Yellowstone Friday

Friday, August 10, 2012

We started our last day in the Park by visiting the magnificent Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River. The river falls into a deep canyon. The yellow walls of the canyon gave the river, the canyon, and the park their names. By getting there fairly early in the morning, we beat the crowds. No matter how many times I have seen the falls, no matter how many photographs I have taken of it, I am still awed by it.

There is an osprey nest on a spire in the canyon. With zoom I got a good photo of the nest, but it seemed
to be empty. This year's young had apparently already fledged and flown.

Gwen and Megan hiked the very steep Red Rock trail down into the canyon.

Chad and Anne Marie watching the hikers return.

The Yellowstone River flowing through the canyon, between red and yellow canyon walls.

I limited my hiking to a walk on the pathway that bordered the canyon rim. I couldn't resist taking a lot of scenery photos. Any way I looked I saw something I wanted to keep in my memory.

For lunch we went to our favorite picnic grounds at the Nez Perce Crossing. It was there that we saw the eagle I put in a prior blog here.

Toward evening we stopped by Tower Falls. This was the first time we had seen
this falls. The other years we were in the Park road work had closed off the access.
Tower Falls is not as dramatic as the Upper and Lower Falls of the Yellowstone, but
has a loveliness of its own.

There is a long stretch of this volcanic rock formation, which we saw on the drive to Mammoth.
It reminds me of the log walls of a giant fort.

When we got to Mammoth Springs it started to rain. We dashed across the street to the cafe and had our suppers. We had hoped to see the elk come down, but they must have wanted to stay in the trees out of the rain! We gave up on the elk and headed back to our cabins in Canyon Village, ready for a night's rest before the long drive home on Saturday.