Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

On our day off we decided to stay in the park and explore the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which is about 42 miles northeast of Old Faithful area. The trip over was uneventful with several sightings of bison and elk. The canyon began 640,000 years ago when a huge volcanic eruption occurred in Yellowstone. About 13,000 years ago glaciers contributed to the carving of the current V-shaped canyon. Here is a map of the area with the north and south rims taken at Inspiration Point at the end of our trip.

We parked at the South Rim and began our hike down Uncle Tom's trail which was 500 feet down the canyon. As we went down I remembered the signs at the Grand Canyon National Park which read "what goes down must come up." The going down part was easy. There were a series of metal steps and landings for resting and viewing the falls.

When we reached the bottom, we were across the Yellowstone River viewing the 308 foot Lower Falls. What a magnificent sight! With the sun shining two rainbows were formed at the bottom of the falls. We were not able to capture the photo clearly in the mist. Here we are at the falls.

To the right of the falls we could see people who had walked down from the north rim to see the top of the falls.

After enjoying the view for a bit we took off our sweatshirts and started the climb. It was quite a struggle for me to get up the 346 steps but with many stops along the way we finally made it. Our next challenge was to hike along the south rim to Artist Point about a mile and a half away. This is said to be the spot where the famous Thomas Moran painting was completed.  Fortunately it was mostly level with only a few hills to climb. All along the way we could look back and see the falls with the Yellowstone River below and the beautiful canyon walls around it. When we finally reached Artist Point it was very crowded with visitors. After a bit of waiting we were able to get a clear shot of the falls and river.

We retraced our steps back to the parking lot and drove to a picnic area where we enjoyed our lunch. When we have a day off and are not going to the employee dining room for a meal we can order a lunch. We have choices of bread, meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, celery, carrots, fruit, cookies, chips and drink. The food is quite plentiful and good.  After our picnic we viewed the Upper Falls which comes before the Lower Falls. It is shorter (109 ft) and wider. The bridge at the top of the picture is where we crossed the river on our way to the South Rim.

We drove over to the north rim but didn't do any hiking. We stopped at Inspiration Point which gives an outstanding view of the river and canyon around it. We had to go down 50 steps to the point, but I had recovered enough from the hike to take the challenge. Probably at a later date we will hike to North Rim.