Day 8
September 16, 2005
Another chilly 32 degree morning and more blue skies on the horizon. Today we are off to explore the west side of Yellowstone. We're going to take it a little easier today with only about 38 miles to our destination, Canyon Village.
Along the way is Mud Caldron which we went to the first day we were here so we didn't stop. There were a number of other geothermal features along the way. Some of them were quite small and across the Yellowstone River.
First stop along our way is the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and the Upper Falls. This is really a sight to see. We can't imagine what it must have been like for the explorers to come upon this huge canyon. The colors are spectacular and the sheer cliffs awesome. We started on the east side of the canyon and then worked our way around to the west side. We must have stopped at every pull-out that there was along the way.
One path took you down to the top of the Upper Falls. The amount of water going over the edge was massive and made a loud rumble. It was surprising looking down the falls that it didn't look as high as when looking straight at it. Still it was very impressive.
On our way to Canyon Village we saw a large number of cars pulled over and many photographers with their big lenses attached but we couldn't really see anything from the car. We decided not to stop since there was no good place to get off the road. As it turns out a pack of Wolves had taken down an Elk and were eating it. That would have been something to see but we wouldn't of had a big enough telephoto lenses to get a good picture.
Canyon Village has camping, groceries and gift shops. Being in the middle of the park it would be a good place to stay the next time we come to Yellowstone.
On our way back we stopped along side the Yellowstone River and had lunch. It was a beautiful spot with lots of Clarks Nutcrackers (Camp Robbers) waiting for our leftovers. They are a pretty gray bird with a white head, about the size of a Robin.
Further down the road Marilyn spotted a doe deer up in the woods. We found a spot to pull over and I got a couple of pictures of it. They sure are pretty in their natural setting like that.
A quick stop by the Fishing Bridge ranger’s information center to check on the weather for tomorrow and get some maps of Teton National Park and one more stop at the grocery store and we called it a day.
Sandy and Steve came over to our trailer for supper and we had a nice quiet evening.
