Day 8 of 2019 Western US Tour, July 19, Yellowstone Canyons

Our fourth day in Yellowstone National Park, spent between majestic Yellowstone Canyon and Mammoth Hot Springs, and some stunning landscape and wild animals in between.

Yellowstone Canyon at Dawn

Since I had a pretty restful night last night, I decided to rise early and catch sunrise somewhere around Yellowstone Canyon. So just before 6am I arrived at Grand View on the north rim.

Grand View

At dawn, the distant horizons were wearing a dazzling spectrum of colors in welcome of a new day, in contrast to the cold-colored, clarity-inviting rocks and torrents in the canyon.

But somehow, compared with the photos I took later in the day, I did not find these photos at dawn particularly appealing, to justify the hardship of rising this early.

And I was waiting for a shot of first light of day painting Lower Yellowstone Falls gold, which didn’t seem to happen until sometime later. So, I decided to switch instead to Artist Point on South rim.

Artist Point

It took about 20 minutes to drive from Grand View to Artist Point, about time Lower Falls received its first light of day.

Compared with Grand View, here at Artist Point views of Lower Yellowstone Falls were better. But while the waterfall was radiant with daylight, so was the horizon behind it wearing blue, not much different from midday.

Wildlife

But on my return trip, I did capture some wildlife, which more than made up this morning excursion.

Yellowstone Canyon during Day

Just like three days ago with sunrise watching in Grand Teton National Park, I headed right back to bed for some more sleep. This time, by the time we checked out of hotel it was 10 am.

Artist Point

We still chose to head for south rim first during the day. Frankly, apart from more cars at the parking lot, I really couldn’t tell much difference in photos from four hours ago.

Wildlife

We even spotted an elk at approximately the same location, don’t know whether that’s the same elk in the morning.

Uncle Tom Area

Unfortunately, Uncle Tom’s trail, which was some metal staircase leading down to the bottom of Lower Yellowstone Falls, was closed for renovation. So the only attraction in the area was an lookout of Upper Yellowstone Falls.

The lookout was pretty crowded with views partially obscured by trees, so we didn’t stay there for long before heading to North rim.

And since Brink of the Upper Falls was closed during our visit, our next stop was Brink of the Lower Falls.

Brink of the Lower Falls

The trail to Brink of the Lower Falls was a 700-meter zig-zag along the canyon cliff, with 90-meter elevation drop. With Uncle Tom’s Trail closed, it’s probably the only way to reach for views inside Yellowstone Canyon (Red Rock Point only offered views of the waterfall). The trail was pretty flat with lots of benches for handicapped people to rest on.
By the way, parking was rather challenging here during the day.

And once at the bottom of the trail, one can almost touch the torrents of Yellowstone River, if its roaring sound alone wasn’t enough to impress.

Canyon Lookout / Red Rock Point

While we were at Brink of the Lower Falls, we found there was a viewing platform on the North rim side in front of us, which turned out to be Red Rock Point, probably named after a red-colored cone-shaped rock in its surrounding.
The irony was that, while at Red Rock Point, we were so spellbound by the magnificence of Lower Falls, that we didn’t pay any attention to that red rock at all.

It’s a 400-meter trail with 70-meter elevation change to reach Red Rock Point. The trail wasn’t in as good condition as lower brinks (as it’s used by much fewer people), but it’s by no means technical.

Since Uncle Tom’s Trail was closed, it’s the closest one can get facing Lower Yellowstone Falls.

Grand View

Yes, we made a brief stop here too, before heading off to Inspiration Point.

Inspiration Point

Among all the car-accessibly lookouts, Inspiration Point was located farthest from Lower Yellowstone Falls. But it offered panoramic views of richly-colored canyon cliffs, from which one sure can draw inspiration from.

Finally, after 1pm, we left Yellowstone Canyon and headed North for Roosevelt Area.
Just before Dunraven Pass, we stopped at a roadside pullover with wonderful views of lush hills decorated with patches of snow, among wildflowers and distant Yellowstone Canyon.

Roadside Pullover

Mount Washburn

On Google Maps, we saw an unpaved Chittendon Road leading all the way to the top of Mount Washburn, which seemed to be a much better option than climbing 400 meters in elevation to its summit.
However, it turned out that Chittendon Road only led to a parking lot halfway up the hill, with the rest of it fenced off for official access only. (We should have consulted to OpenStreetMap for this…)
But nonetheless, we took some time to soak in the beauty around us before we left.

It was rather windy halfway up Mount Washburn, so a bee found one of my fingers to be the perfect sanctuary against that. But unfortunately for me, that brought me a few days of soring pain.

And the next segment of Grand Loop Road was what I thought the most scenic in the park, with vast open fields expanding towards the East, adorned with patches of trees under changing shadows from clouds.

Tower Falls

Not far from Tower Junction, we made a brief stop at Tower Falls, that featured a beautiful waterfall and a general store.

The waterfall was located just 250 meters from a popular parking lot.

Bear Sighting

Which was made more popular with the sighting of a bear in the bushes.

This time wildlife patrol wasn’t as prompt, and before this bear disappeared into the woods it had already drawn hundreds of spectators.

After that, we moved on to Roosevelt Lodge, where we planned to have lunch.

Unfortunately, even at 3pm, we were told a table in Roosevelt Lodge’s cafeteria would not be available for at least 30 minutes. So we decided to drive on and leave our lunch to Mammoth Hot Springs area.
The country road from Tower Junction to Mammoth Hot Springs passed through some lush forest and open fields, still a treat to the eye.

Just outside Mammoth Chapel, we made a brief stop watching a pack of deer enjoying themselves on the lawn. They certainly seemed adapted to civilization nearby?

After some feasting at Mammoth Dining Room, it was 4:30 pm as we started to tour Mammoth Hot Springs area, which was possibly the largest travertine hill in the park.
We started with its lower part first, which featured many terraces.

Mammoth Hot Springs

And our luck with wildlife never seemed to run out for the day.

After that, we drove uphill for its upper part, which featured the beautiful Canary Spring, and a big but not-so-interesting Main Terrace.

After that, we drove around the Upper Terrace Loop, which featured more springs and terraces. Probably because they were spatially scattered and not as aesthetically appealing, NPS made this into a one-lane road, instead of a boring 2.5km boardwalk.

Before we left, we visited Liberty Cap area (since we couldn’t find parking there at first).

And for some weird reasons, the 250-meter round trip trail to Palette Springs seemed to be a favorite for tour groups, making it the most crowded spot of the Mammoth Hot Spring area.

At this point, we realized we probably ran into too many wildlife today.

Finally, it’s time to leave. Our overnight lodge was just outside the town of Gardiner.

Just as we were crossing Gardner Canyon, we (along a few other cars in front of us) spotted a pack of goats on the cliff.
So we stopped for a while, admiring how swiftly these agile creatures were flying up and down the mountain.

And here’s a video of them descending down from hill for water.

And here’s a video of them leaving the scene after having enough water.

Just outside the North Entrance of Yellowstone National Park, we stopped by Roosevelt Arch, whose construction was started in 1903 with an inscription “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People” on top of it, from the park’s establishment in 1872.

It used to be the main entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Now, it should serve as (almost) a fitting conclusion to our trip to Yellowstone.

Oh yes, our day was never short of wild animals.

After driving a few minutes from the town of Gardiner, we were at our overnight lodge, which was a villa surrounded by beautiful ranches and magnificent mountains, that we booked through Airbnb.

And the best of all, after a few days in (mostly) signal-deprived Yellowstone National Park, we finally had access to free (but low-speed) WiFi.

END

Day 8 of 2019 Western US Tour, July 19, Yellowstone Canyons by Huang's Site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.