Day 26: Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Thurs July 7

Thursday July 7 finds us once again on our way to Yellowstone National Park.  This is our 2^nd straight day of touring Yellowstone and the girls are not happy to wake up early.  After stopping at beautiful Gibbons Falls, we head towards the Canyon this morning and then will do the Upper Loop.  We drive by and see that the south rim of the canyon is still closed due to the beer attack and fatality there yesterday.  We head to the Lower Falls and split up there.  Scott and Isabella hike the steep grade down to Lower Falls while the rest of us use the outlook spots to view the falls.  The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone is more beautiful in my mind than the Grand Canyon itself.  For one, you can see the Yellowstone River from most any point on the rim down in the canyon and there are some wonderful waterfalls in it.  The colors remind me a little of Arizona and Utah- the red and oranges but there is a lot of white and green colors too, which makes this canyon more colorful.  We enjoy the views from the rim and then head to Tower Falls.

Yellowstone Grand Canyon

Tower Falls is a quick walk from the parking lot with another gorgeous waterfall.  You can not walk down into the lower part of the falls because of animal dens (according to a sign that was posted last fall).  We get a cold ice cream here and Isabella selects a shirt to buy (we owed her one since we bought one for Lexi in NY).  From there we head to Lamar Valley to view wildlife.  We spot hundreds of bison in the field next to a river and spend some time watching and photographing them.  We are a little disappointed to not see any different wildlife but it is still the middle of the day.  We stop by the Roosevelt lodge which was built in 1906 and now serves as a restaurant.  The menu includes a $17 burger!  I can see the trail wagons that we would have gone out on this evening (we couldn’t get enough tickets for Ed and Cheryl to join us so we cancelled our reservations).  We do drive by a very congested area and see 2 park rangers keeping tourists away from a grizzly bear and her cubs.  We can just make out the cubs from the car and do not stop to get a better look. 

Mammoth Hot Springs

We are anxious to get on to Mammoth Hot Springs now; the last part of the park we have yet to explore.  We arrive in Fort Yellowstone where we see a tiny city of similar buildings.  Even more exciting are the elk that are everywhere.  They are walking in the road, sitting and eating in the fields.  They look very tame but they have several park rangers here to make sure people do not get too close to the elk.  More than once we hear a park ranger on the bullhorn telling cars they can not stop in the roadway to view the elk.  We also notice a small rodent like animal that is behaving just like a prairie dog, except we are no longer in the desert ( I later ask about these animals and find out they are a type of squirrel).  They are sitting on their hind legs just like prairie dogs.  We can see Mammoth Hot Spring area from where we are and it’s a huge while hill. 

Mammoth Hot Springs is a disappointment.  There are some 240 stairs to do the entire loop and we don’t have the time to do it all.   We go for the smaller, closer springs and only 1 has any water running through it.  The whole area has dried up.  Cheryl overhears a woman saying how this used to be her favorite part of the park but it’s all dry now.  Guess there used to be lots of water flowing out of the springs but we don’t spot much at all.  I drive us through the last of the park on our return to the campground.  On the way, we spot a bison very close to the road and I stop so people can take a picture.  At this point a van pulls up from behind me, much closer to the animal and the driver gets out of her door.  The bison starts to charge her and we decide its time to leave.  The bison stops after only a few feet but it was scary to see it run and get defensive.

It is again late when we leave the park and we stop by Wolf Pack Brewing Company again for dinner.  Scott tries an elk burger and decided it wasn't too bad.  Late night back to the camper so it wasn't long before we were all in bed.