Trip to Yellow Stone Day 2

July 5, 2007

The next day, we woke up early, prepared some toast and lunch on our gas stove and headed to the park by 7:00 a.m. We drove to Canyon Village and saw several herds of elk and bison on the way. Three bison crossed the road on which we were driving.

As its name suggests, Canyon Village has a beautiful canyon, called the Grand canyon of Yellowstone, carved by the river over several millennia. Inspiration point and Grand view point provided very nice views of the canyon. While definitely not as grand as the Grand Canyon, the canyon is still quite magnificent.

The highlight of Canyon Village, were the Upper and Lower falls - especially the Lower Falls, where about 142,000 liters of water plunge 300 feet every second to the bottom of the Canyon. The large arching rainbow that forms at the foot of the waterfalls makes for some spectacular photographs. We caught the first glimpse of the Lower Falls from the "Lookout point". We also caught sight of an Osprey nest with its mother and chicks through our binoculars in the canyon.

The Red Rock Point trail that starts almost at the same place as Lookout Point was a nice hike that descends about 500 feet into the canyon over a distance of 3/8 mile. The climb can be a bit exhausting for people who are not used to steep hikes. However, the hike was completely worth it. The view from Red Rock Point was fantastic.

The next trail we took was the "Brink of the Lower Falls" trail. This trail descends about 600 feet right to the edge of the falls where the water plunges over the cliff. Like the Red Rock Point, the journey back is a bit strenuous due to the steep hike but definitely worth it.

Next we took the "Brink of the Upper Falls" trail and caught a view of the Upper Falls. Though not as magnificent as the Lower Falls, the Upper Falls are beautiful in their own right. One difference is that the water here flows much more rapidly than the Lower Falls and the rushing current is a great sight to see.

Perhaps the highlight of all the trails and point to see was the "Uncle Tom's Trail" - definitely quite a strenuous hike. The trail takes you to the bottom of the falls where you can experience the full frontal power of the Lower Falls. The trail is a steep descent into the valley followed by 328 steep steps for a flabbergasting view. The climb back up the stairs can be exhausting and hard on the legs. There are benches provided on the way for people to relax and take much needed breaks. Several people had collapsed onto these benches, tired from the climb, and we saw one young woman whose legs were visibly shaking from the strain. We were tired too, but once we got back up, we didn't feel quite as exhausted, and thought that the hike was a nice way to end our trip to Canyon Village.

After lunch we proceeded to the Mammoth Springs area. It was over a 100 degrees here and I think I got sunburnt here as I later realized. The Mammoth Springs area is like an alien planet with some very strange formations, the likes of which we had never seen before. The formations are created due to large clusters of colorful cyanobacteria and accumulation of calcium carbonate as the hot springs flow out of the earth. The result is a very colorful landscape. We spent over an hour here walking along the trail looking at the formations and perhaps would have stayed longer if it hadn't been for the scorching heat. We drove down to the Mammoth Springs visitor center and had some ice-cream to cool off. There were lots of elks here feeding on the well maintained green grass. Road blocks are very common due to elk and bison crossings or bear sightings in Yellowstone.

We had heard that the drive from Mammoth Springs to Canyon Village via Tower Roosevelt was a great place to view wildlife and decided to take the route. There were several scenic water falls here on the way. The highlight of this route was a bear sighting. There was a bear by the stream up close and a huge line of cars had gathered. We were lucky enough to get quite a good view and some photos of the bear before the ranger came in broke up the crowd.

We also saw a pair of grizzly bears on the way. They were a mating pair, and apparently the male had managed to impress the female. There was person who had been tracking the activities of these bears for a few hours through a pair of high power binoculars. He graciously allowed us to use his observation equipment. The Grizzly bears were quite far away but we still caught a decent glimpse of them through his equipment. We got very delayed by the time we returned and were completely exhausted from the hike.

The next day was our return journey. We called up the Old Faithful office to find the timings of the next Grand Geyser eruption. The Grand Geyser erupted just before we got there and we missed it, which was dissapointing. Since we didn't have enough time to wait for the next eruption, we decided to drive by the West Thumb area and drive down south through Grand Teton national park. We had lunch by the Yellowstone lake. We saw some bull elks on the way.

There was a nice waterfall on the way where we spent some time wetting out feet - a customary ritual for me as I cannot resist wading into water.

The drive through Grand Teton was not very eventful except a bull elk suddenly jumping in front of our car causing me to slam on the breaks. Noon is not a great time for animals just as its not a great time for humans. There are apparently quite a few moose in Grand Teton but we didn't spot a single one.

That was the end of our fabulous trip to Yellowstone. The time we spent at the magnificent park did not seem enough and I would love to go back and spend some more time there.