the eruptions had hints of the Tardy activity when active, and reached a height of a couple of meters.

At the same time, Sawmill had been high, and was slowly dropping. It was hard to tell, but it might have overflowed slightly. Spasmodic was also high and overflowing heavily. The end of the Tardy series came abruptly. After taking a break in timing, I came back to Tardy to catch the last two eruptions. There was no slowdown or smaller eruption, as the last eruption was one of the taller ones. Within ten minutes Spasmodic had quit and dropped below overflow, and the drop in Sawmill increased.