The Canyon of the Yellowstone

After following the western piece of the Yellowstone Grand Loop yesterday (highlighted by Old Faithful), today we endevoured to follow the eastern path and see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone and Tower Falls.

But first, when we rolled into the park yesterday I had a goal of seeing a buffalo. That was emphatically realized when the buffalo took the crosswalk in front of our car entering the Old Faithful parking lot. But today we saw dozens of them. On their own by the river, in a herd crossing the street, even one relaxing at the Mud Volcano. Everywhere we turned was another buffalo. Pretty neat -- by the end of the day they had become so commonplace as to be a non-event.

By late morning we had made it up to the Yellowstone Falls to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, stopping at Artist Point. Spectacular.

Like everything at Yellowstone, though, the enjoyment was a bit impaired by the mob of people. It felt like we were taking the last parking space in the lot at every stop we made.

After lunch at the Canyon Village (and checking into our campground for that evening), we continued further north hoping to avoid the crowds in the Tower Roosevelt area. We had grabbed a couple of fishing rods when we stopped in Healdsburg, and were hopeful that the Slough Creek / Lamar River area would allow us to get away a little bit and catch a fresh dinner.

Not exactly. We were taking gravel roads in the far northeast of the park (on a Wednesday!) and still ran into jam-packed river access points. We finally did find a good place to stop, though, and spent a lovely couple hours fishing up and down the stream with no success. We did however find a massive bone from a buffalo, canine prints in the mud near the water's edge (wolf?), and got assaulted by every sort of insect you can imagine. And we only lost one lure to the rocks.

After fishing, we began working our way back towards the canyon, stopping along the way at the Tower Falls. The falls were spectacular, but the lower trail to the best view point had been washed out (something we unfortunately only learned after descending about 80% of the trail).

Our campsite was terrific, nestled in the woods far away from other site. Like Bridge Bay the night before, the facilities at Yellowstone are first rate -- great bathrooms, good space between sites, and strict segregation between tents and RVs. Tomorrow we head south to Jenny Lake and the Grand Tetons before stopping in Jackson, Wyoming.