We had
another early start today knowing that we’d be doing a lot of driving, as we
planned to explore the Canyon Village and Tower-Roosevelt areas of
Yellowstone. Of course, we passed bison
along the route.
The canyon
area is known as the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River ~ the canyon is 20
mile long, 1000+ ft deep and between 1,500 and 4,0000 feet wide. There are two
prominent waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone ~ Upper Falls at 109 ft
and Lower Falls at 308 ft.
Our first
stop was the brink of the Lower Falls, a steep, paved trail where one can see
the 37,417 gallons per second water plunging overt the edge.
Red Rock
Point was another steep hike with nice views
And at
Lookout Point we saw this young osprey waiting for Mom or Dad to come back with
lunch.
The last stop
on the north rim of the canyon was Grand View……
We then drove
to the south rim, stopped at Upper Falls Viewpoint and then took the steep
Uncle Tom’s Point hike to view the Lower Falls and canyon walls.
To add to the
steepness of this hike, there were 313 steps! :-)
Artist Point
was our last stop in the canyon where we continued to enjoy the views.
We then
continued our drive to the Tower-Roosevelt area passing more evidence of the
1988 fires.
We were also
quite surprised at how much the terrain changed, yet we were still in
Yellowstone National Park.
We stopped to
view the Tower Falls, then continued into the Lamar Valley
passing by a few big horned sheep and more bison.
At one point,
we had to cross a narrow bridge. At this point, if a bison wanted to get to the
other side, they would need to go down into the steep canyon, cross the water,
then back up – or – use the bridge. Yup – this pair chose the latter!
We then
continued driving along the roads of Lamar Valley, enjoying the scenery
When
eventually we came to a TON of people on a hills side with big cameras and
scopes. Out we got, climbed, the hill,
and too friggin’ cool – a mother bear, her three cubs, and a recent bison kill
(courtesy of a pack of wolves) that the bears took for themselves! Here are a
few photos……..
It was
getting much later than we planned on being out, the mother bear decided to
stop eating and sleep on the kill (quite common), so we left, passing by an
antelope
Enjoying more
cool scenery
And even
though late for us, we just had to stop for another bear!
As we passed
Mammoth Hot Springs, we did finally see some elk.
Then we
hightailed it home – definitely an awesome wildlife day!!
Easy and affordable - no matter where you are!
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